Sometimes, you get to hear what you need to hear at just the right time. Recognizing that you’ve just heard what you need to hear, ah, that’s the real trick!
My mentor has a knack of dispensing timely words of wisdom for any situation. This is part of the reason why he’s so qualified to be a mentor (whether he asked for that job or not).
These particular words revolve around respecting and serving, and can be applied to many scenarios:
- Respect the position, especially if you can’t respect the person in it.
- Sometimes you have to give people exactly what they ordered, even if it’s to their own detriment.
Use them, apply them, and pass them on in turn. You never know when they’ll strike that necessary chord.
What words of wisdom have helped you? Did you recognize them for what they were right away, or did you realize it later?
Author Becky Benishek 
Excellent words of wisdom. I learned two key things from a previous mentor:
A) manage up when you are overwhelmed or overloaded. Your supervisor and/or mentor (noting: they are not always the same person) can often help you find a way out of those situations.
B) along the same lines of giving them exactly what they asked for (even if to their own detriment), sometimes you have to “play dumb” to get what you need from people. Or, to get them to figure stuff out on their own.
Needless to say, this person helped me figure out how to get stuff done on my own, while knowing to ask for help when I needed it.
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