T-SQL Tuesday, which was started by Adam Machanic (github is hosted by a different person each month. The host selects the theme, and then the blogging begins. Worldwide, on the second Tuesday of the month (all day, based on GMT time), bloggers attend this party by blogging about the theme.

This month it is hosted by Deborah on the theme of mentoring and sponsorship. Thank you Deborah for hosting.

Mentoring

I am lucky to have mentored some fantastic people in the community and been able to watch them grow and develop. Chris W, Eivind, Chris J, Justin, Olivier, Umar, Mikey, Thomas, Craig and Paul are some of the official mentees that I have had and even better some of them have gone on to mentor others so I have grand-mentees like Grace and others.

It makes me proud to know that I have been able to provide a tiny bit of help to them and that they have gone on to do great things and that that influence is continuing to spread onto others as well.

Whats in it for me?

I have learned so much from my mentees. They have taught me about new technologies, new ways of working, new ways of thinking. They have challenged me to think about things in a different way. They have made me a better person, a better DBA, a better developer, a better speaker, a better writer. They have made me a better mentor. Every person is different and needs new and different things from a mentor. I have learned to adapt and change my style to suit the person I am mentoring.

They have made me a better person and I thank each and every one for that. Without doubt, one of the greatest benefits of sharing, blogging, speaking is the knowledge that you build to enable you to do so. You learn so much because you are the one doing the teaching and the sharing and as such you know that you need to research and understand the topic in order to be able to explain it to others. You also learn from the questions that you are asked.

Mentoring is exactly the same. You learn more about being a mentor because you are mentoring, you learn more about explaining situations, you learn more about listening, you learn more about understanding. You have to develop new ways of explaining scenarios and concepts as you work alongside new people with different experiences and different ways of thinking.

This can only be of benefit to yourself. You can and will take this knowledge on from the mentoring relationship and use it in your day to day work and life. You will be a better team member, a better leader, a better manager because of the things that you will learn.

What can you do?

If you are not already mentoring someone, then I would encourage you to do so. You will learn so much from the experience. One way that you can do so is via New Stars of Data. This is a fantastic program that pairs mentors with mentees. You can find out more about it here You can also join the New Stars Track at the PASS Data Community Summit will run for the third time this year and is designed for speakers who have presented before but never at a big international event. Data Scotland and Dataminds Connect are also great events that support new speakers and mentors.

Or go to your local user group and offer to mentor someone. Or ask someone to mentor you.

You can even be a mentor without realising it

Just be kind, be helpful, provide support to people. Online and in-person. You never know who you are influencing and who you are helping. You never know who you are mentoring.