MENTEE
I mentor more junior employees, such as new hires and interns. One recent example is Anthony Lonigro, an energy management specialist.
OBJECTIVE
It’s about sharing rather than hoarding information. The energy management system we use to monitor and control the electric grid is very complicated, and there’s a lot to know about how to maintain and operate it. It could be tempting to hoard my knowledge of the system to make myself seem more important. It’s better for the new person because they get brought up to speed faster and don’t have to make the same mistakes that I did. Mentoring, rather than barebones training, is also a good recruitment and retention tool.
HOW
It often takes the form of sitting next to someone and talking through different ways we could solve the problem they’re asking about, but I’ve also made a significant time investment to document many of our processes in OneNote so new team members can do their own research before asking. We encourage all team members to do the same to create a culture of sharing.
RESULTS
We don’t have a formal way of measuring results, but I know my mentoring is working when I work with a team member on a particular issue, and then I see him accurately explain the problem and the solution to our end users, including answering questions.
I was given the AECI Mentor of the Year Award this year.
YOUR MENTOR
Chris Lazzaro, AECI’s manager of energy systems, and Charlie Evans, manager of business enterprise systems, have both been instrumental in challenging me to grow professionally.
Moseley’s Discount Office Products was purchased; Side Chick opened in Branson; and the Springfield franchise store of NoBaked Cookie Dough changed ownership.
