February 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 49

The truth is, if you want to propel yourself further and maximize
investment in your professional
career, you simply do not have the
time to make every mistake. While
mistakes allow immense levels of
learning, avoiding costly mistakes
and side-stepping minor inconveniences will aid you in making the
best mistakes. Good mentors share
their mistakes. There are two benefits to this - the first is to connect to
your situation and perhaps help you
realize that even experts and leaders
in your field are not mistake-free.
The second benefit, and perhaps the
more important of the two, is that
you are able to learn from your mentor's mistakes. Individual experience
is a great teacher, but so is someone
else's experience!
The perspective gained from a solid reality check is perhaps one of the
greatest benefits of working with a
trusted mentor. Whether it is identifying a not-so-glaring weakness or
simply telling you to let bygones be
bygones, the best mentor will tell
you what you need to hear to be a
better person. While friends or business associates may stroke your ego
or offer words to soothe your hurt
feelings, the words you want to hear
and need to hear may be quite different. The mentor-mentee relationship should be one based on honesty and the willingness to engage in
open communication. Such candid
discussion can help eliminate or solidify your weaknesses - your mentor does not look at you and see your
current situation. Instead, he or she
sees you as a work in progress. Mentors see what you may become and
hope to help you reach your potential. Listen to what your mentor says
and take some time to think about
the reason for the words of wisdom,

A Guiding Hand
NRPA's
Administrators/Young
Professionals Network Mentorship Program, now entering its
third year, is beginning to pay
serious dividends for its participants. This month, we got word that Tennessee-based mentee Jenna Tyler, who
was paired with Kevin Cowling, manager of operations and planning at Clarksville
Parks and Recreation, landed a job through the program. While finding gainful employment is certainly an admirable goal, it's just one benefit that can come from
cultivating a strong partnership between mentor and mentee. Passing wisdom
and institutional knowledge from someone experienced in his or her field to a
fledgling employee is a time-honored tradition, and one that helps to grow confident, well-informed, engaged professionals. Many respected executives, in both
the public and private sectors, cite the support, influence and encouragement of a
mentor as a contributing reason for their success. As a member benefit under the
NRPA Network system, both the Administrators and Young Professionals Networks
are dedicated to grooming professionals for the challenges of senior management
positions in the field of parks and recreation. NRPA is firmly committed to fostering
mentoring relationships that will prepare our mentee members to be the next generation of leaders. For more information about how to get involved, contact Eric
Hamp, NRPA's senior manager of member relations, at ehamp@nrpa.org.

- Samantha Bartram, Associate Editor of Parks & Recreation Magazine.

as sometimes the reason for a conversation has more impact than the
words exchanged.
A great mentor will teach you to
harness your strengths, overcome
your weaknesses and move you to
become more than either of you
ever thought possible. As stated
many times before, talent untapped
and untrained is useless talent.
However, with the right coach,
hard work and dedication, talent
creates opportunities for success.
Think of a mentor as a professional
coach offering invaluable insight on
a personal and professional level.
You must realize that a mentor is
not simply a friend, but a motivator,
teacher and confidant.
As I continue to grow and mature
as a professional, I still seek advice
from my mentors. I was fortunate to

have mentors who dedicated themselves to my development, but flourishing under the guidance of these
fantastic individuals was no accident.
My willingness to learn, admit my
shortcomings, take on challenges and
invest some good ol' fashioned elbow
grease allowed me to maximize my
time with each of them. Moving
forward, I still seek out possibilities
for new mentoring relationships and
look forward to serving as a mentor,
an ethic instilled in me by every mentor I have been so lucky to have. If
you have a mentor, be sure to thank
him or her for their service and investment to you and the field.
Michael J. Bradley is an Assistant Professor
in the Department of Recreation and Park
Administration at Eastern Kentucky
University. (michael.bradley@eku.edu).

W W W. N R PA . O R G | F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 4 |

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February 2014 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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