Adopt-a-Mentor Approach Better Than Direct Ask

Aspiring young professionals sometimes become overly aggressive in seeking mentors.  Last week, I received an email from someone I had never met asking if I would serve as her mentor.  Despite being a mentor to many, I don’t recall anyone ever asking in such a direct, impersonal manner.  The best mentoring relationships just happen. They’re not over orchestrated.

Over the past five years, I’ve written several posts about mentoring, including topics such as mentor etiquette and how to properly tap...