I’ve been blessed to have mentors in all areas of my life.  Mentorship (formal or informal) is a wonderful, “win-win” way for both parties to learn and grow.

Mentors have the ability to accelerate your knowledge and “lend” you their experiences to help you develop wisdom and intuition.  Their guidance often helps you make better decisions and achieve better outcomes by focusing on the most important issues. 

People often ask me “What lead you to develop Tier 1 Group?”  When I look back at my own journey, the impact of various mentors is evident (though I admit their role was not always clear at the time).  Mentors have affected all areas of my life including my business, family and spiritual journeys.  Relative to the evolution of Tier 1 Group, three specific mentors standout.

Most people don’t think of their father as a mentor, especially a business mentor, but they often are.  My father, Leigh Bauer is an attorney and educator who teaches his Legal Studies students how to think about context - an invaluable and often overlooked perspective that makes him consistently one of the top-rated professors at Wharton.  Most people look for the “right” answer.  Leigh helps his students understand that often the right answer is “it depends,” and how to search for the best answer based upon the real issues and relevant facts.  He taught me that most situations involve many variables, and that the path is not always linear because multiple factors are at play.  Decisions are not made in a vacuum and that the best ones incorporate the most important and relevant issues.  This has helped me to eventually seek and uncover the key drivers to better decisions regarding business growth.

Those who have a growth mindset understand that “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”  Many of us go through the traditional steps of schooling to apply a foundation upon which the mentors can work their magic.  My path included Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, Bucknell University and Villanova’s MBA program.  My path also included nine years in the world of finance including six years as a credit officer with The CIT Group.  At that point, I was ready for my next mentor, my father-in-law, Ken Erdman.  I embraced Ken’s creative mentoring in 1993 when I joined the family business, The Three Marketeers, after being successfully mentored in a more analytical environment. 

Ken Erdman’s mentoring centered around his creativity for getting the right messages to the right audiences.  Ken’s ability was always considered to be forward thinking and was honored across many target marketing arenas including CLIO awards (advertising’s highest honor), “Benny” awards from the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association, International Person of the Year in the promotional products industry and many more.  Ken was an avid networker and taught me advanced concepts in relationship building and referral generation.  He also was able to incorporate strong moral convictions into his decisions and taught me efficient decision-making frameworks such as Rotary’s Four Way Test of the things we think, say or do:

1. 1    Is it the truth?
   

2. 2    Is it fair to all concerned?
   

3. 3    Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
   

4. 4    Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
   

Ken consistently showed me that being able to serve others in a manner that considered their interests was a sign of strength, not weakness, and that the outcomes were almost always better.

The next major stage in business mentoring came from Rich de Luca.  Rich was an expert in market strategy which he developed through his 30 year career at IBM and as a successful consultant.  Rich was the one who help Beth and me [have we introduced Beth anywhere else in the site?] clarify our vision for the new direction of The Three Marketeers and helped us learn many of the skills required for our evolution into Tier 1 Group.  Rich helped us uncover the underpinnings necessary for a company to become a Tier 1-focused business.  Although Rich is no longer with us, we often draw upon his teachings and fondly refer to them as “Rich-isms.” 

Leigh, Ken and Rich help me in some very specific ways:

1. They accelerated my knowledge and skills in key areas and helped me understand how to apply it to relevant situations
   

2. They pushed me outside of my comfort zone and gave me the confidence to pursue situations where I could best use my gifts
   

3. They helped me to better understand how to make decisions based upon the situation and desired outcomes.  Their teachings helped me develop a decision-making framework for a Tier 1 Focused business
   

4. They helped me to become a good listener and to better understand what is most important in a situation – both short-term and long-term
   

5. They helped develop my ability to synthesize different ideas and variables in a way that uncovered insight and led to better outcomes
   

6. They helped develop my ability to mentor others – including clients, friends and family
   

I believe that our life experiences help prepare us for what we are called to do and whom we are called to serve.  Mentoring does not necessarily lead us to a destination, but it prepares us on our journey.  I am blessed to be able to draw on these experiences and use these gifts in a way that enables me to be a mentor - in my client relationships and other important relationships in my life. 

How has mentoring impacted your journey?  Share your insights with Steve