Mentored E-Book

David Ogidinta

• Herausgeber: COMMUNE WRITERS INT'L
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Mentored is the book for you if you want to achieve excellence through mentorship. It’s a collection of versed knowledge and experience of both mentors and mentees alike who have achieved and surpassed their own goals through collaborations and are willing to impact others. It has a global perspective and can reach the needs of mentors/mentees with practical steps, easy-to-read common language and highly adaptable to their peculiar needs.

The author deploys a unique style of writing by developing the title MENTORED into an acronym to define what to do or not during mentorship, the best ways to give encouragement that empowers, the importance of nurture to sharpen natural skills, effective transformation to the desired outcome during or after mentorship, skills to maximize opportunities, professional ways to give reassurances, how to delegate the future and secrets of legacy leadership, as well as learned determination.

Leseprobe

MENTORED

A MANUAL FOR LEGACY LEADERSHIP

DAVID OGIDINTA

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to God Almighty, the Master Mentor for entrusting us with this sacred duty of mentorship and helping us with the know-how to help others become better version of themselves.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

On behalf of everyone who has benefitted from mentorship, I want to thank all mentors for the great values they add to lives. You indeed must be proud of what you do.

Special thanks to my wife, Onyedikachi, for her endless support. Your continuous reminder and encouragement spurred me to complete this book after about 2 years of abandoning the work at an 80% level of completion.

I want to thank Dr Florence Ofovwe, my partner and the editor of a large part of this book. Your passion for the work of God, especially as it affects young people, is worthy of emulation. Let’s continue to do more together.

Special thanks to Mr Sam of the Soul Fitness Centre, for sharing his great insights and agreeing to write the foreword for this book. I have watched you make a significant and transformational impact in the lives of many young people, including those who were headed towards self-destruction.

To those who shared their personal experiences free of charge to help others, you all have added great value to this book. Special thanks to Prof. Ezekiel CN, Sam Nwokomah, Soonest Nathaniel, Opeyemi Adeniyi, Dr Kolawole Ayeni, Stella Otuonye, Dr Muiz Akinyemi, Makanjuola Emmanuel and Oluwawapelumi Afolayan.

FOREWORD

Mentorship is a beautiful thing. It is the passing on of wisdom and experience from one generation to the next, the sharing of hard-won insights and lessons learned. It is an opportunity to guide and support someone as they navigate their path, to share in their triumphs and setbacks, and to help them become the best version of themselves.

Mentorship is more than the impartation of knowledge. It is also about building relationships, creating connections that transcend the superficial and delve into the deeper aspects of what it means to be a human. It is about supporting and encouraging someone to grow and develop in ways they may never have imagined.

In this book, “Mentored: A Manual for Legacy Leadership”, David C. Ogidinta, deliberately and intentionally, serves a full recipe of mentorship in all its forms. It is a tribute to the mentors who have shaped our lives and a guide for those who seek to pay it forward. Whether you are an experienced mentor looking to deepen your practice or someone just starting on your mentorship journey, this book is for you. It is also highly recommended for every young person, student, entrepreneur and those starting or looking to boost their career. A journey with a clear pathway will suffer fewer hitches.

So let us dive in and explore the wonderful world of mentorship. Let us share stories and insights, and let us be inspired by the powerful impact of mentorship in our world.

Sam. Nwaokomah

Mentor Extraordinaire & Founder, Soul Fitness Centre, a Non-Government Organization and a Direct Youth Intervention Program geared at influencing young people and society through programs in guidance, counselling, friendship and role modelling.

Abuja, Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION

One of the most sacred tasks given to man is to look after his fellow human being. This is hard and requires continuous renewal of skills because man is the most dynamically sophisticated entity in existence. However, the harder the job of a mentor, parent or leader, the greater the joy that follows when the job is well done. The excitement a mentor feels when his protégé succeed is the same as when a successful athlete wins a trophy. Life makes the most meaning when you give life to another. When mentorship is however denied, neglected, or poorly executed, the result could only be imagined. As Jim Rhon has advised, “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge, you will become a fool; let your learning lead to action, you will become wealthy”.

I have had an exciting and rewarding mentorship career so far with over two (2) decades of experience; impacting thousands of young people from different socio-cultural backgrounds, faith, and career interests. I desire to contribute this to the body of knowledge through this manual. I consider it a legacy that will benefit both old and upcoming mentors; and for new career babes to know their need for a mentor, and how or where they can be found. It will also serve as an accountability guide. One of the greatest lessons I have learned during my career is that the moment you decide you want something better for yourself, the universe begins to align in your favour. You must get tired of an average life! When you get to this point, a new you will emerge and you can either nurture it to be phenomenal or remain the same.

