8 minute read
6 THINGS YOU
6 Things You Need to Do to Be a Great Mentor
Everyone reaches the point in their career where they feel they have gained enough experience and wisdom about business and what it takes to succeed, to actually help someone else achieve the same. Although you may have trained or given advice over the years, taking on the official status as a mentor to someone is a whole new ball game.
Although mentorship is an unpaid endeavor, you’ll be surprised to find out how much you’ll gain from the experience. You’ll also grow as a business person through the process of teaching someone else. It’s also an endeavor that many will pay forward one day, creating a business atmosphere that is based more on mutual success than competition, which is better for everyone.
If you were mentored, you may already have an idea of what it entails, and what you liked or didn’t like in your mentor/mentee relationship. Although it is a personal relationship that will need an individual approach, there are certain things that are key when it comes to being a great mentor:
1. Be a good listener
You’re basically a sounding board who needs to hear your mentee’s ideas, plans and goals in order to advise them. Strong, constant and clear communication is key to any successful mentoring relationship. Sometimes just letting them talk things out with you, will lead to them to discovering the solution they were looking for. est about your own failures. It can be a huge relief to find out someone they look up to has gone through similar experiences and still managed to come out on top. As we all know, oftentimes the greatest lessons come from failures, which can be times when our character is truly tested. Building trust through mutual respect and honesty will make every aspect of your mentorship more effective.
2. Set expectations and goals at the start
When listening to your mentee in your first meeting about the potential relationship, it’s important to establish the parameters of what that relationship will be: What can you give them? What do they need or expect from you? Once the terms are agreed upon, you may want to set specific goals you’ll be working on together so that there’s a defined plan of action, timeline and result you can both expect.
3. Be honest
This is important when it comes to offering them constructive criticism or tough love, but more importantly, you need to be hon
4. Get them to think, don’t make decisions for them
Sometimes being a mentor is being a bit like a psychologist. By asking certain ques
tions you can lead your mentee to their own conclusions about their business dilemmas and strategies to reach their goals. Being a mentor is all about guidance. Build confidence by drawing out the best in your mentee rather than just presenting them with solutions.
5. Look at the situation objectively
One of the key strengths you offer your mentee is a complete emotional detachment to their business. You have no sentimental attachment to doing things a certain way or working with an incompetent vendor because you ‘go way back’. Your only motive is what’s best for your mentee and their business. Although emotions cans still get in the way sometimes, having a detached perspective on hand to guide you is invaluable.
6. Don’t just offer constructive criticism, be supportive
Yes, being a mentor is sometimes advising your mentee that he’s doing something ineffectively, but your main purpose is to alway approach everything like cheerleader. You need to let them know that through it
all, you are a reliable support to them and have a complete belief in their abilities. Make sure to always praise their accomplishments.
Remember: your job as a mentor is more about guidance than constant feedback. Your goal is to help someone become the best they can be, not someone who just does everything the way you do it. You’re helping them build confidence in their own intuition, which will hopefully lead to a lifetime of success, and one day, they too might be a valuable resource to another mentee down the road.
RICKY CHEATH
“I cover everything that has to do with mortgages in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Movement Mortgage has a 100% down payment assistance program, which is an important way in which to assist underserved commu nities.
While Ricky Cheath has been in the real estate lending business for over 14 years, his deep understanding and passion for the industry began when he was a child. “I’m a first-generation Cambodian refugee – a political refugee. I wasn’t born here,” he says. “My family had to escape because of the genocide there.” The Cheaths were granted political asylum and settled in Janesville, Minnesota,
a small farm town south of Mankato. When they arrived in the 1980s, the population was around 800 and they were the only minority family for miles.
The family of seven crammed into a two-bedroom apartment while Ricky’s parents held down four jobs to keep food on the table (all while taking classes to learn English and eventually trade schools). They would move multiple times throughout his early childhood. By the time he was in sixth grade, the Cheath family settled in the city of Mankato, Minnesota in a five-bedroom home. His parents told him that they were homeowners and they no longer had to move. “Looking back at it in my adult years, that was the year that my life completely changed,” he says. “The unstable life caused me to be introverted ... homeownership brought me so much stability, and I didn’t even know it back then.”
As a regional sales director for the upper Midwest at Movement Mortgage in Bloomington, Minnesota,
Ricky wants to bring stability to as many families as he can. “I cover everything that has to do with mortgages in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin,” he says. And he believes Movement Mortgage provides a vital service. “We have a 100% down payment assistance program,” he says, which is an important way in which to assist underserved communities who may be in need of special types of loans. “Access to accurate information pertaining to the home buying process is essential when it comes to bridging the homeownership disparity gap,” he says.
His reputation has earned him a consistent client base as 100% of his business comes from
referrals. “In the last six or seven years. I haven’t purchased a lead,” says Ricky. “I think the reason why people gravitate and use me so much is for information. Even if you’re a competitor, I’ll share my content with you. Us professionals in the industry need to start working together. Yes, we are in direct competition with one another. However, there is so much business to be had, it would benefit the community more if we came together and supported one another’s successes.”
Whether it’s helping Bailey with her homework, Kai with his wrestling, or giving speeches to college students, Ricky takes the role of mentorship seriously. “That’s why I’m on all these different
boards and committees,” he says. “I’m a public speaker and I talk for free. I volunteer my time about financial fitness and having the proper mindset. I talk about the importance of having financial fitness and being financially literate. Access to accurate information pertaining to the home buying process is essential when it comes to bridging the homeownership disparity gap.”
As far as future plans, Ricky is hoping to grow and expand his client base to other parts of the country. And while he is a proponent of using
social media to keep in touch, he believes in posting targeted information rather than oversaturating online resources. “Whether it’s Facebook or whether it’s LinkedIn, or whether it’s Instagram, you can control the message,” he says.
When he’s not at work, Ricky and his fiancé Patty loves being near, or in the water and takes
full advantage of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. “It calms me and centers me,” he says. He also has a passion for world travel. “You get to experience other cultures, and you become more aware of how people think, react, and talk,” he says. “You become more empowered and you’re able to communicate to others who aren’t like you. And that’s a big deal.”
RICKY CHEATH, Regional Sales Director at Movement Mortgage, 2018 & 2019 Twin Cities Chapter President for the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA), and part of the Homeownership Opportunity Alliance (HOA) Leadership Team.
For more information about RICKY CHEATH (NMLS ID: 293027),
please visit
www.rickcheath.com or
https://movementlo.com/leadership.
Movement Mortgage, LLC supports Equal Housing Opportunity. NMLS ID# 39179
http://www.justingrable.com “Movement Mortgage” is a registered trademark of the Movement Mortgage, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. 8024 Calvin Hall Rd, Indian Land, SC 29707.
