Summer may be over, but mentoring (and being mentored) is always in season
School is back in swing. Campuses and classrooms that were left to wonder where everyone went are again filled with students. The carpool lines are back to being backed up in the streets. Football is in the air! It is a glorious time of year.
The beginning of the school year marks a new beginning for me. I am now a full-fledged college professor at the University of North Texas, or UNT. Everyone keeps joking that I need to wear tweed. It’s still hot as hell in Dallas, so that’s not happening any time soon.
Another thing that’s not happening any time soon is focusing any less on Clients First Marketing & Communications. Our momentum is building, and I continue to co-lead the agency along with Jeff Baum. The primary reason universities hire so-called professors “of practice” is their industry experience. In my case, this experience isn’t just from the past – it’s also from the present, and I bring it to the classroom each and every day. Yet the value goes the other way as well. I tell people all the time that I learn as much from my students as they learn from me. And so I also apply my classroom learnings to client discussions. I may not be in the math department, but it’s clear to even this liberal arts major that this is a case of 1+1=3.
A gift that keeps on giving
One of the most important things I learned in my first year in the classroom last year – I served as an adjunct instructor, also at UNT – is the importance of mentoring. You can impart wisdom in the classroom all day long. But students both want and need mentoring as much as anything else. It’s a crazy world out there – one that is harder to navigate for a newly-minted college graduate than ever before. Where do they start? What are the best internships? What do employers look for? What if I get nervous in interviews? The questions never stop. And that is good, because they are all good ones.
UNT cares quite a bit about mentoring. It is one of the many reasons I am excited to be there. I teach advertising and brand strategy, which means I am ensconced within the Mayborn School of Journalism. One of the many programs the school sponsors is Mayborn Mentors, through which local and regional industry professionals and alumni come to campus to share their lessons and experiences and meet informally with students. Which creates valuable mentor networks – and a pipeline from college to the workforce.
What if I get nervous in interviews? Here’s guessing that a student who approaches their first round of white knucklers with an active mentor in their ear handles it better than most.
They take mentoring seriously enough at Mayborn, I even have my own mentor. Larry Powell has been a godsend from one day one. Teaching me about classroom things. Teaching me about faculty-advisor things. Teaching me how to become a college professor. Larry has led an exciting career in both advertising agencies and academia. You want to know about advertising? Talk to Larry. You want to become the best art director ever? Talk to Larry. He is all about student success. Which includes, he believes at his core, mentoring. We all are glad that he does.
The best of the best
I can wax poetic all day long about mentoring, but I’m a freshman in line for a rooftop pool pass compared to guys like Tom Martin and Tom Mattia. Both are legends in the communications profession, having achieved significant success in their storied careers. Both are committed to mentoring.
After retiring from ITT in 2007, Tom Martin founded the Martin Center for Mentorship in Communication at the College of Charleston. He also serves there as Executive-in-Residence in the Department of Communication. In this role, Tom works with the students, faculty and administration to enhance the relationship between the Communication department and the business community and to help its students successfully transition into the business world. He has become arguably the nation’s leading mentor for college students majoring in communications.
Among Tom Mattia’s stops in his journey were Yale University, where he served as chief communications officer and special adviser to the president, and Carnegie Mellon University, where was interim vice president of communications and marketing. The learning environment is part of who Tom is, and he taught for many years at Rutgers University, his alma mater. Jeff and I have both worked for Tom (I was fortunate enough to work for him twice), and Tom is without question one of the most impactful mentors we will ever have.
Why do I mention the two Toms? I write this the day before Jeff’s and my podcast, On the Offense, records our latest edition, our 20th. The subject is mentoring, and we are fortunate to have them both as guests. We can’t wait. We will learn a lot – and so will you.
Are you mentoring someone?
Do you have a mentor yourself?
I am hopeful that the answer is yes to both. If it’s not, I challenge you to change that.
You won’t be sorry you did.
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