The Right Way to Be a Mentor

The Right Way to Be a Mentor: Every executive would love to have a great mentor looking out for them. But these days, they?re getting harder to find, as Harvard Business School professor Thomas DeLong explained in a recent Forbes interview. With professional demands increasing and many jobs requiring ?24/7? access, leaders frequently opt out of becoming mentors, choosing instead to focus on their own careers. Demetriouse Russell, a Harvard Business School graduate who now works at his alma mater as the Director of Corporate Relations and Market Development for HBS? Executive Education programs, is bucking the trend. Well known for his active mentorship (he was honored as a ?Living Legend? by the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School earlier this year), Russell credits his early upbringing in tough neighborhoods, including Chicago?s Cabrini-Green development, with helping him appreciate the importance of role models. ?There?s an intrinsic reward for me in helping others, because I was the beneficiary of mentors, teachers and coaches,? he says.