Are you sharpening your strategy by mentoring another?

Strategic leaders sharpen their own strategy when they help sharpen others.

THINK ON IT: Are you sharpening your strategy by mentoring another?

As leaders, we spend a lot of time reacting to the needs of our business. This is certainly the adrenaline rush that many of us chase as entrepreneurs, but constantly putting out fires can keep us from thinking strategically. 

Creating strategic thinking time can be challenging. I wrote an entire series on how to increase your strategic capacity. 

But there’s another, often overlooked, approach to sharpening your strategic thinking: take some time to help sharpen another’s. 

We all have mentors we learn from and seek out for counsel. Some mentors we’ve never met in person, but we’ve read their books, taken their courses, or heard them speak. Other mentors have walked alongside us, nurturing us in business and in life. 

But how accessible have you made yourself as a mentor for others? 

Yes, you. No matter if you’re busy or young or not “ready.” You can mentor others. 

Mentoring someone in their business doesn’t have to be time consuming or even a formal agreement. It can simply look like asking another business leader a rich question about their business. Asking a good question — and listening well to the answer — can open up insights that not only help them with their business, but also with yours. 

All it takes is someone to get the party started — and that could be you. 

For some ways to go about doing that, read on if you're a Premium Member. (Become a Premium Member. Paid subscribers get access to nearly 100 tools and how-tos on implementing strategic topics, including a 7-part series to help leaders build their own strategic capacity.)

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“In learning, you will teach, and in teaching, you will learn.”

— Phil Collins

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