Seasons Greetings,

Chelsea and I would like to wish you, your family and your mentee a Merry Mentoring Christmas!

Be sure to call your mentee today to say hello and to let her know you are thinking about her today.

Have a MENTORrific Christmas,

Paula & Chelsea

Seasons Greetings!

Over the last several months, I’ve traveled to the west side of Michigan to spend time with my Mom, my brother and his wife, several nieces and a nephew and a few great nieces and nephew. There is such a different dynamic between grandparents and grandchildren than with parents and their own children.  Maybe it’s because grandparents and grandchildren don’t get to see each other as often as parents and their own (younger) children. Of course distance and age have a lot to do with how much time is spent together too. Click here to read on…

Seasons Greetings!

I grew up on a street in Grand Rapids, Michigan which was a pretty new neighborhood in the 1960s. Two doors down from our house was where the Leopold’s lived. Jack and Norma had moved in a few years earlier and fortunately survived a tornado that hit the property two doors down from them shortly after they moved into their house. The Leopold’s became very good friends of my parents and between their 2 kids and me and my 3 siblings, we spent plenty of time at each other’s houses.

I thought I’d focus on Jack today because I just visited him in a nursing home yesterday after I spent some time with my Mom and a few siblings. Jack could have been a professional baseball player in the 40s, but decided to serve in the Army instead. Click here to read on…

Seasons Greetings!

I love to bring my mentee Chelsea along whenever I have to shop for lots of things.

In short, I look upon shopping by myself as something to get done as soon as possible and as efficiently as possible. I need to have my TO DO list to keep me focused. If I have to go to more than one place, I number the places I’m going so I’m taking the shortest route.

I always wished there was an EASY button for Christmas shopping – and I finally found her – Chelsea! When my nieces and nephews were younger, she knew the cool gizmos and where to buy them. Now with a great nephew and a couple great nieces (I prefer to look upon Great Aunthood as ‘I’m not just a Good Aunt, I’m a GREAT Aunt!) her understanding of kid things is available to me once more. Click here to read on…

Seasons Greetings!

December is blasting by and I better get cracking on the posts!

A couple weeks ago my mentee and I were chatting over breakfast (she works afternoons). In the past we typically have bought each other something small for Christmas. I don’t dwell on what I want for Christmas, so it’s always tough for me to come up with something when she asks me what I want. This year I knew she was really struggling financially since she had moved out of her Dad’s house and was trying to figure out how to manage her life and money.  I threw out an alternative idea – Click here to read on…

Greetings!

Over my many years with my mentee Chelsea, I’ve been a listener for her about all the different events that were happening in her life at the time. In the early days (and sometimes even now) I felt the need to fix/change/rescue her. After all, I was the adult! I knew stuff! I could find a solution! But – is that the role of a mentor? To take on the problem as if it is our own? Nope.  How can we know what they want, unless we ask? Maybe she or he just wants a good LISTENER. Maybe she or he wants some VALIDATION that it really is challenging, or sad or upsetting.  What if you asked your mentee if she wants some feedback – before you jump in and offer all those words of wisdom and experience? (I admit I love to share my wisdom and experience… but I sometimes get the ‘Would you just stop talking?’ look in response. My bad…) When I was a volunteer in a faith-based mentoring program, we employed a number of  ‘support tools’ as often as possible. (I cover many more in Chapter 6 of my MENTORrific Women! book.) Here are a few of them: Click here to read on…