S1 E24 Mentorship
Episode Audio
Brittany Blalock shares what she’s been learning about Mentorship.
Connect with Brittany on LinkedIn.
Transcript:
The following transcript was auto-generated and may contain typos or spelling errors.
Amy Petricek
Welcome to the share what you learned Podcast. I'm Amy patristic, a learning enthusiast and the host of the show. The share what you learn podcast is designed for learning professionals to share something they're learning in the field of instructional design. Today I'm talking to Brittany Blaylock about mentorship. Hi, Brittany, welcome to the show.
Brittany Blalock
Hi, Amy, thank you so much for having me. How are you doing?
Amy Petricek
I'm doing well. We're recording this on a Monday. It started really groggy and sad where I live. And now it's sunny and beautiful. And I get to talk to you about instructional design stuff. So great day.
Brittany Blalock
That's wonderful. I am in Arizona, and it's sunny and beautiful all the time. So great day for me, too.
Amy Petricek
You really lucked out living and we're like, opposite ends of the spectrum. You're in Arizona, and I'm in Seattle. But not that far. Mileage wise. Yeah. So Brittany, I would love if you could take a minute to introduce yourself to my listeners, tell us who you are, and kind of anything that's relevant to yourself as a learning professional? Absolutely, yes, I
Brittany Blalock
would love to. My name is Brittany, I am a learning and development specialist currently at a technology startup in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I started in learning and development. I worked in corporate higher education for seven and a half years. And I was on the front lines. And then I moved into training for learning and development and trained our enrollment staff. So I always love learning. And I currently am learning a lot of things,
Amy Petricek
including we're going to talk about something particular today that you've been learning, can you maybe talk a little bit from a very high level about what we're talking about today,
Brittany Blalock
I worked in corporate higher education and I got into instructional design, through kind of know a lot of people say by accident and as same kind of story for me, are really also through a lot of mentors and people who were there to support me and rally me on and teach me things that I didn't know that I needed to know, to get to where I am today.
Amy Petricek
I'm excited to talk about this. We're gonna be talking about mentorship today. And one of the reasons I'm excited about this, I think when we talk about learning, a lot of times the immediate thought that comes in people's head is formal learning. They're thinking of courses, they're thinking of webinars, workshops, LinkedIn learning those kinds of things. And I'm excited to talk about mentorship because I feel like mentorship is an important part of our professional learning and professional growth across a lot of different spheres and industries. But we're specifically talking about the learning and development world today. So tell us about the role that mentorship played in your transition into learning design. And how did it help you make that jump though,
Brittany Blalock
when I was in training, I was in learning and development as a learning facilitator. And across the way over my cubicle, I would see people working on their computers on cool things like Adobe Illustrator and putting storyboards on the wall and using articulate rise. And I was very intrigued that it was the multimedia instructional design land. And thankfully, they started a workshop for their team, the instructional design team, where they taught Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to everyone on their team. And I snuck in there and learn all the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator at the time. And it was a really exciting time for me. And I started to learn how to build tools and really just become a better visual designer, technical writer and just kind of stumble into this creative passion and that I didn't know that I had. So yeah, that's sudden to a lot more of relationships from their
Amy Petricek
information, or what I take away from that is that mentorship was really helpful in your upskilling. And you specifically call that like some technical skills programs that maybe helped you to feel more equipped or comfortable or maybe confident in some of the tools that instructional designers use. Yeah, definitely.
Brittany Blalock
Yeah, the tools. And then I think really just moving into what does it look like for someone who is new to using tools or new to applying those tools and helping people learn? And how can a mentor or a colleague or a peer support them along that journey and give them good feedback, give them constructive feedback and feedback that's also encouraging to help them continue on the journey because sometimes it's not always easy when you start getting all the feedback on all the things.
