Excerpt of a spoken piece (YouTube transcript) reflecting on the importance and impact of mentorship. The speaker cites Michelle Obama’s White House mentoring program as inspiration, argues mentoring empowers new employees—especially minorities and high-potential individuals—and emphasizes that mentoring transforms the mentor, requiring self-reflection about who they want to become. The excerpt ends with short, repeated guided-breathing/meditative lines.
Chapters
Sam.
It was inspired by Michelle Obama. She gave a speech in the White House and they had a mentoring program over there. And there wasn't a national day to celebrate all the impact and the achievements of people who'd done great things with mentoring. And I thought this has to change in a company. It could mean a lot. When you onboard new employees in a large organization with people from all backgrounds, it could be very empowering. If you belong to the minority, if you are that high potential person, anxious to grow, you can benefit by being selected to be part of a mentorship program.
Today's employee wants to be led, not just managed. And they want to be inspired and really in some ways provoked to be in a position to do their best work. If you want to be a good mentor, the first question you have to answer is, who do I want to become? Because by helping others.
You become a different person. We realize that mentorship is perhaps what unites all of us at a human level. It's the belief that there is reason to connect and reason to show up for people on the hardest of days as well as the days that we celebrate. SAM.
How do I know where the road goes?
Is this change in my favor?
Okay, so keep your mind intent right in your abdomen.
Now, next variation, we're going to breathe. In for one, bell.