Becker’s Spine Review is a publication for orthopedic and spine surgeons and surgery center administrators. Each week, Becker’s releases additions to their Ask Spine Surgeons series, and earlier this month, spine surgeons were asked to answer the question “What traits are essential for a good mentor?”. Check out Dr. Richard Kube’s response, below!
Richard Kube, MD, Founder, CEO, Prairie Spine & Pain Institute (Peoria, Ill.): A good mentor should be able to coach in such a way that allows the mentored individual the benefit of his or her mentor’s experience while still being able to generate experiences of their own. In other words, the mentor is helping one to avoid pitfalls and major mistakes, but not creating a bubble environment where learning occurs in a vacuum. When starting out, you really don’t know what you don’t know, and those holes or gaps can be filled by the mentor’s experiences. A good mentor focuses more on teaching how to think rather than what to think. That way, as the world evolves, one can adapt and change with it and have opportunity to always try to lead rather than follow.
This article originally posted on BeckersSpine.com.
