Ben Matthews is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.  He is a distinguished graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy where he also played football.  Ben completed his Master's degree in Construction Management at the University of Texas at Austin while serving on active duty.  He also met his wife at UT and they now have 2 children.  After separating from the Air Force in June 2007 Ben has been working in the private sector since.  An active networker, he currently serves on the SAME National Board of Direction as the College Outreach chair.  Ben works for Freese and Nichols in Fort Worth, TX as a Program Manager for federal clients.  You can link to Ben with the following link http://bit.ly/linktoben and by typing in his email samecollegeoutreach@gmail.com. 

Are You A Mentor? An Open Letter To All Engineers

What do Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama have in common?  Besides being first ladies of the United States, they have also served as mentors to young ladies around the world and single handedly changed the lives of many.

There are many definitions of a "mentor" but I adapted the following definition based on a book that I am reading by Joseph Grenny called Influencer.  A mentor is someone who "takes personal responsibility for the success of someone else".  I love this definition because it has nothing to do with race, religion, sex or even age!  My 3 year-old daughter can be a mentor to my 10-month old son.  My wife is my mentor.  And professionally I have had many mentors and try to mentor others as much as possible.  

I enjoy taking personal responsibility for the success of others.  As many of you mentors have already discovered, there are many benefits to becoming a mentor.  Beyond the personal satisfaction of seeing people succeed that you have mentored, many times those "mentees" make YOU more successful.  As a leader of multi-disciplined engineering teams, it was critical that I "mentored" my team members.  Notice that I did not use the word "lead".  I am a leader by title but I am a mentor by purpose.  My purpose is to take personal responsibility for the success of each of my team members.  I am a mentor.  If my team members are successful, I will be successful.

Let me switch gears briefly to what you traditionally think of as a mentor.  The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) does an outstanding job of matching up mentors and mentees.  Very similar to other professional societies that recognize tenured professionals who perform exceptionally over the years, the SAME "Fellows" have a mission to mentor others.  I am a benefactor of the SAME Fellows and now I want to do my part to "give back."  As the SAME College Outreach chair it is my primary job to ensure that there are future engineers to defend and build our nation as well as ensure that they are well prepared for the world that no academic program (sorry...not even USAFA) could prepare them for.  I teach these young engineers the soft skills of being an engineer.  

Let me be the first to tell you that I hate to write.  I hate to listen (my wife can attest to that) and I hate communicating via email.  But these are all skills that my mentors told me that I should work on as a young engineer and officer in the military.  They took the time to show me what I needed to be successful.   Now I am returning the favor to our young engineers.  By young I mean under 30...i.e. Generation Y.  I don't know how many engineers under 30 read this newsletter but if you are reading this, learn to write, write often and keep practicing.  Write white papers.  Write tech memos.  Write emails that are written like memorandums and letters rather than "txt msgs k? LOL!"  And btw, find a mentor that is interested in your success!

For the rest of you reading this newsletter, are you a mentor?  Hopefully by now you realize you are.  If you are married and have children, you are definitely a mentor.  If you have siblings, you are probably a mentor.  If you just roll solo and have a dog...well I hope you are mentoring Eddie to to be successful at "fetch" so you can meet a girl on the beach and get married and have children.

While you are reading this letter I have just finished mentoring 35 students from across the country.  The key thing I try to pass on as a mentor is one I know now that I wish I knew then.  Trust me.  I thought I knew everything as I was graduating from the Air Force Academy, but 10 years later I know that the smartest people in the world admit what they don't know and are still learning.

Hopefully, you will make the time today to take personal responsibility for the success of someone besides yourself and be a mentor!