Bird Flight

There are important similarities between the words apprentice and mentored person. According to Corbin J. Pickett in his article “Mentorship vs. Apprenticeship” the definitions are as follows:

Mentorship

• Seeking a bond and relationship with an individual whom you respect despite craft or talents, but see value in their wisdom and advice.

Apprenticeship

• Appreciating the Craft and the Person to the extent at which you want to be tutored by them. The angle is to learn how they address the particular craft.

In both cases of apprenticeship and mentorship a person is learning from someone who knows more than them about something. Maybe not about everything, but something of value that will allow them (and you) to hopefully make progress in some way, and do a better more effective job overall. Mentorship, in particular can also help modify a person’s outlook or methods on something. Being stubborn to reasonable changes in these realms can be detrimental at times.

Those who hire people are hopefully aware of the new hire’s weaknesses/lack of knowledge, but are willing to give them some training or guidance. No one usually knows everything! They expect that the new hire will acquire the missing skills by being open-minded, attentive, and humble in their need to learn.

Let’s say you are a president or CEO of a company (or even a country). You can’t singly handle all aspects of the business. There is too much work to be handled alone. For these reasons it is also crucial to surround yourself with people capable of mentoring you, as well as you mentoring them on some tasks or matters, even if they are subordinates. In an ideal situation, it is also important for those under you to work as a team and mentor each other.

So being an apprentice or mentored person need not mean you can’t mentor or teach up the ladder, too. You could be mentored even by a child, if they had a more reasonable outlook on life or are more diplomatic than you. And how many times does an adult look to their teens to teach them how to better use their computers or cell phones.

As an apprentice you should be receiving the best information and instruction possible for the best results for all, whether be employees, customers, constituents, or anyone. May we all be apprentices and mentored by a wide variety of people.