Recently, I was talking to a park manager who told me someone on his team was looking for mentoring opportunities. It got me thinking about mentors and how important a mentor was to my career, especially early when I was new to being a park ranger.

I realize not everyone is fortunate enough to get a mentor early in their career, but listen, friend, you do not need to rely on a mentor. Not in the way you think you need a mentor.

There are mentor opportunities all around. You don’t need to feel alone because you don’t have a mentor.

There are five types of mentors available.

Classic Mentors: A classic mentor is what you think of when you think of a mentor. It is a single person who invests in you and your development.

I was lucky to have a classic mentor in Jack Hartt, who was the manager at the first park I worked at. Jack took the time to spend lunch breaks with me, go for walks in the park with me, and answer questions nearly whenever I had them.

Academic Mentor: An academic mentor is someone who mentors you through the content they produce. Books are an obvious way to connect with an academic mentor. For $20, you can spend hours with a mentor and get some of their best advice. Don’t discount this idea. Pick a book, and take in the words with the same weight you would a classic mentor. If you take in a book with the idea of consuming the words, not for entertainment, but to learn and grow and change, it can have the same impact as spending the same amount of time with a classic mentor.

Situational Mentor: A situational mentor is someone who mentors you through a certain situation. If you need to improve a skill, perhaps you can find a situational mentor to help you improve. If you are having a tough time with an employee, you can find someone else who has been through the situation. If you are hiring an employee for the first time, or going for a promotion yourself, you can find a situational mentor to help you out.

Shadow Mentor: A shadow mentor is simply someone you observe. For example, you watch your park manager or superintendent with a deliberate eye towards how they handle situations and how they deal with people. They key here to you have to be deliberate in watching and analyzing what they do and how they do it.

Anti-Mentor: Having an anti-mentor may sound strange and something you want to say away from. But listen, if you find yourself working for a bad boss, you can grumble about it and have a lousy time. Or, you can use a bad boss as a mentor. An anti-mentor. Let them mentor you on what not to do.

Those are the five types of mentors, but don’t overlook the value of friendships. You can learn so much just from the people you hang out with.

Listen to the episode to go in depth with each type of mentor.

Diversity has been a consistent topic on the Park Leaders Show. For this episode, three former guests of the show return to have a panel discussion about diversity.

Teresa Baker (founder of African American National Parks Day), Jose Gonzalez (founder of Latino Outdoors) and John Griffith (crew supervisor with the California Conservation Corps) team up to form the first Park Leaders Panel.

Together, they discuss why a gap exists between parks and communities of color, how one person can make a difference, and how we can connect urban youth to National Parks far away from their home.

After listening to this panel discussion, if you have any questions for the panel members, please leave a comment here on the show notes page, and they will respond.

John Griffith has become well known for his dancing videos on YouTube. Just for fun, below is  a video of John dancing:

Dance Excerpt from the video "Wildlife: Our Low Maintenance Pets." (click to watch on YouTube)

Lee Cockerell returns to the Park Leaders Show to discuss customer service. Lee examines takes a deeper look at nine of the thirty-nine essential rules for delivering sensational service from his book The Customer Rules.

In this episode, we discuss the following nine customer rules;

1. Become an expert at creating experts.
2. Treat customers the way you would treat your loved ones.
3. Be a copycat.
4. Fish where the fishermen ain't.
5. Serve to WIN.
6. Don't give the responsibility without the authority.
7. Never, ever argue with a customer.
8. Apologize like you really mean it.
9. Don't try too hard.

Two episodes of the Park Leaders Show have discussed the Conservation Corps.  Ray Bivens is a true Conservation Corps success story. Ray Bivens began his outdoor career with the Maryland Conservation Corps. That experience led him into a career in Parks and Recreation. At only 38 years old, Ray became the Director of Delaware State Parks.

Ray has an entrepreneurial view of parks. He understands parks compete with other forms of recreation. In order to get visitors to a park, and entice them to return, you have to give them a reason. Make a park enjoyable, fun, and deliver a little WOW. He says Parks are in the "Forever Business" and believes if you can't get the business part of parks right, you can't get the stewardship part right either. Running parks properly allows you to fulfill your mission.

Ray talks about the importance of making the most out of opportunities, his role of Director, balancing your career and family, and hiring new team members.

As inspiration for up and coming leaders, Ray shares the Seven Secrets of Good Interpretation by Bob Jennings. Ray points out you can remove the word interpretation and replace it with Park Ranger or Park Manager and have a guide to help you do your job better.

1. Love what you are doing and don't be afraid to show it.

2. Know your subject and keep trying to learn more about it.

3. Develop ways to keep yourself and your presentation fresh.

4. Remember the little things.

5. Don't be afraid to try something different.

6. Listen.

7. Go back to #1.