Six TED Talks Mentors Working With Students Must Watch
These TED Talks speak to the importance of the backr-protege experience, offering insight and encouragement as you continue to build your relationship.
When you mentor a young person, you step into the role knowing it will be rewarding. You also expect to learn new things about yourself through the process. Every once in a while, it’s good to pause and reflect on your experience, reconnecting to your “Why?” We think these TED Talks speak to the importance of the backr-protege experience, offering insight and encouragement as you continue to build your relationship.
Some of the videos selected explore the importance of mentoring young people. But they also touch on what it takes to be a great mentor, what it means to be a sponsor, and tips for communicating effectively. These TED Talks will motivate and inspire you to continue the great work you’re already doing — or will soon be doing — as a backr!
Why it matters: Students may be persistent and determined, but in education — and in life — grit is good, but sometimes, it’s not enough to overcome obstacles. At Backrs, we believe in our proteges and understand the importance of having caring adults to listen, guide, and affirm.
Key takeaways: The speaker, Anindya Kundu, shares the stories of two young people experiencing enormous challenges and the key factors helping them succeed. While young people can be motivated to achieve, caring adults and mentors who provide guidance, tailored mentorship, and opportunities can help direct them. Mentors can see the greatness within a protege and with their guidance they can set a course toward achievements that are greater than they might have imagined.
#2: Mentoring’s broken: Here’s how to hack it
Why it matters: Mentorship is vitally important to developing leaders, doers, and achievers. Yet, to have a successful mentor-mentee relationship today, the power structure should be flipped on its head. We wholeheartedly agree! And at Backrs, we’ve put our proteges in the driver's seat and have created diverse teams to support them.
Key takeaways: Roxanne Reeves explains how an accidental meeting changed her life. That meeting gave her access to a mentor who supported and encouraged her so she could go from being a drop out to a Ph.D. If you talk with anyone who is successful, you will find mentorship was critical in their achievement. Reeves explains that young people need and deserve mentors, but the old mentoring networks — white and male-dominated — are passe. She says, “You don’t necessarily want a mirror image of yourself.” Proteges need a team of mentors from different backgrounds to cultivate a support network. Reeves says flipping the power structure from the mentor to the mentee works best because it gives the mentee agency to take control of the relationship.
Why it matters: Even though interactions between backrs and proteges happen on the Backrs app, any productive relationship requires effective listening and communication.
Key takeaways: In her talk Celeste Headlee offers 10 great tips for having a great conversation. When we connect with others, she says we should enter the conversation assuming we have something to learn.
The best conversations will make you feel inspired, engaged, that you’ve made a real connection, or have been perfectly understood. A few relevant tips for our backrs are to: Assume that you have something to learn; Avoid pontificating; Ask open-ended questions; Avoid multitasking. If you are present in a conversation, you may be surprised how excited you feel every time you connect with your protege. As Headlee says: “Listen.” This is probably the most important skill you can develop.
Why it matters: When you have a sponsor, someone who will step up and speak on your behalf, it can be life changing. We firmly believe that social capital is a key ingredient to the backr-protege relationship. With access and entry into networks, a protege can rise higher and achieve more than they might have dreamed.
Key takeaways: While this talk from Carla Harris is focused on work and the evaluative discussions that happen in boardrooms, we feel it is very relevant to backing. Social capital is crucial for our proteges, and Harris explains the importance of a sponsor. We’d argue that a sponsor and a mentor are more similar than Harris acknowledges. In this context, a “sponsor,” is someone willing to go to bat for a young person. “If you have a seat at the table, you have a responsibility to speak,” Harris says. That support and trust can mean the difference between gaining access to a network — and future career opportunities — or struggling to accomplish life goals.
She says there are two types of currency: performance and relationship currency. A person can have a great work ethic, but without relationship currency, they may find themselves stuck. A mentor who believes in and trusts a protege will gladly speak on their behalf, putting their credibility on the line. Doing so can be the link that allows a protege to go above and beyond, accomplishing goals they didn’t know were possible.
Why it matters: Failure is a part of growth. How we view failure can affect our ability to achieve over time. We know our proteges are learning and growing. We want our backrs to be there to provide encouragement when they win, and to be a sounding board and a support when they lose.
Key takeaways: Mentors should meet proteges where they are and guide them through adversity. Boland says failure is a part of the growth and achievement process. Some people fail, letting the pain keep them down. Others may get back up but let fear of failure hold them back. The last group takes a different view. They learn from their failures and do not let the risks outweigh the rewards. Instead, they see failure as an opportunity to grow and achieve greater outcomes. Boland says, to achieve growth, you must try and fail repeatedly and keep learning in the process.
Through this cycle of growth and failure, failure and growth, mentors provide support as proteges continue moving ahead. He says good mentors are those people who are open to ideas and possibilities. They are comfortable in their own skin, and they’re not trying to change a protege. “They will cheer you on the rise and sit with you on the fall,” he says.
Why it matters: When you are able to fill a void, reach, teach, and mold you have the ability to guide a mentee to a new life outcome. In turn, a mentee will eventually pay it forward, stepping into a mentorship role. Ninety percent of people who are mentored when they’re young turn around and mentor others.
Key takeaways: Shawn Blanchard experienced a very traumatic childhood. Through unconscious mentorship, which he calls a prefix menu, and conscious mentorship, which he says includes informal and formal mentoring, he was able to overcome challenges, graduating from the University of Michigan. Blanchard says not only can you reach any goal you want when you’re standing on the shoulder of giants, once you are there, you need to be a giant for others.
As Blanchard explains, if a mentor understands a mentee's history, they can fill a void, and once they do, they can reach, teach, and help mold their protege. He likens the relationship between a protege and a mentor/sponsor to playing catch. The more a protege is open to running, picking up the ball, and tossing it back, the more trust is established, growing stronger with each round. Formal mentors are the people who hold proteges accountable, such as sponsors. Blanchard’s mentors saw greatness in him and helped guide him to successful outcomes. Once he was established and stood on the shoulders of the giants who came before him, he then became a giant for others.
When you become a backr, you begin building relationships, creating connections, and supporting the next generation as they achieve their life goals. At Backrs, we’ve made connecting with proteges simple thanks to our Backrs’ app, which can be found on the Apple or Google Play store. Sign up and start backing a protege today.
