Paying It Forward

     It's an all-too-common scenario in EMS organizations: A longtime manager or director is getting ready to retire, and panic ensues. Duties that have always been done by this individual now must be assumed by someone else-and no one knows exactly how these tasks were accomplished or who will pick them up. No thought has been given to the replacement of key personnel. The potential learning curve is steep and can be fraught with fail-points that could bring even the best-running agency to its knees.

Introduction
     As in other demanding professional fields, aspiring leaders in EMS require role models and guidance to be successful. As an increasing number of our senior personnel and managers opt for work outside the operational EMS setting or leave to start careers in different disciplines altogether, finding quality role models is becoming harder and harder for those at the beginning of the managerial ladder.

     Perhaps at some point you considered becoming a mentor, but dismissed the idea, thinking it would not be worth the time and energy you'd put into it. Maybe you work in an organization or area where you don't think the candidate pool for future leaders is all that deep. It's time to rethink your preconceptions. Being a mentor is more important than ever-and you may get more out of the relationship than you think.

What's a Mentor?
     A mentor affects the professional life of a protégé by fostering insight, identifying needed knowledge and expanding growth opportunities. This assistance supplements the coaching an individual already receives from his or her supervisor. Mentoring should not be confused with direct managerial or supervisory duties. While Merriam-Webster defines a mentor as “a trusted counselor or guide," the mentoring relationship traditionally consists of a more experienced person providing guidance and advice to an associate with less experience. The associate is looking to move up the career ladder, usually by learning from someone who is successful and well respected.

     Mentors typically play four roles:

• Coach: demonstrating how to carry out a task or activity;
• Facilitator: creating opportunities for learners to use newly acquired skills;
• Counselor: helping mentees explore the consequences of potential decisions;
• Networker: referring mentees to others when their own experience is insufficient.

Why Be One?
     Mentoring gives you the opportunity to facilitate a protégé's personal and professional growth by sharing knowledge you've accumulated through experience. While the primary intent is to challenge the protégé to think in new and different ways, the protégé is not the only one who gains from the arrangement. As a mentor, there are various ways you can benefit as well.

• Enhance your skills. The experience you gain by mentoring someone can facilitate your own professional growth, making you more of an asset to your agency. Mentoring allows you to strengthen your coaching and leadership skills by working with individuals of different backgrounds and personality types. Your ability to manage people different from you is a valuable commodity, especially as the workplace continues to grow more diverse.

     Besides enhancing your skills, mentoring can improve your performance. One of your roles as a mentor is to set a good example for your protégé. Knowing you're responsible for providing appropriate and accurate guidance to another motivates you to work more diligently. Further, mentoring can give you a fresh perspective on your performance. As you break down aspects of your work to someone else, you see it through new eyes.

• Develop and retain talent in your organization. Your role as a mentor can contribute to the success of your entire organization. As an EMS manager, you know the importance of developing and retaining good employees. By priming promising employees to become top-performing managers and providing them with the challenges, support and commitment needed to keep them in your organization, your mentoring efforts effectively address issues of succession planning and retention. As well, establishing a mentoring program will assist in identifying and developing internal talent and provide upper-level management the option of promoting from within.
• Create a legacy. By becoming a mentor, you create a legacy that can have a lasting impact on your protégé and the EMS field. Through mentoring, you can help pass your organization's values and mission on. Not only will you gain the satisfaction of helping to develop future management talent, you'll pass a piece of yourself on to the next generation. The knowledge you foster in your protégé can inspire new ideas far beyond his or her own work in the profession.

Conclusion
     Although mentoring can be a rewarding experience, becoming a mentor is a big decision that should not be taken lightly. Do you feel you have what it takes to be a mentor? Do you have the level of interest, commitment and confidence in your own abilities that it takes to mentor a student? Can you be sincerely interested in someone else's professional growth? The rewards may not be monetary or even immediately noticeable, but in the long run, you will have the satisfaction of helping someone else, the benefit of helping yourself and the knowledge that you've contributed to a better overall future for EMS.