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Manager or Mentor

Spoke with me mentee B a few days ago. She is only a few years older than J and an amazing young lady I have learned a lot from. She still works where we first met and I have moved on. A large part of our conversation that day was about the difference between being a mentor and a people manager. The former allows a person to pick who they mentor and the mentee is drawn because of some role-model quality of the mentor. A people manager does not always have the choice to pick who they will manage but they need to derive joy and energy out enabling their team to maximize their potential, scale their own impact through empowering others. At first blush there seems to be a good bit of overlap but some people can be terrific mentors and terrible people managers and the reverse is true as well. 

We chatted about P who is senior level people manager at B's company. He had hired me to the job and was the best manager of my career. P is not a mentor and he anyone seeking that from him would be disappointed. But they would be hard pressed to find a better manager than him - the level of empathy, understanding the person's strengths and weaknesses, the ability to create partnerships that bring out the best in each person and the ability to lead from the front in the most difficult situations - that is P. B said and I whole-heartedly agree, if P left atleast fifty people would follow him out - these would also be the top fifty performers in the company who had had a chance to be part of his team at some point. 

After we got of the phone, it occurred to me that a people manager like P is required in an active, dynamic get your hands dirty mode of engagement whereas a good mentor is someone who is your sounding board, cheerleader and coach who can help you make the right moves on your own. 

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