If you had one or more people, whom you admired a great deal, offer themselves and their resources to help you reach your professional goals in the next few years, how do you think it would accelerate your progress?
Your answer to that question will determine if you are ready, willing and able to self-select a mentor or coach.
What is mentoring?
Mentoring can occur naturally, informally or formally. It can be part of a formal program with a mutually agreed upon contract for meetings or other arrangements or it can last a lifetime.
Mentoring most often includes an exchange of wisdom, support, learning or guidance for the purpose of personal, spiritual, and career or life growth.
What is a coach?
Unlike mentors, a coach can be less visible but very much present. Coaches are drawn from the outside to provide individual executive support on personal and business matters.
A coach is a person who wants to see you win for the rest of your life. A person to talk to when you run into problems or want to prevent problems from developing. A person who will stay in contact with you across time and settings.
You can find a coach at the Coach to Coach Network at www.Coach2Coach.info and you can find a mentor at the new social networking website, www.iMantri.com. IMantri provides help in areas such as time management, communications, leadership or breaking through the glass ceiling.
What does iMantri mean?
“Mantri” (pronounced as “Man” “Three”) is a Sanskrit word and means a minister, wise man, a counselor, a trusted advisor and a mentor. (Think of Alexander the Great and his “Mantri” Aristotle.) In addition to Sanskrit, the word has similar meaning and connotation in other languages such as Malay, Indo-China, and Arabic cultures.
At www.iMantri.com, users search through profiles of individuals registered with the site to find a mentor, or they can use a proprietary matching engine that hinges on a competency assessment. The engine also factors in use preferences, such as location. Not all mentoring on the site is free. Professional coaches who register with the site usually charge a fee. iMantri can connect with other corporate applications, such as an Intranet, through API-based Web services.
Source: CIO Magazine, March 15, 2008
For more information, go to: www.MENTORINGandCOACHING.com
