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by Megan Carlin, Agriculture Future of America Marketing & Communications Manager
BEHIND EACH OF OUR SUCCESSES
is a strong system of mentors, who push
us and help polish us. Perhaps the most
influential time for mentors to give us a
leg up is during those first few years in
the professional world.
Mentorship – both having a mentor
and serving as one – is an essential
value of Agriculture Future of America’s
Alliance for young professionals. Alliance
member Ty Littau says he appreciates
his mentors who have challenged him
and kept him grounded. Fellow Alliance
member Ellen Gilliland says mentors
not only push her but also help her set
boundaries and seek needed rest.
“I appreciate that my mentors have
been concerned with my personal life
as well as how I perform professionally,”
she said.
Agreeing, Jon Calhoun says, “A good
mentor is genuinely interested in finding
what your interests are and helping you
get to the next level.”
FINDING & DEVELOPING
MENTORSHIP
Each relationship looks different. Some
develop from traditional supervisor–
employee roles. Gilliland, project
manager for Ohio Corn & Wheat, says
her supervisors have been some of her
best mentors. For Littau, having a strong
mentor relationship with his colleagues
was one of the reasons he left his home
state of South Dakota and took his
current position as legislative
correspondent with Senator John Thune
in Washington, D.C.
“It’s important when you make a large
change that you have some idea of who
you will be working with and who will
be crafting your perspective,” he said.
Calhoun also said his mentors are
part of the reason he moved from
Oregon to Nebraska to work with Union
Pacific Railroad where he is now a sales
manager. As a new hire, he was assigned
a seasoned mentor within the company.
“I found that valuable; and I found
even more value in informal
relationships that grew organically
because we had common goals,” he said.
Sometimes mentorships start when
you say, “I respect you. I would like to
consider you a mentor.” Others begin
as you ask people in your network for
advice on specific decisions.
“It takes a certain amount of time to
figure out who you are dealing with and
what their mentality is. Some of my
relationships have been fairly formal,”
Littau said. “With others though, we
simply talk on a regular basis.”
With her supervisors serving as
mentors, Gilliland said they never
specifically set mentorship expectations.
However, she did have one supervisor
who was also a close friend. In that case,
she said, boundaries were important.
“We labeled our conversations, ‘this is
a work conversation, this is a friend
conversation,’ so we were clear and
could pull from the correct set of
expectations,” she said.
Whatever the case, your relationship
will benefit you if you are intentional in
your conversations, said Littau. Calhoun
adds that for the relationship to be
mutually beneficial, you need to be
open and willing to receive feedback.
“At some point, hopefully, you can
begin to sharpen each other based on
strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
Always seriously consider and apply
your mentor’s advice, Gilliland says.
Littau recommends sharing the
specific things you admire about your
mentor and explaining how you think
they can help sharpen you.
“Within the professional world, we
are hard up for encouragement and
positivity some days,” he said.
PASSING IT ON
Littau says he has learned more about
mentorship by
serving
as a mentor.
“What they need is a safe place to
process and encouragement,” he said. “I
can help them zoom out and take out
some of the emotion and dig into what
is substantive.”
Calhoun agrees saying he enjoys
mentoring the newest hires at Union
Pacific who have a drive similar to his. “I
want to be a liaison between the person
and Union Pacific and make sure they
have the best experience possible.”
WHAT’S IN A
Mentor?