In most businesses, successful or struggling, large or small, situations arise where important decisions have to be made. Sometimes these decisions will affect the future of the business, but sometimes they are more of a personal, career building nature.
Whatever the specific nature of the decision, it often creates a demand for good advice.
Over the years, life and literature have provided all sorts of names for the sources of this advice.
Mentor, counselor, adviser, consigliere and rabbi, are a few of the most commonly used terms but there are others as well.
One name is not included, possibly because in most cases no words of advice are actually spoken: behavior model.
Behavior models are invaluable in life and in business.
One example is Doug, a former boss of mine who often spent a part of his evenings working on algebra problems.
When he mentioned this to me, my first thought was that it was a very odd pastime, but he was such a great guy to work with that it seemed like a harmless eccentricity.
It took a while, but it eventually became clear that there was more to it.
We worked in a technical area and it finally dawned on me what the evening algebra problems were all about.
He wanted to make sure that his mind and his basic math skills stayed sharp so that he “thought technically” in his approach to problems at work.
Eventually I came to recognize also that it was part of his preparation for the responsibilities of his position.
We all tried to keep up with the technology changes, but he took it one step further. He was responsible for all of us and he was making sure his mind was ready to absorb and understand the problems we were working on as well as the information in the technical journals and other sources. It was all so that he would be a better manager.
It was this, as well as the way he communicated with his staff and spoke of them to the higher ups — making sure that they were credited with any outstanding work done, for example — that really impressed me.
I had never encountered anyone quite like that before, and began, as best I could, to model my work behavior after his — including trying to prepare and keep my mind ready for the job and its responsibilities…even, gulp, if that entailed an algebra problem or two.
If you are lucky enough to have a workplace behavior model that fits you and lets you progress, you will still have need for good advice — and a mentor is one source.
A mentor, however, is a very different animal from a behavior model. Mentors are capable of giving us wise and timely advice about workplace decisions and career choices even though we cannot be, or might not want to be, anything like them.
A mentor is most typically part of the same organization as you, although that is not an ironclad rule.
Mentors are one type of adviser, and if you have had any experience with advisers you know how different they can be.
Some take a genuine interest in your progress and others, well, seem to see you and your questions as time-wasting nuisances.
Don’t waste time with mentors who are uninterested in you. Be diplomatic, but gradually and systematically wind down the contact time. In most cases your waning interest will be welcomed.
Unlike mentors, other advisers may come from other companies, or may be family members, friends, or individuals you have worked with and come to trust.
And trust is a key word, not to be confused with advice that is always spot on.
The iron-clad rule in selecting an adviser is that they treat the conversation as absolutely confidential. And sometimes that is all that’s needed: a conversation.
Talking through a decision or problem often provides the answer. No specific advice is necessary.
An adviser like this is more like a “consigliere,” a Mafia term for the person that the boss trusts for advice and for taking care of business and sometimes personal matters as well — all in absolute confidence.
For most of us, though, finding the right individual for this role is difficult, often disappointing, and often determined by chance more than design.
If you are lucky enough to find both a behavior model and a consigliere in your life, you don’t have guaranteed success but you are better equipped and prepared for it than most of the competition. The rest of the job is up to you.
James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant. He also writes a column for the monthly Herald Business Journal.
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