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Four Transformative Degrees of Looking

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Four Transformative Degrees of Looking

Nashon J. Adero

Oct 4·3 min read·

Mentorship Playbook: Four Transformative Degrees of Looking

Look, relook, overlook, and outlook

Stay the course with some measure of patience! Whether it is years of experience or experience in the years, years still remain a key accounting unit for measuring reasonable and reliable experience for the marketplace. As a mentee, stay on just a while!

Happy graduands ready for graduation at Taita Taveta University, 23 September 2022.
Photo credit: N. Adero

As part of the Mentor’s Gem series, the train of concise, crisp, and laser-focused mentorship messages continues today. Using the analogy of a magnet and magnetic material, the previous message kicked off the series with a focus on mentorship as a selective enterprise. Many mentors and mentees have found the message truly magnetic and liberating to their erstwhile limited worldviews on mentorship.

Today, the series continues by basing the argument and lessons on the word LOOK, a familiar verb. Looking is intentional, unlike seeing. Could this simple word be such a rich source of lessons to the youth? Fresh graduates need mentorship, the recent crop from Taita Taveta University not an exception. They may just find some invaluable gems in this mentor’s piece. Come on! Join me in this voyage of authentic discovery.

First, to learn well, head-high above the masses, look keenly with a laser-focused intention. As a student, do you look intently at what your instructor does? This is even more important in this era of computers and visual communication using infographics and videos. Just be keen enough to learn from the more experienced lot how they slither their fingers with dexterity across buttons and observe the amazing time-saving results. No professor has the time to tell you that pressing Fn+F7 will activate the spelling checker for Excel spreadsheets; they will instead just press it and let the keen lookers dash away with the trick. Simple!

Second, to remain objective, take time to have a relook at events with open-minded curiosity. Don’t be quick to judge and react based on your bitter experiences and stereotypes, which tend to build a mountain of paradigmatic prejudice over time. After all, the happiest is not the one who gets the most, but the one who gives the most.

Third, to avoid things that are not worth your time and fight, learn to overlook selectively with wisdom. Wisdom is a derivative of knowledge that has found practical application. This means you must be ready to act based on knowledge and experience, not merely think and dream without end.

Fourth, to grow wiser with time, develop the habit of documenting key lessons. Here is where outlook matters. What lessons have you generated from your experiences to inform an outlook into the future so that you can act more wisely next time? Stay the course with some measure of patience! Whether it is years of experience or experience in the years, years remain a key accounting unit for measuring reasonable and reliable experience for the marketplace. As a mentee, stay on just a while! If last time you triumphed because your mentor was on your case with strict deadlines, what makes you believe you will triumph now with tighter competition by avoiding the mentorship?

Take this example: The last time a fresh graduate enjoyed high pay rates on a million-dollar project, he was under the shadow of his senior and mentor as the team leader, an established market brand and specialist who bargained for good market rates. What are the chances that the greenhorn can get close to those rates if he goes it alone in just a few months before learning and reaching maturity in this line of career development? Now you understand why many youths in a hurry get exploited and exhausted with dismal returns? Because they jump the queue and exit mentorship before fully learning to reach full maturity with the brand to attract handsome compensation.

Finally, mentorship remains critical, so do the 4Ds of determination, diligence, discipline, and dignity for any mentee. Don’t rush and jump out of the heat in the present stage of mentorship before you are cooked well enough to be a self-sustaining brand, just for the allure of instant gains.

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