Be a mentor! In Praise of those who helped us to shape our Positive Images

Unless you’re reading this standing up, you’re sitting in a chair. Think about that chair for a minute. You’re working hard to keep it warm. But someone -- probably many people -- helped you get there. On your way up, you asked people to critique your work, you asked insiders to hand-deliver your resume to the hiring decision-makers, you asked senior account executives to introduce you to their contacts and take you along on major presentations. Somebody lobbied for you to get a job, maybe someone even saved you from unemployment somewhere along the way.

You fed off the advice of gurus, you aspired to meet or beat their expectations, you worked your way up and maybe even replaced some of your mentors.

Who delivered for you?

I can tell you about the people who shaped my work ethic, passion and drive. I call it waking up with the “it” in my soul every morning. And I know where that “it” came from.

It started with the 5th grade teacher -- Mr. Owens -- who had a breaking news contest every morning. You had to come to class informed. As a 5th grader I developed the discipline to watch newscasts and read newspapers before class, because I wanted to arrive prepared. I wanted to have the most points at the end of the year.

My dad, of course, was competitive, had brilliant ideas and did not compromise when it came to ethics

But probably the most profound experience I ever had came from a General Manager who wasn’t even my boss. She was a corporate colleague who shared her gifts. Her success was built on legend.

It goes like this: when the white world was fleeing Detroit and consultants were advising a powerhouse TV station to market only to the suburbs, a young advertising saleswoman stood up and interrupted the meeting with a message. “No, damn it,” Grace Gilchrist is rumored to have said, “I think we should stand up and tell them we’re from Detroit.”
Stand up and tell them you’re from Detroit , produced by Frank Gari,became WXYZ’s theme song and was a successful brand for them for years. It was the premiere example of advocacy journalism and community service. It built lasting bridges across diverse communities and helped keep the city alive.
Don’t know if the story of how that brand came to be is true, but I sure can see her doing that. She eventually became General Manager and had a remarkably successful tenure there. But she was never too busy to offer insight. It was always, always, always rooted in ethics--work ethic, moral ethic, legal ethics.

I will never forget her, or John Lansing, the General Manager who hired me in Cleveland and who introduced me to Grace.

That should have been enough, but there were others.

There was Jackie Glass, a fellow reporter at KTNV in Las Vegas. Before leaving for law school, she introduced me to her contacts and taught me how to own a beat. I was so proud to watch Jackie, now a judge, throw the book at OJ Simpson last year.

There was Candace Armstrong, one of my colleagues in Las Vegas. She could have spent all of her time working on her own career, but she offered all of us some great writing advice day after day. “If you’re going to go outside, stay outside,” she told me when she tried to explain why continuity was so important in broadcast writing. It was such a great line and I thought of Candace for years afterwards, every time I sat down to write a great story.

There was the News Director in Las Vegas, Mike Cutler, who added me to his team when I was at a dead end elsewhere. He changed my schedule twice to accommodate my classes at UNLV, paid me more than I had been making and still let me chase the lead story every night.

In Cleveland, there was my boss John Ray, who accurately predicted I’d run the place someday. Across the street at another TV station, Virgil Dominic allowed me to leap frog all the way from the assignment desk to the position of Assistant News Director at WJW, one of the country’s largest and best news operations.

My General Managers since then have consistently led by example. They set the direction and let me do the job. Expect and Empower.

Now as I try to transition into public relations in Portland, Mike Riley and Associates, Edelman GM Marta Monetti and PR executive David Lippoff have all reached out. I am so grateful.

For years I thought of the people who helped me along the way, even when the feedback they offered wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

So I invested many a Saturday morning catching up on the demo reels sent in or emailed in from reporters around the country. It surprises me how many of them will tell me I am the only one to ever respond. In fact, I am still getting links from on air talent looking for input. I am happy to give it.

If that chair you’re sitting in is pushing too much pressure back up your spine, then maybe you can’t take much time to be a mentor -- maybe you need a mentor or career change.

But are you really too busy to offer it up?

If you had a great mentor along the way and that example can help others, or if you have questions you want to discuss, feel free to comment below.
You never know how much you might be helping.

How many times have you been about to drive off a cliff and heard a little voice in your head saying, “turn right” That’s the voice of your mentor.