As the spring semester at Southern Illinois University winds down, I’ve been thinking about what final insights to pass on to my students. I’ve decided to emphasize the importance of mentors.
I think of mentors as role models who show us how to live correctly. They do so by example and instruction, however, I’ve found consistent example is far more persuasive and enduring than verbal instruction.
I’ve come to believe that life provides us with different kinds of mentors.
The daily mentors: These are the people we regularly encounter at work, school or in our community. They profoundly shape our lives. For more than 25 years, I was a reporter in the Washington bureau of Market News International, a global financial news service. Our bureau chief was a man named Denny Gulino. I never once heard him outline his philosophy of management or discuss leadership. But I did notice that he was the first to arrive at work every day and the last to leave. He assigned to himself the hardest and most thankless jobs.
Denny proclaimed to the entire company everything a staff member did well and relegated our mistakes to brief and private discussions — which he seemed to find more painful than we did. He worked tirelessly and laughed endlessly. When he retired as bureau chief, we presented him with a plaque that said simply, “Example is everything.” From Denny, I learned that the best approach to management is optimism, kindness and sheer hard work.
The middle distance mentors: These are the people we observe either casually over time or more intensely over a short period. One summer during college, I worked on a railroad crew, laying track, in my hometown of Peoria. It was the hardest job I’ve ever had, combining difficult physical labor with intense heat, stifling humidity and endless mosquitoes. It was a summer of misery. However, there was a middle-aged man on my crew who I can still see clearly four decades later. His name was Jose Silva. He was quiet, intelligent and proud. He was also extremely competent.
Unlike the rest of us, Jose declined opportunities to take occasional shortcuts or slack off in the shade. I’m certain he never knew the impression he made on me, but decades later, I can still recall him skillfully, even elegantly, repairing track on brutal summer afternoons at the Peoria & Pekin Union Railroad. From Jose, I learned that no task is too small for excellence, that all work provides opportunities for honorable behavior, and there is enormous dignity in doing the right thing, even when you are pretty sure no one is watching.
The glimpsed mentors: These are people we observe for a short time, but whose impact is far greater and more enduring than these brief encounters suggest. About 15 years ago, I was writing a book on former Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana. For my research, I joined a delegation of about a dozen congressional staffers, reporters and senators on a trip to Russia, Ukraine and Albania. The trip was well organized from start to finish.
More Top Picks Best Wine Making Kits For Beginners
One enduring memory is of the American ambassador to Russia who hosted us in Moscow. He did everything right. He met our plane at the airport when we arrived and saw us off several days later at our early morning departure. He attended our meetings with Russian officials, made it a point to have conversations with each of us in the traveling delegation, and hosted receptions and briefings that were informative and welcoming. His name was William Burns. He went on to become the deputy secretary of state and is now the CIA director. From Bill (as he introduced himself), I learned that professionalism can be modest, unassuming and manifested in small gestures and tiny details.
The historical mentors: These are the people we read about in biographies and histories and whose lives are full of instruction and example. Several have been important to me: George Marshall, the solider-statesman; Eleanor Roosevelt, the formidable first lady who became a global human rights crusader; and Abraham Lincoln, the most remarkable president in American history. Of course, it’s difficult to write about Lincoln without lapsing into cliché. His toughness and kindness are astonishing, as are his vision, courage, compassion, civility and effectiveness.
My fascination with Lincoln inspires me to read at least one book about him every year. As it happens, the book I’m reading this spring is “Lincoln’s Mentors: The Education of a Leader” by Michael Gerhardt. Gerhardt attributes Lincoln’s greatness, in significant part, to his search for, and embrace of, mentors. Lincoln, he writes, “had a handful of men to whom he turned for guidance and inspiration throughout his life. Even as a young man, Lincoln knew enough to know he needed mentors. He could not learn in isolation all the skills he needed to become a great leader.”
I’m going to encourage my students to seek out mentors to help guide their careers and navigate difficult times. However, I’m also going to urge them to be on the lookout for mentors who come into their lives in unexpected places and in surprising ways.
John Shaw is director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. He is also a professor at SIU teaching a class on American statesmanship.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].