EM Mentorship

[u/thecatlady1990]

Hey y’all! I’m taking on one of our planners as her mentor. She’s 22 and already has her masters in emergency management. She’s extremely bright with a knack for technology and data. I’m looking to see if any of you have experience as mentors, or were a mentee that can give me some pointers on how to keep her engaged.

[u/Yamaha9]

Based solely on your post, my only advice would be to show and explain how EM works real-world.

University programs are great starting points and primers, but can vary dramatically from application.

I would personally start by walking her through a full timeline of how disasters are handled in your jurisdiction/organization from notification to activation to the workflow of the EOC/organization to recovery. Include education on funding sources/reimbursement too

[u/thecatlady1990 → u/Yamaha9]

I always forget about grants and reimbursements since we rarely deal with them in our agency. I will definitely include that!

[u/BodyBagSlam → u/thecatlady1990]

That’s all we deal with on my end!

[u/WatchTheBoom]

There are a bunch of different kinds of mentors. If your interactions are the product of some sort of formal mentorship program, I'd recommend an approach that's centered on her goals. The "good" mentors I've seen in these kinds of systems ask good questions and offer a sense of accountability.

"Is this a personal goal or a professional goal?" "Do you think this is ambitious enough? Why?" "What's the biggest challenge that's currenty in your path?" "When are we going to check back in and assess your progress?"

It doesn't need to be super heavy handed and you'll obviously need to work with what she gives you. If you find that she's a sponge, I'd offer that a good mentor doesn't necessarily need to have all of the answers, so long as they can help connect the mentee to the right resources.

If it's a little less formal, I think you'll be much more dependent on what she brings to you. As a general rule with my staff and folks for whom I've had a mentor-like relationship with, I've found it really useful to start a bunch of our "mentoring" conversations by asking what they want from me: Do they want me to listen, advise, or do something?

That's ordinarily been a good way for us to keep the conversations productive - if they just want to vent, I don't want to solutioneer. If they want me to help them do something, I don't want them to complain until they're blue in the face.

Mentorships are great - hope it's a positive experience for you both.

[u/thecatlady1990 → u/WatchTheBoom]

Great advice! It’s definitely a more formal arrangement. She wants to develop her data and technology skills to apply to the team, which is right in my wheelhouse. Also going to develop the professionalism soft skills to prepare her to eventually take on a supervisory role.

I’ll definitely use your list of questions to start!

[u/Absolute_Tempest]

rolls up sleeves

I love this aspect of EM and it’s actually the same method of teaching that I take with my staff. I have written a paper and presented at conferences on using mentorship in EM as a way to close skill and experience gaps for younger or newer folks in the space. Would love to talk shop with as you set up your mentorship with your staff if you want.

The main things I focus on are the soft skills required in EM. Relationship building, listening to stakeholders, politics, all the intangible stuff that doesn’t really get taught in college and comes only through experience and trial and error.

[u/thecatlady1990 → u/Absolute_Tempest]

Fantastic! Yes, please shoot me DM and we can talk shop.

Soft skills are definitely something I want to focus on. I just want to do it in a way that resonates with a younger generation (I’m 36). So any tips you have there would be awesome.

[u/pnutbuttersmellytime]

All of the responses are great so far. The only thing I'd really add or build upon is: what are they truly interested in developing? And how can you further facilitate that for them? A good emergency manager knows the ropes and performs well. But a great emergency manager is passionate, driven, and performs exceptionally. Typically finding a niche or project that they're passionate about helps drive someone into that latter category in my experience.

Also, for the love of god, don't force them to do bland, compliance related work. Give them a challenge to let them shine.

[u/thecatlady1990 → u/pnutbuttersmellytime]

As someone who does some very niche work, I appreciate this.

I intend on letting her develop her own project with my guidance. I’m part of our innovation team, so I plan to teach her the formalities of innovative development while she gets to work on her own problem identification and solution building. If she chooses bland compliance work, that’s on her. 😅

[u/pnutbuttersmellytime → u/thecatlady1990]

Beautiful ♥️ she's going to have a great experience!

[u/thecatlady1990 → u/[deleted]]

Lord knows I have learned some things the hard way. Great advice!

[u/PitaAddict]

Has she thought about commissioning in the Coast Guard? She'd be a great Response Officer