Women Are from Venus, Mentors Are from Uranus

I started a new role yesterday. I was asked to be a mentor. I had no idea what a mentor does, so I readily accepted.

It turns out that it's one of those relationships where the other guy just wants to talk. Great! A perfect match with my skill set.

A lot of the time the conversation over lunch was just brainstorming, and that grew progressively better as we had a second glass of wine. The rest of the conversation was pretty much the sort of stuff you cannot talk about with the people who work for you. And you definitely do not want to talk about with the people to whom you report.

Most of the time it's just mates having a chat, but there is a little of the feel of therapy session with an amateur psychologist or perhaps confessional with a defrocked priest. Because of that it doesn't feel quite right to name the person, so let's call him My Mentee even though it's not any super confidential thing.

It's actually quite a bit of fun to hear about some of the problems and issues My Mentee is facing. I get to use some of those brain muscles that have been dormant since I retired, and I realized that I really enjoy dealing with business problems - especially when they're not mine. I'm not talking about the world-class Wall Street issues, but the nitty gritty problems where you can actually make something work if you make the right decision.

But don't get me wrong. I do not want to return to work. I just enjoyed the brainstorming and, I suspect, I will enjoy vicariously seeing how My Mentee copes with the stuff he is dealing with. He's an extremely bright guy with more energy than I have ever had, so I suspect I will be cheering on a winner as we continue.

And, you may ask, what does he get from his perspective? Well, to be honest, he doesn't get much. Mostly he gets my bullshit. About all I can bring to the table is my take on what's going on and 20 years in which I probably learned what not to do a lot better than what to do.

It's hard to know how much to value an old fart talking about the stuff he used to do. On 24-hour news channels, they're called commentators and analysts and make good money. In boardrooms, they're called business consultants and make an awful lot of money. But I think we all know that when all you're selling is hot air, you can price yourself out of the market pretty quickly.

The owner of my old company asked me to be an advisor after I left the job. We ended up with a bit of an impasse when I suggested one modest figure for my services, and the owner suggested another. He thought I should do it for free. Since he knew me well and probably understood my value, I figured I had better price myself more reasonably for My Mentee.

So the payment is a free lunch, and I get to pick the place. So it was back to Lee's Fortuna Court for the third time in three weeks. And each of them on the other guy's card. Which makes me think I could also consider starting a mentoring business to retired old farts who want to get other people to take them to lunch. Any takers?