It was great to see so many of you at the annual Agile Search ‘thank-you’ reception in December. If you weren’t able to join us, it was a well-attended event, and this year, more than ever, I received several personal emails from attendees noting the value of the networking.
We were privileged to have Todd Snell, the Executive VP QA, RA, and Clinical Affairs at NxStage Medical, speak on the importance of having great mentors throughout our careers. He openly shared a few stories and lessons learned from his mentors over the years and these were as entertaining and informative as a well done Ted-Talk. Below is a summary of his key points. Thank you, Todd!
Mentoring and executive coaching can both be valuable toward one’s professional development, but they are very different. Mentoring takes an unbiased and pure approach to your professional development and career aspirations, while executive coaching typically has your and your employer’s interests in mind. It is not the responsibility of the company or your manager to provide mentoring – seek out those you trust instead.
One mentor may not be enough. Finding mentors is a process and investing time to seek them out will have a definite return. Consider having your own personal board of advisors, including someone outside of your field. Be open minded and remember that your mentor might be someone you didn’t expect.
Stay tuned for more in 2017… Agile Search Inc. will occasionally summarize and publish some of the latest, best, and quite possibly even unconventional thinking in the career management realm.
