Throughout my corporate career, athletic pursuits, personal endeavours and in growing my business, I've had mentors, coaches, friends and colleagues who have been instrumental in my learning and resulting accomplishments. I know first hand the value of having a network of people to turn to for support and inspiration.

In my work...

About a year ago, two athletes from our local triathlon club and I were discussing The Ironman Muskoka 70.3 triathlon as a target race for our mentoring program. It’s a popular race that takes place about an hour north of where I live in Central Ontario. One of the athletes, a late-30’s super-fit guy, said he was thinking...

^{Updated March 10, 2022.}

At the beginning of every orientation session for mentoring programs, I ask the participants to write down any challenges they foresee regarding the success of their mentoring relationship. The #1 challenge, by far, is always time.  From business owners to professionals to triathletes, people are...

When asked to reflect on relationships that have made a difference in their lives, many people think about their mentoring relationships. However, like other work and personal relationships, mentoring relationships fall along a continuum ranging from high quality to dysfunctional. Research has shown that one determining attribute of high...

In formal mentoring programs, preparation and training for the participants is critical to the success of the mentoring partnership.

Mentoring is an intimate learning relationship that requires intentionality to make it work. Too often I hear about programs that weren’t successful and have resulted in formal mentoring programs getting a...

We tend to have a variety of networks that serve various purposes. From growing our businesses to growing ourselves. From gaining a new skill to gaining visibility in the marketplace.

A developmental network is a special type of network defined as “a set of relationships an individual has with people who take an active...

There are many different types of coaching – leadership, team, executive, organizational, wellness, life, sports – to name a few. Coaching exists along a spectrum from being more supportive at one end (think life coaching) to directive at the other end (think sports coaching). At the core they are all the same – helping...

When it comes to professional development, mentoring is a popular subject. Co-mentoring is about establishing mutually beneficial learning relationships among our colleagues and friends.

Rather than look “up” in the organization or further “out” of our immediate network the way we typically do, we can also look at...