Bruce Cosper, MBA

1. SPECIALIZE: Find your niche and become an expert. 2. DIFFERENTIATE-Identify what set's you apart. 3. FIND OUT WHERE YOUR NICHE COMMUNITY DWELLS. This community is your audience. 4. CLEARLY UNDERSTAND THE PAIN for your niche community. 5. CREATE A REAL SOLUTION FOR THAT PAIN. The solution must REALLY solve the pain, and must be perceived as a value. 6. CREATE MEANINGFUL CONTENT and put yourself out there. 7. DEVELOP LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS--Always give more than you receive in all of your relationships. 8. GIVE, GIVE, GIVE--not just your money, but most importantly, your personal time too! 9. ALWAYS BE KIND

Although I do agree with this article, I feel it is missing a couple of critical steps that must be taken before you jump-into your needs analysis. 1. First, do you have a clear understanding of your organization's goals and objectives so that you can align your T&D departmental goals with your organizations goals. Will your T&D contributions help the organization achieve its goals? Knowing this will help guide your needs assessment. 2. Have you planned and then received approval for the budgets that you will need in order to execute your goals. 3. Now you can conduct your needs assessment and do the gap analysis that will guide your training objectives, so you can set target deadlines. The rest of the article seems on-point to me.

For me, all of my mentors were leaders that stood-out above the other same level leaders in my organizations. Although they were generally high performers, this was not the reason why people wanted to learn from and follow them. The reason they stood out from the other leaders was that their behaviors & actions were strongly aligned with their CORE values; they had integrity. I truly believed that their behaviors and habits remained the same, even when no-one was watching. It seemed that I could never catch my strongest mentors doing the wrong thing. If I had, I admit, it would have been devastating to me. I keep that thought top-of-mind as I know, now I am being watched and I don't want to let my people down!

Teachers (Mentors) love hearing about how their contributions have impacted one's life. For many mentors, watching their people grow is their value proposition. 1. Make sure you share with them about how their wisdom, guidance, and belief in you has impacted your life. 2. Don't fall into the trap of trying to please your mentor by only sharing your wins. They are exactly the advisors you should ask for guidance during times of adversity. 3. Show gratitude and find ways to reciprocate.

I often think about why I chose to spend 25 plus years within my industry. One of the main reasons was because of those inspiring moments created early in my career with my mentors. These leaders not only guided me, taught me, and inspired me, but also gave me their trust, and belief. Most importantly, they created an environment that allowed me to be vulnerable and autonomous which ensured that I could make mistakes along the way and learn from them. My mentors not only impacted my life, but also the lives of the people I would eventually mentor. As I grew and benefited from their teachings I became inspired to honor their legacy by investing in others the same way they did in me.