My dream as a child was to be a medical missionary and I pursued it. I started a Bachelor of Science degree programme in Microbiology from Babcock University, but just before my graduation, the prospect of becoming a medical doctor became vague. This was caused by hardship and my new interest to reach a larger audience at once rather than being restricted to the bench or attending to only one patient at a time as a clinician. I soon realized that what I needed was a mentor to help me understand the scope of my dream and the better ways I can achieve it.

In 2010, I met Dr Laz Udu Eze as a friend who later became my mentor. He was a senior Corps member in my Community Development Service (CDS) group, HIV/AIDS CDS Group, Abuja Chapter. Our interests aligned quickly. Since he was a medical doctor, there were a lot of things I could learn from him. A few years after NYSC, he travelled abroad to complete his Master’s degree program in Public Health, a choice that partly inspired me to do the same. I recall our first conversation when I intimated to him about my interest to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health. He didn’t hesitate to give me his blessings and guidance in the most possible way.

This exposure helped put me on the right track to achieving my childhood dream. I now volunteer my skills, time, and resources to support public health organizations both locally and internationally. In 2019, Dr Laz personally recruited and directly supervised my work as a Resource Mobilization Officer (South-South Nigeria) for Pink Oak, a foundation that sponsored the treatment and care for Cancer patients in Nigeria where he served as the Executive Director. Through his mentorship, I was awarded the “Most Outstanding Volunteer in 2019”.

This book promises to expose you to what I consider a successful mentorship relationship and serve as a guide to legacy leadership. It is divided into eight (8) chapters; each chapter represents a letter from the word ‘MENTORED’, which is also the book title. You are about to discover the dos and don’ts in mentorship, how to or not encourage, rudiments of nurturing, expected outcomes of transformation, optimism and reassurances, entrusted legacy and determination for success. It is written in simple English with relatable stories for easy assimilation and bullet points for easy retention. It is also not too bulky.

There is the icing on the cake. I have a list of amazing personalities from different works of life who accepted to share their transformation stories resulting from mentorship. The entries are from Nigeria, South Africa, Austria, Canada, the USA, and the United Kingdom. You will find them valuable in improving your mentorship experience. Another reason for this addition is to immortalize our selfless mentors who knowingly or otherwise became the right pedestal for us to achieve our goals, as well as to mentees for accepting to partner with their mentors, ready to pay it forward.

I wish you a good reading experience. Congratulations!

CHAPTER ONE

MENTORED

Knowledge is power. You can only feel this power when you put the knowledge to use. As there is knowledge on one hand, there is ‘putting to use’ and the power that follows on the other hand. We have all seen both the young and old wield certain powers to achieve their set goals but those who had little help on their path to success seem to achieve more. Mentorship is simply the transfer of knowledge and experiences from one more knowledgeable or experienced (mentor) to another with little or no knowledge or experience but desirous of guidance to achieve set goals (mentee).

Does society need mentors? Would I achieve more if I have someone willing to guide me through my aspirations? Is there anyone who understands my dreams, and who may wish to help me attain them? Is there anything I can do to help someone else achieve their goals?

The importance of mentorship in a growing society can never be overemphasized. When you understand what needs to be done, it becomes effortless. Parents are part of the greatest mentors of all time. They may not transfer major vocational skills, but without the right guidance from parents, children turn out worse than what society expects. Parents lay a solid foundation that is simply improved upon by other mentors such as teachers in schools and other career/vocational masters. It is expected that in the course of this book, mentors will appreciate the need to consciously teach, guide, direct, promote, expose and monitor the progress of their mentees to achieve the desired results. The following categories try to inexhaustibly place mentors into various groups. Where do you belong and what role do you currently play?

Primary mentors: Parents, siblings/close relations, and friends.

Secondary mentors: School teachers, religious teachers, etc.

Tertiary mentors: Chosen career/vocational influencers.

Quaternary mentors: Indirect influencers like politicians, society heroes or villains.

WHY MENTOR?

Mentorship, at its core, guarantees young people that someone cares about them, assures them that they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter. Studies confirm that quality mentorship relationships have powerful positive effects on young people in a variety of personal, academic and professional situations. Ultimately, mentorship connects a young person to personal growth and development, including social and economic opportunities, yet a large number of people grow up without this critical asset.