David Cummings on Startups

Nobody, Nothing, Never: Confidentiality in a Mentor Relationship

Written by

David Cummings

in

One of the things I recommend to entrepreneurs, but didn’t do well myself early on, was to reach out to mentors for help and advice. My daughter likes to say “sharing is caring” when parroting what she hears from her pre-school teacher. Sharing is caring fits perfectly with a mentor/mentee relationship — the more you give, the more you get.

One of the oft repeated YPO lines is “nobody, nothing, never” when talking about confidentiality. The same confidentiality applies to the mentor/mentee relationship. Building a foundation of trust and confidentiality is critical to get past the high-level content and really go deep with the core challenges and opportunities.

The next time you meet with a potential mentor or as a mentor with a mentee, bring up confidentially, in a graceful manner, and set the tone for “nobody, nothing, never.” The other person will appreciate it and likely reciprocate.

What else? What are your thoughts on confidentiality in a mentor relationship?

Comments

2 responses to “Nobody, Nothing, Never: Confidentiality in a Mentor Relationship”

  1. Confessions Of a Goofy Geek Avatar
    Confessions Of a Goofy Geek

    How do you find a mentor? That’s been a problem of mine. Would doing a internship be a good way to find one? THanks for the post

    Reply
  2. sjledet Avatar
    sjledet

    Timely for me. Just this morning I asked permission of someone who I was holding a confidence for to share a challenging situation with another person facing similar challenges. Neither person knows each other but they do have friends in common. I received permission from the person I was holding a confidence for. Had a phone call, and when it was done told the first person who the 2nd person was. It caused anxieties and concerns for that first person that could and should have been avoided. I sure wish I had approached it from “nobody, nothing, never” instead of “confidentiality should never be breached without permission”. Would have been much less complicated. Lesson learned. Delicate matters need to be treated delicately and “nobody, nothing, never” is the safest, highest integrity approach.

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More posts