In the past, I have written in this column about companies having a mentoring program for those who will be good candidates to guide and train other employees. The purpose is twofold:
I can say that over the years I have had a select few really good mentors, and I have also been able to mentor others in this business, so I speak with a sense of confidence based on personal experience that mentoring works. Whenever I indulge myself and reminisce about my career in HVAC, I recall mentors who guided me to first understand HVAC design, managing engineering projects, and then managing engineering groups, business, etc., all of which help me round out my background in the HVAC industry. I can reflect back and remember individuals in departments I have managed who have grown in this business with some structure provided by how I managed these people. Based on my experience being mentored and mentoring others, I wanted to raise awareness and/or remind you of mentoring and to suggest how to get started or how to jump-start a mentoring program that has gone dormant.