How To Search For The Perfect Mentor

Now that you have a vision and a roadmap, it’s time to find the perfect mentor to guide you along the journey. Not everyone can be your mentor! As a believer, your job now is to search for the mentor profile that fits the same characteristics and perspective you need. We’ll give you some tips on how to do so with our third mentoring principle “Search,” with some help from our special detective spirit guide.

A Resident of Baker Street

For our principle, search, we ask ourselves “who are they calling when they are in serious need of help on a mystery?” Then we realized that the person we’re looking for is none other than Sherlock Holmes!

Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,  Sherlock appeared in four novels and 56 short stories, each detailing a great mystery adventure. Sherlock is a detective that solves mysteries using his brain and wits. 

You might be thinking, “Where did Doyle get the idea for Sherlock Holmes?”  Well, it all started with a mentoring relationship! When Doyle was a student at Edinburgh University, he met a professor named Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell was famous for his deduction skills and reasoning logic. Doyle and Bell became mentor and mentee, and the mentee used his mentor as inspiration for the world renowned detective. 

The Three Clues (Symbols) of Sherlock

Using our Sherlock detective skills, we “searched” for three symbols that Sherlock embodies and tied them with our principle:

• The Magnifying Glass
• Tweed
• The Pipe

Put on your detective glasses and let’s investigate each clue deeper together!

The Magnifying Glass

The magnifying glass is a classic example of a tool that every detective seems to have. It’s used by them to focus on the little things and find something that might not be visible to the naked eye. 

That focus is also what we need in a mentoring relationship. Like Sherlock, you need to exercise your searching skills and focus to find the people that has the same brushes as you:

• First Brush is for seeking out out a hobby/passion
• Second Brush is for seeking out out a career or profession 

You’ll notice that the people you’ll find will be much easier to reach out to because of the similarities that you already have. Like the old saying goes “Quality over Quantity.”

The Tweed

Aside from his great detective skills, Holmes is well known when it comes to his fashion sense with tweed at the center of it all. We can relate this to mentoring in regards to representing your own style in a mentoring relationship. When approaching someone for mentoring, it is important to be true to your genuine self:

• Your goals will be clear. Staying true means that others will know your vision and can guide you towards the fastest way to achieving it
• You can learn more. Bringing humility and asking for help on the things you need is a great example of how to get more knowledge from your mentor.
• You’re not expected to be perfect. We are all not perfect. Showing your flaws will greatly help your mentor improve his guidance and might be able to help you fix those flaws.

If a person doesn’t like the genuine you, that’s okay! At least you won’t be faking your interaction. Be comfortable with who you are and people will remember you as the genuine version of yourself. 

The Pipe 

When Sherlock needs to relax or think, he reaches for his pocket, gets his pipe, and lights it up. The pipe symbolizes the pauses you need to make before making a decision. A mentoring relationship is not a race so you don’t have to make hasty decisions! Sometimes the best decisions are made when you take a breather. Here are other benefits of pausing:

• Increases focus. Now that you’ve paused, you’ll have time to think everything thoroughly which gives you the focus you need.
• Helps you make the right choices. They say if you think everything thoroughly, it lessens the chance of making the wrong choices. 
• Maintained Energy. Taking a quick breather means that your energy replenished from time to time. This gives you strength to move forward in a consistent pace.

Where to Start The Search?

As any detective, we always look for leads on where to start the search for clues or evidence, in a mentoring relationship or our mentor profile. We’ll give you tips on where to start:

• Places you’ve already visited. A workplace, school, or an organization. These places have people that already know you and overlap on your own Venn diagram making it easier to reach out to them.
• Professional Organizations.  Professional organizations are not short of people that can be your mentor. Just make sure that the organization you’re choosing is the one that you want to be part of.
• Volunteering. This is a place where a lot of people want to help. In case you find a mentor here, you’re not only helping yourself but also helping the cause of the volunteering program.
• Ask your Friends. More often than not, a friend can point you in a new direction. This way, you’re not limiting yourself in your own personal circle and you’re extending yourself to your friend’s as well.

These are general places where you can go look for a mentor but the experience varies depending on the person. You may meet a mentor at an unexpected moment or place, so you should always keep your eyes open and be on the search!

Summary

Finding the right mentor can take some time, so you need to always have your magnifying glass and focus on the traits that you’re looking for. When you find them, make sure that you’re wearing your own tweed. Show the genuine you to make things easier and remember to always take a pause when making important decisions to make sure that you’re making the correct one. As the great Sherlock Holmes once said:

"I don't guess. I observe and once I've observed, I deduce.”