Dale Moore, far right, director of NAVAIR’s Strategic Cell, discusses mentoring with NAVAIR Leadership Development Program participants Thomas Knudson and Toufue Chang at the Washington Arena Seminar class March 23-27 in Arlington, Va. (U.S. Navy photo)

Patuxent River, MD — Mentors can lend a hand up along the way as you climb the career ladder.

That’s what 24 developing NAVAIR leaders learned from a panel of NAVAIR senior leaders March 23-27 as part of a NAVAIR Leadership Development Program (NLDP) Washington Arena Seminar class, the second in a series of five classes NLDP members take over a period of three to five years.

Mentoring is a developmental relationship that pairs an experienced person (mentor) with a less experienced person (mentee). NAVAIR Commander Vice Adm. David Dunaway wrote in his”2014 Commander’s Guidance” that a top priority is to “prepare people for the future,” which includes mentoring.

“Mentoring is a key principle that we integrated into every part of NLDP,” said Jenny Russell, NLDP director. “We feel that having NLDP participants hear directly from NAVAIR and the Department of the Navy senior leaders on how mentoring affected their career is paramount to the success of their journey.”

One such lesson is that you do not have to be limited to just one mentor.
“Most of our guest briefers expressed their use of more than one mentor, whether it be formally or informally,” said NLDP participant Roderick Dailey. “Because the mentoring relationship focuses on developing the mentee professionally and personally, you can require more than one mentor throughout your professional career.”

For Dailey, a mentor is “a more seasoned person leading someone less experienced in much the same way teachers facilitate learning,” he explained.

Cmdr. Martin Rumrill, an NLDP participant, said the experience you learn from mentors is perhaps the most important step to becoming a leader.

“Experience is, by far, the best teacher, and what better way to learn than through the experiences and wisdom of others?” he said.

Karl Gutekunst, agreed, saying, “Mentoring is an invaluable tool for gaining candid insight into the challenges of leadership and gaining a perspective otherwise not obtained in my routine duties.”

As a young engineer just starting out, Kathleen Donnelly, now the director of NAVAIR’s Support Equipment and Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment Department, said she benefited from mentoring.

“Mentoring is critical in helping to develop self-confidence in new employees and apprentices,” she said. “When a mentor lends a word of support and encouragement, it can go a long way toward shaping the direction a mentee takes with his or her career.”

The panel also touched on the characteristics of successful leaders, including:
• Self-awareness
• Balance
• Courage
• Accountability
• Values
• Passion
• Communication
• Approachability
• Being responsible for your own inclusion
• Understanding the organizational culture

Established in 2007, NAVAIR’s mentoring program offers speed and group mentoring, training, a playbook and an online tool, iMentor, to help match mentors and mentees. Currently, there are 5,300 NAVAIR civilians, including NLDP participants, registered in iMentor.

In addition to mentoring, the class, which was held at the NAVAIR Washington Liaison Office in Arlington, Virginia, gave a practical introduction to the interaction, political influences and communication challenges between NAVAIR, the Department of the Navy and Department of Defense. Employees participated in book club discussions, attended a session on stress management and building resilience, toured the Pentagon and learned about Emergenetics, a tool used to analyze individual thinking attributes.

About the NLDP

The newest NLDP group includes 72 employees who, in addition to taking leadership training classes such as this one, will partake in developmental assignments, create individual development plans, shadow senior leaders, attend leadership and diversity events and build a professional network.

Learn more about NLDP and NAVAIR’s other training and developmental programs at www.navair.navy.mil/jobs/training.html.