Mentoring:
Love and Invisibility
Mark Katsouros
September 13, 2018
Ever have one of those mornings where you realize you’re
just going through the motions? You
know, you wake up, go for a run, shower, head to work, look at the calendar on
your smartphone, and head to your first meeting? This is how my day started yesterday. Admittedly, I was tired (after getting up
before 5am to go for a six-mile run in the dark). Funny thing is that I realized, in real time, that
I was just going through the motions. This
doesn’t happen to me too often, but I suppose we all occasionally fall into a
pattern of mindless, barely purposeful movement. Then a cool thing happened…
My first meeting of the day happened to be a Penn State IT
Mentors final face-to-face meeting. (I
serve on the organizing committee, having been a mentor in the program since its
inception four years ago.) Right from
the start, it was an energizing meeting.
We had a round-robin of testimonials from both mentees and mentors (who
I had proudly helped pair), and what the program had meant to them—what they
learned about each other and themselves, the networking opportunities, and the real
growth opportunities discovered and forged.
Dave spoke of the parallels between leadership and
love. This was extremely interesting,
and really hit home. One definition of
love is giving something to others with no expectation of anything in return,
of any real self-gain—the mother who’s really tired and has to get up early for
work in the morning, but stays up all night watching over her sick child, or
the stranger who volunteers, before or after a long day of work, to cook and
serve others at the local food bank or drive a senior citizen to a medical
appointment. And one definition of a
leader is one who gives something of him/herself to others, with no expectation
of recognition for doing so. This is
often called “servant leadership,” and it’s something to which I subscribe and
aspire to embody. Give credit, take
blame, help those around you succeed, even shield others from the bull and
politics we all inevitably encounter on occasion. If we all did this every day at work, imagine
the kind of workplace we’d have. But I
had never quite thought about it in the context that Dave so eloquently
provided. Leadership and love. It really is quite the striking
parallel. Dave talked about change,
referencing the significant organizational change that is underway across Penn
State IT, and people’s fears about change and the unknown, and their need for,
yep, love. We talked about how easy it
is to view change as negative, and scary, but reminded each other that change
should be contextualized much more positively.
Change is opportunity! For
growing, learning something new, and NOT going through the motions.
Then Michael spoke, first adding to the great conversation
that had just occurred, but then listening to the program participants in the
room speak on everything from the IT Mentors program to change to
leadership. It was a wonderful
discussion, and a wonderful reminder of how important it is for leaders to be
great listeners. He reminded us of the
incredibly important role IT plays in the University’s mission. And he said something that triggered a lot of thinking on my part about another parallel. He talked about how the best leaders are “invisible.” Much like the context Dave had just provided,
Michael reminded us that the best leaders promote the success of others—that the
best outcome to which we as leaders can aspire is to push our colleagues and
customers, and employees, and peers, into the limelight of success, while we
remain invisible and ready to do it again, and again. What could be greater, and point to more success,
and purpose, and self-fulfillment, than that?
Finally, he reminded us of the importance of balance, of taking care of,
not only others, but of oneself. (Suddenly,
I was proud of myself for making the time to run early that morning.) Oh, and the thinking that it triggered on my
part? I thought about another
interesting parallel: That the best,
most useful, most compelling IT should also be “invisible.” That it should just simply ENABLE, as
effortlessly and as intuitively, and as reliably, as possible. Our mission is teaching, research, and
service. We Are… Scholarship, and global problem-solving, and community! And the IT underpinning all of this should be
just that—an easy, and enabling, and out of the way (yes, invisible)
underpinning to the greatness that is our mission and purpose.
Needless to say, by the end of our meeting, I was no longer
going through the motions. Nor was
anyone else in that room.
So, yeah, love and invisibility. “Who would have thunk it,” as I brushed my
teeth and put on my shoes yesterday morning?
Mark Katsouros is the
Director of Service Design & Development at the Pennsylvania State
University. The opinions expressed in
this article are his and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they
just might be, as PSU is a pretty awesome institution.
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