{"id":1910,"date":"2021-01-25T23:07:48","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T07:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/addison.lwh.dev\/insights\/mentoring-in-the-workplace-elevating-potential\/"},"modified":"2024-07-17T14:21:05","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T21:21:05","slug":"mentoring-in-the-workplace-elevating-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/addisongroup.com\/insights\/mentoring-in-the-workplace-elevating-potential\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentoring in the Workplace: How to Elevate Your Team’s Potential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The concept of an elevator is pretty simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You hop on at the ground floor, press a button, and go up to your desired location. Once you\u2019re dropped off, it heads back down and follows the process all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Weast, Addison Group\u2019s President of Information Technology and Engineering, uses this as a metaphor for how he has run things over the last 17 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tell everyone that to get promoted, they have to send the elevator back down,\u201d Weast said. \u201cAs they learn the job and climb up through the ranks, they have a responsibility not only to do their job well, but also make sure someone else can take over that same job down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s because of this strategy that so many employees have progressed from entry-level roles to leadership positions under his guidance. Weast dedicates that to a togetherness, team-first mentality when hiring first-time employees, knowing that someday they could very well take the elevator all the way up to his position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe focus has to be on growing the pie, not trying to get more of the pie itself,\u201d Weast said. \u201cIn theory, your percentage of the pie could shrink. But as long as the total pie is growing, then you\u2019ve got more pie for yourself. It\u2019s all about continuing to grow and expand, and when that\u2019s the case, I expect folks to continue to send the elevator back down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting Face Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even with his high-ranking status as a President of Addison Group, Weast still makes time to mold young employees. When in-office, he\u2019s continuously roaming around the main floor, giving pointers and getting to know new hires. It\u2019s something he thoroughly enjoys doing, making an effort to have a relationship with every employee he can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019d think people would get lost in the shuffle and he might not know who is who, but he knows all the business development managers, recruiters \u2014 everyone,\u201d said Senior Vice President Lynnsey Wimmer, who started working under Weast in 2010. \u201cTo him, that\u2019s super important. He makes it a point to get to know who the new hires are because from day one, he sees that everyone could be an Echelon [top tier recruiter] producer and wants to get the most out of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raising the Bar <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Through building these relationships early, employees tend to build a natural affinity towards Weast. They want to come in early and stay late so they can impress him and surpass the expectations he set for them. His standard became everyone else\u2019s standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the get-go, Mike was very transparent about what he wanted from you,\u201d Wimmer said. \u201cOne of his biggest things was always giving 100% effort, and if you\u2019re not willing to do that, then this isn\u2019t the right role for you. But if you are, then he\u2019s going to be there with you, helping you every step of the way. It really became a thing where I didn\u2019t want to let him down. He always instilled in us that things are going to get messed up; it\u2019s part of the job. But if you\u2019re going to mess up, mess up going 100 miles per hour and we\u2019ll fix it along the way. He just really instilled a hard work ethic in all of us and held us accountable, which we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning the Tough Lessons<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Whether consciously or subconsciously, Weast\u2019s effective management style rubbed off on a few of his now higher-up prodigies. It was always the goal for him to do so, but seeing it actually put into place was pleasantly surprising for former mentees and current recruiting manager for IT and Digital Marketing, David McFarland, and Senior Vice President, David Collins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was always going to let us make mistakes,\u201d said McFarland, who started working under Weast a decade ago. \u201cAnd I realized, to be honest with you, a lot of people learn that way. It\u2019s hard to look at your team and know someone\u2019s going down the wrong path on a phone call with a candidate trying to close on a deal. You know they could be doing something better and it\u2019s so hard to restrain yourself from stepping in and taking it over. Watching someone falter in front of you, then using it as a teaching moment is painful, but I\u2019ve used it plenty of times and seen so much success from it with so many people. And I learned that technique from Weast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of it comes down to making sure we\u2019re training people on our team,\u201d Collins added. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to ensure we\u2019re demanding a level of effort out of people, but really training them so we can get the most out of them. A big piece of it is they have to be willing to learn and be uncomfortable on the phone, if you will. We\u2019ve sent a lot of people to Echelon because of the way he\u2019s taught us things. There\u2019s quite a few that have learned from him and have been to Echelon \u2014 that\u2019s no coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surely if people continue to learn from Weast and his mentees, Addison Group will continue to grow. From sharing a desk with multiple other people when he started 17 years ago, to seeing the company grow to a multi-million dollar, nationwide company, Weast knows it wouldn\u2019t be possible without training people the way he and other leaders have throughout the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he always says: \u201cIf you get the people right, you get a lot right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mentorship is about leading by example. That’s the approach taken by Mike Weast, President of IT and Engineering, who has helped kickstart many careers at Addison Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[],"post_function":[],"post_audience":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-recruiting"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMentoring in the Workplace: How to Elevate Your Team's Potential - Addison Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mentorship is leading by example. 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