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If it does, I would be a poor mentor indeed. Perhaps some mentors conflate “social” and “social media” but at Leadership Design Group, we see “Mentoring the Social Dimension” in a very different light.
4 Key Elements of Mentoring the Social Dimension
Friends. We all have relationships outside of our immediate families. These form our social network. While it’s true many people in these relationships can be found on social media, mentoring the social dimension goes far beyond the use of technology.
Think about your friends, both past and present. Some of them shaped your life for the better. If you are like me, some might have formed you in ways that weren’t as great.
The best of mentors will help his or her mentoree think through this aspect of the social dimension. Are the friends of those you mentor challenging them when they need to be challenged? Supporting them when they need support? Are they helping them grow?
What friends in your mentoree’s social network help them with the other dimensions of The Circle of Life: Physical, Family and Marriage, Vocational, Emotional, Intellectual, Financial, Creativity? A healthy social network will cause your mentoree to flourish in every dimension of who they are as a whole person.
Time Out / Time Off. I played football in High School…well, let’s be more accurate and say I was on the football team (I was small for my class, but at least I was slow.) I’ll never forget Two-a-Days: the first week of football practice.
Those days were defined by the three H’s: Hot, Hustle, Hurt. A long practice in the morning—limping home for lunch and rest on the couch—back into uniform for a very hot afternoon session—then back home for dinner and bed wondering if I would ever walk again.
We had a few physical breaks during each practice: a short time-out for rest after exhausting physical drills.
But the longer periods of time off between practices were also crucial. My muscles needed time to repair and refit. The long stretch of time off between seasons allowed my young body to mend itself before the next season began.
Football is a physical activity, but in the rest of our life, we need the same breaks: short time-outs from the pressure and activity of our lives and occasional longer periods of time off to rest, restore and renew. How do those you mentor restore and renew?
Play. How do your mentorees play? What do they do for fun? Fun and play are very important subsets of time off. Play strips away the cares and pressures that can build up in our vocations, family and finances. It clears our minds, calms our emotions and reenergizes us. It reinvigorates our creative juices.
Play can require strenuous physical activity. One of my most cherished memories of college is taking a full weekend day to ski. I was physically exhausted at the end of the day; but my intellect, emotions and creativity were rejuvenated in ways that paid off in my studies.
How do you encourage fun and play in those you mentor?
Rest. How do those you mentor rest during their times of renewal? We don’t mean here “how much do they sleep?” At LDG we consider sleep an important piece of the physical dimension of life. Rather, how do those you mentor rest and recuperate from the pressures, cares, and probably frenetic activity of their lives?
The old Hebrew word Shabbat—Sabbath—has worked its way into our vocabulary not only as an older meaning for Saturday (or perhaps Sunday in your lexicon) but also as a broader term for a day off; a break from the activity of your life. It provides a period of rest for the body, mind, soul and spirit.
Its cousin, the sabbatical, carries the same meaning but for a longer period of time; normally implying a lengthy pause in employment for study, research, renewal, or time for creative thinking about the future.
What is rest for you? For those you mentor? Rest, renewal and sabbaticals are all important to living as whole people for all of the Three3rds of our lives. The best of mentors will explore these subjects with those they mentor.
Friends, Time off, Play, Rest. All are part of mentoring the social dimension of life. How do you develop leaders in the social dimension? We invite collaboration with you on mentoring the whole person.
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