Three Types of Mentoring Relationships

Recently I watched one of the top videos of the month for the Global Leadership Summit called 3 Types of Mentoring Relationships by Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Vmware,  He shares a perspective about mentoring relationships.

When Pat was a young man, a famous person from Silicon Valley picked him out to mentor him. This person was hard on Pat because he recognized his potential. 

Here are the 3 mentoring relationships Pat says were crucial to the success of his career: 

• Paul - "He's pouring into you."
• Barnabas - "He's a buddy on the way." 
• Timothy - "You're reaching into their life."

These relationships are "helping you become everything God's calling you to be." 

As I listened, I began to reflect on my own mentoring relationships—short and long term. Although I've had a couple of formal ones, the informal ones have been equally as rich!  

There were certain times when having a mentor would have been really helpful. 

Of the 3 types of mentors, I believe that the Paul type is the most challenging. The apostle Paul didn't hold back. He was lovingly hard. If you're in a mentoring relationship with a Paul, you expect that because you understand he/she has your best interest in mind and will speak truth, even if it hurts.

It reminds me of the time when I was 23 years old and my supervisor, a program director in the Detroit Public Schools, took me to the President's Office of Wayne County Community College to get me enrolled in school. In that relationship, I also learned how to set goals and achieve them. It was a "huge" pivotal moment in my life. This was a Paul type. I'm forever grateful!

I like Gelsinger's "who" and "what" in his 3 Types of Mentoring Relationships. It's simple, but all 3 types are hard work! 

What do you like most about Gelsinger's types? In what ways do you relate to these types in your own life?