How do you change a life? You start by making a positive impact on them. Whether you're looking to mentor someone in their career, teach a friend a new skill, or look for another way to offer guidance to someone else, the outcome you desire is always the same. You want them to succeed.
Are you ready to be the teacher they need?
Let's explore some ways to make a positive impact on someone else’s life through teaching:
Figure Out the Relationship You Want to Have
First, what kind of relationship are you looking to have? Do you want to be a teacher in a classroom? Do you want to come alongside a friend and help them out once in a while? Do you want to be a formal mentor, possibly in a business setting? Your choice will dictate your next steps. For example, if you wish to teach in the classroom, you might want to ask yourself what skills you have to teach. Perhaps you might want to offer a night class at a Community College. Or you might want to set up a webinar from your home to guide students through some new skills.
Define the Goal
Once you've established your setting and gained a student or a set of students, you need to create a clear objective. What is the purpose of this teaching relationship? What do you want the other person to get out of it? What do they want to get out of it?
Go All In
Don't go into this unless you're truly willing to invest in the individual. Become more interested in helping them succeed as a person than marking their achievements off some list.
Know When to Stop
You'll find the best outcomes in giving guidance to others when you know what they truly need. To find this out, you might need to lay aside your agenda and listen to them for a while. Their initial problems might not be what they need to solve. It could be there’s something deeper going on. When you allow the other person room to talk, they will often come around to what's really bothering them if you give them enough time.
Drop Assumptions
Don't think you know everything, especially about the person you're mentoring. Rather than assuming anything, take the time to ask them about themselves. Discover what they want out of this relationship.
Be Vulnerable
You've made mistakes too. Be willing to share your catastrophes. There's a lot of lessons to be learned from other people's mistakes. Your experiences are a valuable tool when it comes to teaching others.
In the end, the best way to make a positive impact on someone's life is to be open and honest in your desire to help and in how you treat the other person. Honesty is crucial to the mentoring relationship.
