Mentoring is teaching others, but it’s outside of the formal teacher-student relationship. It’s also similar to but different from the formal coaching relationship, as my friend Jeff Myers reminds me. Jeff has type 1 diabetes and was one of the few diabetes life and wellness coaches until last year when he because an executive of a leading diabetes company.
“Regarding mentoring in diabetes,” he told me yesterday, “my writing has been about the value of hiring a coach who understands living with diabetes, but not anything about mentoring per se. In my experience, though, I’ve found it very energizing to talk to newly diagnosed (within the past year at least) type 1’s and ask about what is going well and what is not going so well. These simple questions unearth a wealth of topics that the ‘mentee’ feels are important to them.
“By this point I usually start getting questions about resources and strategies, etc., and I enjoy sharing what has worked well for me and others I know, and pointing them to excellent resources that they haven’t been told about by their health care providers. When, for example, the person is struggling to solve a problem with their diabetes management or their future living with diabetes, I like to ask them questions to explore what is most important to them, such as ‘what are you most worried about not being able to do now that you have diabetes?’
“From here I gauge whether or not to offer encouragement, or ask how they met other challenges in their life, or ask them to brainstorm with me what it might look like to successfully do those challenging things.
“My bottom line belief in doing this is that these individuals can do anything they want with diabetes, and that helping them draw on their own ideas and interests is the fastest and most effective path to successful ownership and management of their situation.
“By this point I usually start getting questions about resources and strategies, etc., and I enjoy sharing what has worked well for me and others I know, and pointing them to excellent resources that they haven’t been told about by their health care providers. When, for example, the person is struggling to solve a problem with their diabetes management or their future living with diabetes, I like to ask them questions to explore what is most important to them, such as ‘what are you most worried about not being able to do now that you have diabetes?’
“From here I gauge whether or not to offer encouragement, or ask how they met other challenges in their life, or ask them to brainstorm with me what it might look like to successfully do those challenging things.
“My bottom line belief in doing this is that these individuals can do anything they want with diabetes, and that helping them draw on their own ideas and interests is the fastest and most effective path to successful ownership and management of their situation.
The bottom line for all of us is that we can give back to the virtual diabetes community of the Internet. All of us have so much to share. We can be both mentor and mentee as we support each other and make our community so much stronger.
