Q. What steps do you
take to become a mentor?
What I try to do is
identify an individual
that is, one, strong in
common sense — not
necessarily book
knowledge but common sense. Then, I
kind of watch that person for a little while. I
don’t talk to them
about it or say, ‘You
have an opportunity
here.’
Then, I just take them underneath my wing, and I start
teaching them my processes.
I’ll buy them a book and say,
‘Hey, read this; this is a good
read. This will help you develop yourself,’ and so on and so
forth.
As they continue to grow, I
mirror their strengths with my
weaknesses, again, in helping
formulate the overall picture
of Margaritas.
Q. How do you identify people with common sense to
mentor?
I think there is a certain art
form to it. You don’t really
get to know anyone. The key
is patience — and taking that
time.
It’s just like the school
teacher for that elementary
kid. You don’t know what
you’re getting until halfway
through the school year, and
that school teacher, hopefully, they have the patience to
work with that child and
continue to develop that
child.
Q. What advice would you
give someone else to become
a better mentor?
I would say, one, if you are going to go into a management position, whatever
industry you’re going to be
in, the first and foremost is
be an individual working as a
team. Then, if you’re starting
your own business, again,
you’re going to need to be an
individual, but work as a
team.
Q. How does delegation tie
into mentoring?
If there is a task to be performed and it is not completed to expectation, then I take
that person back through the
task and explain, ‘This is
why I told you to do it this
way specifically, A, B, C.
The expectation was not
met because you decided to
do C first, then B, then A.
Now, let me show you this is
the repercussion of doing it
this way, and this is the
result if you had done it A,
B, C.’
I give them the latitude to
make the mistakes. I think
when someone makes a mistake, if they’re genuine in it,
they learn much quicker
from it.
Q. How do you handle it
when someone doesn’t do
things the right way?
You pretty much have to
handle failure the same way
you handle success. We’re
going to fall. That’s just the
nature of any business. So,
you take that failure, just
like someone I’m mentoring.
You take those mistakes
and you just learn from
them. Which again, then
makes you stronger and
your company stronger.
HOW TO REACH: Margaritas Mexican Restaurant LLC, (513) 721-3147 or www.margaritasmex.com
