Posted on Nov 27, 2013
Mentoring - great in the U.S. Military or in large part a myth (lacking)?
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It is inherent in essentially every Grade (E-1 to O-10) (E-1's can still have a claim in "mentoring" such as for Civilians to join their Branch) to Mentor those subordinate to you. While I've come across many great Mentors in the USAF, there have been many who just 'appear' to be approachable. These types are 99% oriented towards their 'Career preservation' in the ever downsizing Military, and only exhibit about 1% (mostly in public) to offer to help mold, groom, and guide others. As a former Prez. of the Air Force Cadet Officer Mentor Action Program's Emerald Coast Chapter, it would be good to see some thoughts on the subject matter...
Posted in these groups: 
Professional Development
Mentorship
Professional Development Mentorship
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 4
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I think mentoring was more prevalent during the pre-9/11 Army than it is today, a majority of leaders are worried about losing their jobs and any junior that comes to them is that potential replacement for their jobs, so it is not as prominent anymore, at least from what I saw before retirement just a few years back.
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Capt (Join to see)
SFC Baber - Oh, I would agree totally with that. Although, I'm not sure if the onset was post-9/11 or the utter downfall of the Nation's economy. Think it took a real 'nosedive' starting around 2007.
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CSM Mike Maynard
SFC Baber - if what you say (mentees being turned away), that is truly sad and an indictment on those "leaders".
Mentees pick their mentors, that's the only way the relationship/program can work.
So, the bulk of the responsibility is on the mentee. I would hope that everyone is searching/asking for mentors. That's the only way that the program will reverse its decline.
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SFC (Join to see)
While I agree with CSM Maynard that most of the responsibility is on the mentee, one of the issues lies in the choices the mentee has for mentors. When the available mentors have horrible habits and negative leadership styles, they become unapproachable.
I've only selected and (physically) met one NCO that embodied the Be-Know-Do concept of what a Non-commissioned Officer should be as a mentor. He has since retired. I still seek his advice as often as I can.
The rest of the leaders I've had assigned over me have had few things about them that were respectable; nor many that were willing to mentor at all.
There are mentors out there, finding the precious few of them is the issue. There was a massive drop off on the amount of potential mentors somewhere between 9/11 and the troop surge in Iraq. As for the root cause of the issue, I am unsure.
I've only selected and (physically) met one NCO that embodied the Be-Know-Do concept of what a Non-commissioned Officer should be as a mentor. He has since retired. I still seek his advice as often as I can.
The rest of the leaders I've had assigned over me have had few things about them that were respectable; nor many that were willing to mentor at all.
There are mentors out there, finding the precious few of them is the issue. There was a massive drop off on the amount of potential mentors somewhere between 9/11 and the troop surge in Iraq. As for the root cause of the issue, I am unsure.
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This is a very tough question to answer because in part this purely based on an individual's career and the leaders they have served with. Unfortunately, the loss of mentorship is not something that went away during the 9/11 Army, it really didn't exist much growing up through the ranks. Over 18 years of service I have met two people that provided me with some mentorship along the way and after reading some of the earlier posts, respectfully, I have to disagree with a few of you. Leaders pick the soldiers they want to mentor, and the reason I am saying this is because you know that soldier or junior leader that has it! You want to spend that extra time with them teaching and developing them on your experiences and are more than willing to spend that extra time to do it and the reality is you don't have the time or energy to waste on someone you know doesn't. Now, I'm not saying these soldiers don't deserve mentors, they sure do. They need extra coaching on the smaller things like passing a board or making that first PCS move or helping with their decisions when they decide to ETS but in part this is not what I call true mentorship but more like coaching.
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Col (Join to see)
I agree with you but would also add that it's also the responsibility of the mentoree to seek out a good mentor. The reality of it is that not every good leader has the time or resources to personally mentor everyone of their troops. So the mentoree also needs to take initiative.
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One of the tenets of my command philosophy was growing the soldiers professionally and personally. The litmus test was could the unit run without me? We should give greater priority to mentorship. Often mentorship occurs between a junior and senior who like each other.
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