Amy Petricek
So one of the reasons I love mentorship, not to diss or knock down any other like methods of learning. But one of the things I love about mentorship is the feedback you get and what you really pointed out there in that you get really specific and actionable feedback. So if you're taking an online course you might get feedback as to whether or not an attempt was as accurate or inaccurate or on a knowledge check assessment, maybe a right or a wrong would be the context. But in mentorship, you're getting someone's thought process that saying, as we look at this through the lens of inclusive design, here are things you would want to include in this build. And or I know this is your career path and where you want to go. So I would really hone your skill set in here, whatever that would entail. But that to me, in my professional growth, the feedback I've gotten in mentorship has been so so valuable.
Brittany Blalock
Yeah, I 100%. Agree, I actually got feedback very early on in my career from one of my bosses, who also was a mentor, not necessarily in instructional design, but she told me that she wanted to hear me speak out in meetings more. And I was like, what, and I thought I was just listening and being a good employee. And that really challenged me to step out of my comfort zone. And that led to me to become a facilitator. So that little piece of feedback made me speak out a lot more in meetings. And then from there, when I was opened up to the learning and development world, and getting that feedback, especially as you're moving into teaching others, especially if they are older than you or have more life experience or work experience, that can be a little daunting. So the specific feedback was a good place for me, I had a really great learning and development director who was so kind and so caring, and intelligent, and would give me input. And also tell me my strengths. And so that was really helpful for me to know what I should focus on how I should continue to grow and even identify strengths that I didn't know that I had,
Amy Petricek
I'm really excited that you have that opportunity and hope others are able to glean some of that experience in their own professional experiences as well. I'm thinking like, as you're talking you, you were mentioning a mentorship opportunity almost that you had within your own organization. And so I'm kind of curious about that. I think a lot of times when people talk about mentorship, I think a lot of times people are looking for mentorship outside of their organization, which definitely has its place and is appropriate for the right context. But I'm kind of curious what your thoughts or opinions or wonderings are about if there's a place for mentorship within internal l&d teams?
Brittany Blalock
So a great question. I think, as you were asking that I was thinking about how it is true that there are so many places to find mentors or connect with them on LinkedIn, or through different classes or places. But yeah, I think maybe the higher education growing up or working in that field for so long, that culture of learning was already there. And then you know, just connecting it with the learning and development world may have ignited it is a little more than normal. But I think that almost everyone that I that's been my mentor has been someone that's been internal departments or been in a State Department as me or been a direct manager or a co worker or colleague has the same position as me and order someone across a different function. And so I think that there's absolutely a place for people to find those who may be less experienced and give their input and skill and help them grow.
Amy Petricek
I'm a fan of that. I mean, we're in learning and development, why wouldn't we have opportunities for internal growth and development? I have a thought and I'm curious, your thoughts on it is specifically asking someone the words, will you be my mentor? I think there's contextually I think, when people are asked specifically Will you be my mentor? My perception is that people are kind of like, well, that's a big responsibility. That's a lot to ask. I don't know if I have that to give, I found the best mentorship personally, when I'm maybe not specifically asking for mentorship, but asking for a thought partner on a specific project or asking for feedback in CourseBuilder, those kinds of things and finding that I'm then building a relationship with a particular colleague, and really growing as a result of the input that they're giving me and so I'm just curious, have you ever explicitly asked Will you be my mentor? And or has it just happened more organically?
Brittany Blalock
It has happened more organically. I don't think I've ever asked anyone if they will specifically be my mentor, and it just has fallen into place. And yeah, I think really looking at people who you admire and whose leadership skills you look up to, or even just the person in the cubicle next to you or on the other side of the Zoom call or the person who you're working cross functionally on our project with even if they're not even in your scope can teach you a lot. I think that's why like you said, as learning professionals, it's really exciting to to have that frame of mind in that perspective that even if they are in a different field or younger or with much older that they can help you learn and grow in ways that you again, didn't know that you could and yeah, I don't think it needs to be a specific, you know, call out to the question of will you be my mentor? It's really up To the mentee, so to speak to apply what feedback they're given to research to continue learning to continue growing as well as the mentor as well knowing that they're they have that growth mindset wanting to step out of the norms and not okay with the status quo so to speak.
