104 - Why You Should Have A Mentor And Be One

You know, my, my real, what I'm trying to do is get to help you, as a chef or as a cook. To really understand what it means to work in a kitchen, I want to help you to have a good work life balance, by giving you the tools and the skills that you need to be able to manage your time in the kitchen, because working in the kitchen is crazy. It is very demanding, it takes a lot out of you. And you're always working the nights. So the weekends if you're, if you're working dinners, you're always working when everybody else does not. And it makes it very difficult for you as a person to have a social life outside of work. So today, I'm going to be talking about how what exactly is a mentor? And, you know, how can you become a mentor? Or what does it mean to be a mentor? How can you get somebody else to be a mentor for you. This is something that I struggled with my entire career, I had people that would help me out. And I really appreciated it. But I never quite felt like I had a real mentor to for someone who would really put a lot of time and effort into my development. There were certain chefs that did spend a lot of time with me. And I look fondly upon them. There are several chefs that i i look at. And I really appreciate everything that they've done for me, and the lessons that they taught. My issue was that I'm not a very good person to maintain that relationship outside of that current working conditions. I can a lot of my friendships and things like that are situational based. And because of that, as soon as I stopped working at that location, even though I appreciated everything that I did, I lost that contact with them. And that was my own fault. So I want to help you and help other people to understand that that doesn't have to be that way. So what exactly is a mentor? So a mentor is somebody who can be working with you directly. They can be a co worker with you, they can be a boss, they can be somebody who helps you go step by step, that usually becomes as you're gaining as you're entering the kitchen, that becomes your first person that you report to, whether that be the lead line cook, or the sous chef. Or if it's a small operation, it may actually just be the executive chef. Or if you're lucky enough to have a chef who has arranged their life in a way that they can then help you as an individual. That's great. So that's the mentor that's it's the person who takes interest in you and, and your development and your growing. But it doesn't have to be just in within your work environment. A mentor can also be somebody who is outside of your work environment, it is somebody who that you can go to to on a consistent basis and explain problems to almost to the point where they're being a coach there's there's a big hits, there's a slight difference between being a mentor and being a coach. Being a mentor, you're helping to lift them up and guide them and giving them instructions being a coach, you're more likely to be a sounding board to them where you can where you are telling your coach what's going on in your life. And your coach can guide you through questions and really help you think of the answers yourself. Whereas a mentor is going to show you how to go about doing it. So there's there's slight dip Since isn't a thing but being a mentor and having an having a mentor for you, will help you in your career more than anything else, really. So as you are being a mentor, let's aggress. So as you're learning, and as you're growing into the kitchen, and understanding the responsibilities, the duties, as well as all of the outside things that they don't teach you in culinary schools, or that you don't see on the YouTube channels, you know, the things that are beyond just the, you know, the slicing and dicing, the skills, the actual cooking skills, and the knife skills. As you start to progress, you start to learn some of those other soft skills, the best chefs learn those soft skills, early the relationship skills, the ability to manage their time and their productivity. And, as a, if you're lucky enough to have a good mentor, that mentor will help you to develop those skills. The mentor will kind of guide you into how to organize your day, how to talk to other people, and kind of help you to sell yourself, sell your ideas, and many other things, a mentor is going to help lift you and help you to become the best that you possibly can. Once you have reached a certain level where you're starting to feel comfortable, and you start to have other people who do not know as much as you. And it can be as simple as knowing just a little bit less than you only 10% less than what you know, if you know more information, somebody else, I challenge you to start to build that skill as being a mentor, start teaching and, and showing other people and start to become that mentor for others. So this really started happening once I became a lead line cook, okay. When I finally got that position, the chef turned to me and he's like, it's a really tough position because you've kind of start getting more responsibilities, but you don't have the authority to make the major decisions or to influence, you know, their work or anything like that. So it's, it was a very difficult position. And it took me a long time to figure out what that really meant. So when you when I became a lead line cook, and the years following, as I was building to lead Klein cook and getting to, you know, striving to become that sous chef was, it's more about the leadership. So when you become that lead line cook, or when you become if you're able, if you skip that step, that's the place you're at doesn't have that, they just have the sous chef, that becomes a leadership role. And that's where you start need to, that's where you need to start learning those other skills. Many people have those skills innate, where they're able to, you know, inspire other people and help them grow. Where they get people to follow them just in just the way that they are, you know it's a very, you learn slowly, and you learn by doing when it comes to becoming a leader, you're going to make mistakes, and you're going to, you know, make wrong decisions. And those decisions may end up costing the company or yourself, you know, creed or, or money. But the only way to learn is by actually doing it and failing. As long as you take those fails as long as you take those mistakes and you learn from them and use them to propel yourself forward so that the next time you've come across, you come upon a situation similar to that. Then you're able to then progress and move forward becoming a mentor becoming that lead line cook or that sous chef is all about beginning to build your team help help them become better, help them to learn the skills that they need. Show them the ropes, lead by example. And really meet them where they're at. Push them a little bit further, each and every single day. Focus on one or two things that they can work on, and help them achieve that helps them to grow helps them to become who you see them. As you're being a mentor, one of the biggest things that I have found is that you always imagine them 510 years down the road. And you talk to them, as if they've reached that milestone. Because as you display that, that vision for them, they will begin to see that vision for themselves. And when they see the vision, your it's a lot easier for you to mentor because they are now fully invested in their own future, they want to see, they want to see themselves in that position, they want to see themselves reach that pinnacle, or that level that you are describing, you're talking to them. And so everything is all about helping them become better. So do you have a mentor, if you do not have a mentor, you don't have somebody who you look up to who you're able to go to start looking for somebody. First, think about somebody who is a little higher up than you somebody that you can trust somebody that you will be able to receive criticism from somebody that you are, that you trust, and that you know that they have your best interest in heart, and are willing to tell you the truth about what's going on. And ask them, you know, hey, I would really like it. If you could be like a mentor to me, if we could work together. Let me know where I'm at, and let me know where I can become better. And you're going to find the people, the kind of people who are more willing to become mentors are those that really care about the person as as an actual individual, where they see you and they strive to really help you become the best that you can become. So this was kind of a short one. But you know, I'd really love to see more chefs, more lead line cooks, become a mentor, for those that are that are learning and are growing. And I really challenge you to, if you are watching this, and you think of somebody that you know what I think that's really good guy. I think that's a really good chef. Go to them, and ask them, would you like to be my mentor, if you are a chef, if you're a sous chef or a lead line cook and you see somebody who you really appreciate who you see that is really striving to become the best that they can be. Offer to them, Hey, I'd like to help you out. I want to be a mentor for you, you know, make that relationship a little bit more formal, and really start to work at it. Because the more that we begin to work together as chefs, and the more that we teach each other the skills that we have learned over the many years, the better that the culinary industry is going to be. If you have any questions or you have any comments or anything like that, drop them in the comments below. I really like to start answering other people's questions and really get to know you as a person. drop them in the comments below. I will definitely reply to them directly. And we can continue to kind of evolve this relationship that we've got going on. So I will see you later next week, same time. It's every Thursday at one o'clock mountain time here on this channel. Take care