Speaker 1: It was the great astronomer, physicist, and theologian, Sir Isaac Newton, who once said these great words, if I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. You see, Isaac Newton understood something that I think we need to be reminded of, and that is we are at our best when we rely upon the wisdom and knowledge of those that have come before us. Most of us living today, we have inherited all sorts of incredible bits of information, data, knowledge, and wisdom. I'm all for progress and doing a new thing, but we would be foolish if we ignored the wisdom and knowledge that has been passed down to us. There's been an incredible baton handed to us, and it's caused me to realize that it is imperative, essential, that we today intentionally hand the baton to the next generation. We benefit, we get to utilize all the things that have been given to us. It is now important that we intentionally hand the baton to the next generation, that we say yes to the next generation. I believe this is absolutely important, and I think many of you probably agree. Over the last few years, there's been loads of research and reports that have come out that have been published about mentorship. There have been dozens of prominent lectures, and in fact, several TED Talks about the power of mentorship. It's all over. There's been lots of surveys. Lots of people say, we believe in mentorship. Lots of stats over and over again show that there are many leaders that say mentorship is important. Mentorship is powerful. You're looking at a picture of Tony Dungy. He's the first African-American head coach to lead a team to a Super Bowl championship. Here's what Tony Dungy said, the personal one-on-one aspect of mentoring is something our society desperately needs. I agree wholeheartedly with Tony Dungy, and again, many others out there as well. I believe Tony Dungy is 100% right. There's lots of talk about the power of mentorship, but I think there's a missing component. I think there's a puzzle piece that we haven't quite gotten right. You see, there's lots of talks and lectures about mentorship, but there's not a lot of people teaching us how to be great mentors. It's sort of the missing piece. So if you'll allow me, I want to spend the next few minutes giving you some insights on how to be a great mentor. Mentorship is important, and I believe that we must do it intentionally. The first thing you've got to do if you're going to be a great mentor is this. You have to be willing to spend lots of time with people, lots and lots and lots of time. Whatever amount of time you think it takes to be a great mentor, it's always going to be significantly more than that. If you think you could teach someone a particular skill in, let's say, 30 minutes a week over the course of a month or two, sadly, you're wrong. It'll probably take you two or three hours a week, and it'll probably take you a year or two. That's the nature of it, but I promise it'll be worth it. It always takes more time, more energy, and more effort, but it's always worth it. This is Zach Kempel. Zach Kempel holds the world record for most baseballs caught at baseball games. If you include pregame batting practice, over the course of his life, he has caught more than 10,000 baseballs. Now, I'm a pretty big baseball fan. In fact, I think I'm the biggest baseball fan I know. Over the course of my life, I did kind of rough math a few nights ago, I think I've been to about 170 or 180 baseball games in my life, which is a lot. The average American goes to about two to four games over the course of his or her lifetime. It's tragic, in my opinion. I've been to a lot of baseball games. Let me tell you this, I've never caught a baseball at a game. Not a foul ball, not a home run. Once I was in a section, and a guy 10 people over from me caught a ball, so pretty much the closest I've come. Zach Kempel has caught over 10,000 baseballs, including pregame batting practice, and about 60 or 70 of those have been home runs in the outfield. Pretty remarkable. Zach Kempel's been interviewed multiple times by different people, daytime talk shows, late night talk shows, and over and over again, people ask him, how have you done this? And he gives different bits of wisdom and advice, but the number one thing he says over and over again is this, if you're gonna catch a lot of baseballs, you gotta go to a lot of baseball games. And we're not talking about 170 or 180 games, we're not even talking about a few hundred games. We're talking about thousands upon thousands of games over the course of a lifetime. If you're gonna catch a lot of baseballs, you have to go to a lot of baseball games. The same is true for mentorship. If you're going to impact a lot of people, if you're gonna hand the baton of wisdom off to the next generation, if you're gonna help others stand on your shoulders so they can see further than you can see, you're gonna have to spend a lot of time. It's gonna be hard, you're not gonna wanna do it. In fact, many people say they wanna be great mentors, but when they realize how much time it takes, they usually back off. You must be willing to invest lots of time. The ideal way to do this is face-to-face, whether that's in person or on some video conferencing software, whether that's Skype, Google Hangout, Zoom, you could do that. It's okay to do it by email or by phone occasionally, but the ideal way to mentor someone is in person, life-on-life, spending time with them. Carving out time, whether that's a part of your job, whether you do it on your own personal time, it is essential that you carve out time for people, give them face-to-face time. I'll give you an example, one of the students here at Bethany Global University asked me if I would mentor him, teach him how to be a better public speaker. I said, absolutely, but this is gonna take time. So every time he had a speaking engagement, if he was gonna give a talk or a speech or preach a sermon somewhere, I had to then go attend that particular event, watch it, and then take notes, and then meet with him afterwards to give him feedback, to give him my thoughts and my insights. This was gonna take a chunk of time. At minimum, if I couldn't make it to the event, he could record the event, I could watch it or listen to it later, and then he could, you know, come back, we can meet. But again, it was gonna take my time. Another way you can give people your time is to invite them into your life. I did this with this young man. I actually had a speaking engagement locally, I said, hey, why don't you go with me? Let's drive over together, and then you can be there in attendance, we could dialogue about it. So he hopped in my car, we drove over, as we were driving, we talked about what I was gonna talk about, I told him how I prepared, how I researched, how I studied. He was there live, I told him, hey, I want you to critique me, all right? We got in the car on the way back, he gave me feedback. He was giving me critique and things that I could have done better, and we dialogued about this. I gave him my time, and it helped him be a better public speaker. But again, I'm inviting him into my world, which sometimes can be burdensome or intrusive, but I promise it's worth it. If you forget anything else I say today, remember this. If you're gonna be a great mentor, you absolutely must be willing to give people your time. The second thing you have to do