Amy Petricek
So based on Brittany and mais anecdotal records here, we're gonna wreck I would recommend, I won't put words in Britney's mouth, but we're gonna recommend maybe not to explicitly ask in the sense that it could be perceived as a really big ask and a really big weight lift. And so maybe letting something happen more organically could have a value as well. It's kind of what we're proposing maybe not objecting to explicitly asking, but it seems like based off of both of our experiences that the best mentorship experiences we've had have both been organic for us. So
Brittany Blalock
yeah, I'll sign off on that.
Amy Petricek
Okay, thanks. So kind of maybe piggybacking off of this, and maybe you feel like you've already touched on this, but maybe I'm also asking it more succinctly now is, if someone's looking to find a mentor and grow professionally, what would you recommend? And maybe piggybacking off of that, what would make an effective versus an ineffective mentor? In that? Are there things people should be looking for when they're looking for mentors?
Brittany Blalock
Yeah, so the first question was, if someone is looking for a mentor, what would you recommend, I would recommend that they identify the skills that they want to learn or the places where they want to go as far as career wise, or at a company, maybe a personal development goal. And then look around, look around to the people nearby, there's people in your current organization and your family, your friends, your communities, and then talk to them and have a conversation and just see listen to their story and what their life has been like. And from there, you can really identify whether or not it's a maybe a path you want to go down or someone who you'd like to spend more time with and talk to you to understand their perspective, because you may find that you absolutely want to do what they do. Or you may find that you do not want to do what they do at all, but you appreciate their perspective and input. So yeah, I think that's something you just want to look around you and find, find people who are doing what you want to do. And then second question,
Amy Petricek
the question was like, what makes an effective versus ineffective mentor? And what kind of I'm getting at in that is, are there things we should be looking out for maybe it's red flags, maybe it's specific traits or qualities in a person,
Brittany Blalock
I think, yeah. And in fact, an ineffective mentor is going to be someone who not be willing to grow or maybe more stuck in a different pattern or not, doesn't really understand your your viewpoint and has a different perspective of the world. And it's, that doesn't mean that you need to line up with someone who has the same perspective as you. But I think they need to have a keen interest in who you are in your development. So there may be some who might be wanting to provide mentorship just for the sake of providing mentorship, but you want to ensure that it aligns with Yeah, what you want to do. And then they really truly care about you and assess, I think that's what makes an effective mentorship is that they do care and that they have your best interests in mind.
Amy Petricek
I like that you called out that finding someone who has your best interest in mind. I think mentorship at times can be like almost like it's not paid programming, usually. But the essence of like paid programming of like buy my product by my this by my that I have years of experience of this, that or the other. But if the person doesn't have that care for you and your professional growth, I think it's going to limit the progress you can make working with them. And so I really liked you pointed that out, because I bet if you were to Google, like what makes a good mentor? That wouldn't be one of the things it's more of abstract components of a good mentor. And so I really liked that you said that? No, thank you. So as mentees, we all have a lot of experience receiving from mentors. But at some point, I feel like it becomes appropriate for a mentee to turn around and become a mentor and start giving some of the information they've learned and experiences that they've had on to someone else. And so when should someone consider returning the favor and they themselves become a mentor? Brittany?
Brittany Blalock
That's a great question. I think that anyone can be a mentor, whenever they want that as long as you have a skill that you are willing to share and teach then you can your way into being a mentor.
