I become inexplicably anxious and queasy when thinking about mentoring. It's not something I have any direct experience of, but the very word causes images of smug wisdom-mongerers like Yoda, Mr Miyagi and Liam Neeson with stupid facial hair in Batman Begins to pass before my horrified eyes. Do I need such a figure in my life? A thousand times no. Do I need a real-life mentor? Probably.
I have a number of people who I admire professionally, but very very few I would feel comfortable asking to mentor me. Worryingly, I have a slightly higher number of people I use as a model of the kind of librarian I DON'T want to be. This leads me to suspect that I might be a teensy bit arrogant. I'm definitely terrible at asking for help, taking advice and dealing with constructive criticism. Worse potential mentee ever, in fact! Still, they say that knowing you have a problem is the first step...
I feel the same as you about asking someone to mentor me. I wouldn't know where to start!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great point about mentorship and the type of personality one has. I am terrible at taking criticism and taking advice so if I were to get a mentor it'd have to be someone who could deal with me possibly being slightly moody with them. That said, it would definitely benefit me.
ReplyDeleteIt's all so complicated sometimes :S