COMMENTARY: Everyone a mentor, protégé Published Oct. 1, 2009 By Col. Robert Lindell Vice commander, 419th Fighter Wing HILL AIR FORCE BASE, UTAH -- Every day, you are teaching leadership and ethics, good or bad, to the people around you. We all remember people in our past who were great leaders and the attributes that made them that way. It is up to supervisors and those in leadership positions to pass those lessons on to the next generation through thoughtful and deliberate mentoring. The idea of mentoring is ageless. The term mentor derives from Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus entrusts his friend, Mentor, to guide his son in running his kingdom while he fights the Trojan War. Both the Air Force and Air Force Reserve Command have a mentoring program, along with an AFI that outlines the program and its responsibilities. But like many good ideas, once they become a formal program, some of the intent may be lost in the administration. For mentorship to be valuable, it must be viewed as a daily exercise. There are two types of mentoring: formal and informal. Formal is a set arrangement between the mentor and the protégé. This is best demonstrated by the supervisor/ratee relationship. At a minimum, supervisors are required to provide annual feedback to persons they rate. Items covered should include career guidance, professional development, Air Force history, air and space power, and core values and ethics. Most feedback sessions focus on job performance; but really, job performance feedback is something that should be done on almost a daily schedule, not just once a year. Topics that should be emphasized but are often overlooked are career guidance and professional development. Why do these get dropped? Because they require considerable thought and research. To advise someone on their career, you need to know their strengths and weaknesses, career goals, personal goals, education and past assignments. There is no "one size fits all" career path, and it is the supervisor's responsibility to know his or her people and develop a career path that meets their goals. This isn't something that can be generated on the fly during the actual feedback session. Informal mentoring is a less official way of passing knowledge from one person to another. In this capacity, we are all mentors, and all protégés. Three main areas that are important to informal mentorship are skill development, leadership, and ethics. Skill development is the hands-on training led by our experienced force. I'm the type-A personality who would rather do it myself to get things done quickly and make sure they're done right, but in doing so, I'm cheating someone out of the learning experience. If we only let the best pilots lead flights, we will never grow any new flight leads. Skill development involves active teaching and correction, while leadership and ethics are passed on by doing. So although there have been countless books, lessons, and courses taught on leadership, the majority of learning is by observation.