to be a great mentor is be someone who has a plan. If you think you're mentoring someone in a manner that will just kind of happen, if you think it'll happen organically or informally or by accident, you're wrong, it won't. You have to have a plan. Give you another example, there was a group of young men I was mentoring here on the campus of Bethany Global University, and I met with them on Thursday evenings, about five young men, and I would give them a plan. I would say, hey, we're gonna read this book, read this chapter, and next Thursday when you show up, be ready to discuss it. We're gonna dialogue about it, we're gonna wrestle through this, we're gonna argue about it. I want you to come to that discussion ready. I gave them a homework assignment. I would frequently email them blog posts or videos or TED Talks and say, I want you to watch this and come ready to discuss it. Have a plan. Think about what a financial planner does. Financial planner sets forth a plan. A financial planner doesn't just say, well, let me give you your money and we'll just kind of figure it out as we go. If you have a financial planner that plans your money that way, I would encourage you to find a different financial planner. But the financial planner sets forth a plan with your goals in mind. As you're creating a plan, it should not be based on what you, the mentor, wants to teach, but be based on what the mentee wants to learn. That's most important. The mentee's goals should inform and govern the plan. Figure out what they want to accomplish, what they want to learn, what they want to get out of it, and then reverse engineer from there. That's the goal. That's what a financial planner does. What are your goals? When do you want to retire? What do you want your lifestyle to be like? Go from there. There are a variety of professions and other places where we see similar things. If you're going to be a great mentor, you must be someone that plans. Thirdly, if you're going to be a great mentor, you have to be someone that is extremely encouraging. You have to be someone that encourages. If you see someone that you're mentoring, the first thing out of your mouth should be something positive. Some sort of compliment or some sort of words of praise or gratitude, small or big. I try to do this for any staff or interns that work for me. I regularly try to correspond with them. Every time they walk into my office or every time I see them, I say, hey, that thing you did, great job. I saw you sent that email. Thank you so much for doing that. I regularly try to praise and encourage. Quick tip when you're encouraging people, I would encourage you to not praise natural talents but choices and behavior. It's far more powerful. I can go to someone and say, hey, you're really smart. Okay. That feels good for the moment. You know what causes someone to feel much more honored is if I look at them and say, you know, you work really hard at studying and learning. You cultivate the intelligence that your creator gave you. You're really good at utilizing your intelligence. Great job. Man, I'm so thankful for you and your willingness to utilize the talents you have. That's far more encouraging. And it will motivate them to continue to do the thing you just praised. Whatever behaviors or choices get praised and rewarded will always be the behaviors and choices that are repeated. It's essential that we praise, that we acknowledge, and that we encourage people. We do this over and over and over again. If you think you've done it too much, chances are you probably haven't done it enough. Be an encourager, constantly encouraging over and over and over and over again. Great mentors give their time, they have a plan, they are incredibly encouraging, and lastly, they know how to bring correction and instruction when needed. This is really important. I think most people struggle with this one. But if you're going to be a great mentor, you've got to have the audacity, the guts to look at someone in the eyes and say, the way you're doing it is wrong. That's not the way to do it. I actually have a better way for you to do it. We have to bring correction. Now we want to make sure that we are kind when we do it, that we make sure our voice tones and our body language are disarming, relaxed. We want to make sure we don't come across as harsh or, you know, you're an idiot. That's not what we want to be communicating. We want to be bold and clear. We want to look at people and say, the way you're doing it is not the right way to do it, here's the right way to do it. Or, hey, this is a good way to do it, there's actually a better way to do it, because good is often the enemy of best. When I was coaching middle school basketball, one of my favorite things I've ever done as an adult, I had a young man by the name of Keith who was far and away the most talented player I'd ever coached. Keith had a really bad habit, though. When he would shoot the ball, he would keep his elbow out like this, and he would make a lot of shots. But anyone who's ever played basketball knows that if you shoot from here, eventually that ball is going to get smacked right back in your face. You're going to get a lot of balls blocked or you're going to end up with a broken nose. I know from experience. So as Keith is shooting, I'm going to, hey, listen, Keith, you're our best player. You're so talented. And because I care about you and I love your long-term potential, I have to point out something you're doing today that will get in the way of you being the best version of yourself. Would you mind if I pointed out, sometimes I'll ask permission, and say, hey, Keith, I need you to bring your elbow in under the ball and shoot from a higher angle so that when you're playing at the high school and college level, you'll be able to shoot over the guys that are taller than you or faster than you. You'll still be able to get your shot off, but you have to adjust your behavior. Something you're doing is wrong. There's a better way. How do you know, Coach Kenny? Because I have more life experience than you, Keith. Not because I'm more talented than you, because I'm not. Not because I'm faster than you or smarter than you, because I'm not. Keith, the only reason I know this and you don't is because I've just been around a little while longer. I've had my ball smacked back in my face, oh, more than I'd like to admit. I don't want that for you. Don't do it that way. Do it this way, Keith. And so frequently, we're afraid to offend people. We're afraid to tell people that they're doing something wrong, but I would encourage you, challenge you, be willing to bring correction and instruction, because without it, you will not be a very effective mentor. If you're going to be a great mentor, you must absolutely be someone willing to give lots of time. You must be someone that has a plan. You must be someone who encourages a lot, and you must be someone who brings correction and instruction, not harshly, but with clarity. If you do those four things, you will be a great mentor. You will make a tremendous impact in the lives of lots of people, and they will accomplish all the potential they have in them because of your mentorship in them. Many people have handed the baton to you. It's time for you to intentionally work hard to hand the baton to the next generation. Let's go be great mentors. Let's say yes to the next generation. Thank you.