William E. Milcarsky
University of Maryland University College The Importance of Mentorship Finding a mentor is arguably one of the best decisions an individual can make towards furthering their own career. Some of the most successful people in history can attribute the majority of their accomplishment to the input of a select few other individuals. For example, former President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, General George S. Patton, and former Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall attribute their success and accomplishments primarily to the mentorship and guidance of one man, General Fox Connor. The need for a mentor exists for everyone. Mentors are able to give direction and oversight …show more content…
As their duties were already accomplished I decided to let them enjoy their spare time and was glad to see the morale and comradery among my troops. There were some basic maintenance tasks that needed to be accomplished that month. I divided the work load among the several sections that I supervised. Over the next two weeks I noticed that although nothing was late in mission accomplishment yet some of the tasks I had assigned to SGT Doe had not been …show more content…
I identified several potential causes including; SGT Doe had been working the exact same schedule with the exact same personnel for the last seven months and he had become accustomed to outperforming his peers in every aspect. My conclusion was that my best soldier had become complacent. I conducted his monthly counseling with a detailed account of his successes and failures over the previous thirty days as usual. However, this particular counseling was fraught with failure and incomplete tasks. SGT Doe’s initial response was anger. He was upset with the fact that I now rated him as number nine out of ten NCO’s. I reminded SGT Doe that this was a professional counseling session and no matter how much I liked him as a person that could not affect his professional evaluation. I instructed SGT Doe to take the evening off to review his counseling and I took command of his section for the