Testimonials from Past Supervisors and Mentors

Supervisor

My organization has been fortunate to have three individuals accepted into the Leadership Alchemy program in the past two years.  The two who have now completed the program are applying the valuable skills and new awareness of what leadership means at GSFC in their daily work.  To cite a particular, one of my staff entered the program with strong technical skills, but never had the opportunity or encouragement to develop the poise and emotional intelligence needed to present ideas to Center leadership audiences in a compelling fashion.  Since completing the program, he has had notable successes at such presentations.  The result is helping to guide better Center policy and program execution:  his technical background can be more effectively leveraged to ensure solid leadership decision-making. 

– Kim Toufectis

Mentor

I would like to take this time to express my appreciation to you and the program for running the Leadership Alchemy Program.  It has proved particularly valuable in our case, because it has brought together two of us from different codes and thus allowed us to share our views from two different directions, as it were.  And I would wager that I have learned as much from my mentee as she has from me, particularly with regard to the politics of working within the various branches and codes and the similarities and differences.  Although we work in substantially different arenas, there has been a lot of common ground between us that could serve as a bridge to understanding existing and thriving within both environments.  And I think that exchange of information has helped us both get through some challenging times within our own universes.

– Dr. Kenneth G. Carpenter

We can learn a lot from each other, if we just take the time to listen. Mentoring is not so much about a more experienced person helping a less experienced one as it is helping one person to think aloud with another. A good Mentor can help someone discover and recognize knowledge that the mentoree already has within themselves. They can also give "stretch" assignments to help learn new distinctions and skills to help the mentoree over rough spots in the future, when the mentor is no longer around. We all need this as sometimes the skills that you learned in kindergarden really are not sufficient to get us through the rough spots in today's complex world.

I can honestly say that being a mentor has been a very rewarding experience for me. It is one of my favorite parts of my job. I have gained at least as much from the experience as my mentorees. For those mentorees who have "graduated" and are thinking about becoming mentors, it is the best way to pay back your mentoring experience.

– Dot Zukor