YOU X 2: Peer Mentoring for Success

Packed with simple and practical ideas, this is a "must read" if you want to "up" your game in today's world. Peer-Mentoring is a powerful technique for achieving success in a focused, target and accelerated way. Using clearly defined separate goals, two individuals form a mutual "Support for Success" contract to achieve real results in any category of Life (Career, Health, Personal).

If you want to increase your productivity, enhance your earning power, achieve your goals, and reach more overall success in your life (whether measured in money, expertise, or relationships), then read on.

Peer Mentoring™ is a system in which two people agree to support each other based on complementary skills and needs, and the partners create a ‘contract.’ The purpose of this process is to create a productively paired ‘buddy system’ to help both of you achieve your individual goals. There have been numerous books and articles about mentoring, finding someone senior to you in your field who will help, advise, consult, and coach you to realize your potential.

Having a mentor (if you can find one) can definitely be an asset to you and your career. Lately, we hear a lot about the power of networking in all its formats, such as ‘live’ networking - going to events, collecting business cards, and then following up on those contacts. Of course, we also have cyber networking thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and the most business-related platform, LinkedIn. The end goal - is finding the contacts who will be helpful to you or your business. Peer Mentoring is a combination or confluence of these two trends (networking and mentoring), regardless of the business or career you’re engaged in.

I first discovered the idea of Peer Mentoring when I began using it for myself. I met another woman consultant who had many of the skills, experiences, and contacts that I lacked. I had some of the resources and talents she needed. We formed a contract with each other in which we made very clear statements of our separate goals, and then we made clear written commitments to support each other in achieving those goals.

Some of this support came from teaching each other the skills the other needed, sharing our contacts, educating each other in areas where we needed more information, and, most importantly, just knowing that we each had a buddy rooting for us. We called it a "loving kick in the can’ts”. Our mutual support system was so effective that we found that we had each achieved our one-year goals after only a few months.

During this period, we met once a week, reviewed our short-term and long-term goals, discussed how effectively we were spending our time, and took turns instructing each other on subjects in which one of us wanted more knowledge. We were so amazed by our success that we decided to teach this process to others. Now, thousands of people all over the country have learned the process and are actively forming Peer-Mentor pairs to help each other to be more successful.

Peer Mentoring is a process through which people identify their own resources and those of others and then create specific strategies for mutual goal achievement. It is a new adaptation of the age-old concept of reciprocity practiced by all cultures. Usual reciprocal practices are implicit, whereas the Peer-Mentor contract makes the agreements explicit.

The participants barter resources (skills, contacts, technical expertise, advice, counseling, criticism, etc.) with each other as needed. This model encourages the development and organization of one’s readily available resources – personal, business, and social – and is based on mutual support. It is different from the “I can do it myself through gritted teeth” attitude, which I believe most people find extremely difficult in practice. The Peer-Mentoring technique challenges the myth that isolation is a necessary companion of success.