Episode 268 High-Impact Mentoring with Bert Thornton and Sherry Hartnett
On this episode of the Lead Up Podcast, Mike is joined by Bert Thornton and Sherry Hartnett, the authors of High Impact Mentoring, who are here to give you everything you need to know about the book as well as the best types of mentors and mentees.
Bert is the Former COO of Waffle House and was instrumental in helping build the company into a recognizable name around the country. His developmental leadership style is one every leader needs to embrace and learn from as you are building your team of leaders.
Sherry has built an award-winning Executive Mentoring program for the University of West Florida and the Pensacola area and has helped students interested in business and leadership truly grow into leaders ready to enter the job market. Her program and processes are a must need in every company in America today.
Bert speaks about some of the most important things when interviewing, such as attitude, energy, appearance engagement, demeanor, and body language, all of which leave a lasting impression on the interviewer, even in a technological world where meetings may not be in person anymore. Sherry adds to this by saying she would expect the younger mentee to reach out and call the older more experienced mentor, rather than texting or emailing them.
Bert explains that to force mentees out of their comfort zone, you first need to make sure they can be there and are open to your advice, which then allows you to figure out what the mentee needs. Sometimes this can be something different from what they think, pushing them out of their comfort zones.
Later on in the podcast, Sherry talks about the top 5 things which mentees are looking for out of their mentors, which are;
- Guidance on career development
- To learn more about a specific industry
- Gain more info on a specific area of business
- Professional development skills
- More self-confidence
From his time at Waffle House, Bert talks about how they have 44 people sitting in the wings waiting to take a leadership role, which helped Waffle House grow to the size it is today, by having these people trusted with leadership roles. It also helps raise the work level of the people currently in those leadership roles.
Moving towards the end of the podcast, Sherry shares the 7 steps to begin building a program which are outlined in their book in more detail.
- Figure out your why
- Find a program champion
- Set the goals and metrics
- Building the program
- Recruiting and connecting
- Nurturing your people in your program
- Measuring to improve
Mike finishes by asking about the importance of giving back to the community and mentoring. Bert explains a successful life is about adding value to people and to see your help directly impacting a life is incredibly rewarding. He is often asked what is the silver bullet of life and that is to hang around the right people, but the gold bullet is to hang around the right people and have a mentor while doing it.
You can grab a copy of the book yourself which is available at highimpactmentoringbook.com, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, and Book Logics. Also, keep an eye out in the near future for Sherryā€™s brand new mentoring course coming soon!
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Thanks for listening!