Amy Petricek
Is there anything you'd recommend getting started as a mentor? Like are there? I don't know is it should you be connected with your local ATD organization? Do you recommend talking to colleagues any like maybe tools or things you'd recommend kind of having in your toolkit as you look at stepping into mentorship,
Brittany Blalock
talking to colleagues and maybe going into community groups like church or public speaking groups, I think just making yourself available to other people. Who's teachable? And who wants to learn and who is coachable? And yeah, not you don't even have to go up to them. I don't think and say, Can I be your mentor, but you can go and see where they want to go and ask them questions like there was a girl who knew that she would kind of talk about how she wanted to go into UX to me a lot. But she didn't I could tell it, she didn't really know what that was. Exactly. And so I would talk with her a little bit about what her struggles were, and why she was so frustrated with her position. And she would tell me about the software and how it works and how it can be better. And so that was an opportunity for me as a learning or HR professional to say, like, hey, here are these this is kind of a career path and help her uncover what she has to contribute to that area.
Amy Petricek
It almost sounds like in the same way, we talked about being mentored by someone. And maybe the best scenario for that is when it happens organically, but then mentoring someone and paying it forward is the same. There are all kinds of people in our lives that we get to interact with. And as you're talking to them, and they're wondering about different things professionally being like, Oh, I might know someone that could talk to you about that. Or when I think about that, it makes me think about this. Do you want to talk more about UX design, for example. So I love that just continuing this organic flow of mentorship goodness up and down the ladder?
Brittany Blalock
Yes, yes. I don't know that I've ever had an official mentor, have you
Amy Petricek
know, nope, never had an official mentor. And I've also I've, I was chuckling in my head when you were like, you know, probably not a good idea either to like, go up to someone and be like, Can I be your mentor? Cuz it is kind of weird to that person too. So I'm like, Yeah, I haven't done that either. It's regarding to. Well, thanks for talking about mentorship with me. Brittany, I'd love to dive into the Rapid Round the questions I get to ask all of my guests. Ooh, okay. Alright, so we're gonna start with one where you're gonna finish the sentence for me, Brittany learning is
Brittany Blalock
learning is a journey that never stopped.
Amy Petricek
When you're mustering up the courage to learn something new. What song do you put on? What song I
Brittany Blalock
put on? Depends if I can listen to music at the time, but I'm not gonna lie like some Taylor Swift. And I'll also go with for some Lo Fi hip hop. I think that's what the kids are calling it. That's kind of my jam to get me in the zone.
Amy Petricek
Catch me up real quick. It's been a hot second since Taylor put an album out, right? I mean,
Brittany Blalock
no, no. She, I mean, she has she's put out her original albums again. Is that what that means? I don't know. But,
Amy Petricek
you know, I enjoyed Taylor too. But I my extended Taylor is literally like, I have a CD back when used to buy CDs. I have one of her old albums on CD and I it's just forever in my car CD player. And so like when I get bored of the radio, where I can't find something at Spotify, like, listen to Taylor. So that's my Taylor experience.
Brittany Blalock
That should be her next album forever in my car stereo.
Amy Petricek
Brittany, you're asked to do a brand new task with the skill set you do not yet have Where do you turn
Brittany Blalock
depends on the skill that I'm wanting to learn if it's to tie up my new fancy shirt, but I don't know how to tie it on. I'll need to go to Pinterest. I love YouTube for maybe more technical skills and books, obviously, and podcast for a deep dive into certain topics. So all of the above.
Amy Petricek
Last one, finish the sentence without learning
Brittany Blalock
AI. So when I was in I skipped kindergarten when I was in elementary school. Congrats. Okay. They said that's what I was looking for it they said that I was bored and misbehaved a lot. So they moved me on to the next grade. So I think that without learning I would be bored and in trouble.
Amy Petricek
She'd be in the corner ladies and gentlemen. Yes, Brittany, I have loved talking with you. It's been so fun to chat about mentorship. If those listening on the podcast are also enjoying and or would love to ask you some questions about mentorship. What's a good way for them to be in contact with you.
Brittany Blalock
They can not ask me to be a mentor on LinkedIn. Perfect. They can reach me on LinkedIn.
Amy Petricek
Thanks so much Brittany for sharing all about mentorship and learning and development with us today. I also want to give a shout out to you my listeners for learning with us. Until next time, stay open, receptive and kind