The Mentor of the Year Award-Inspired by Ancient Greece Paying Tribute to Wise and Trusted Counselors

For Immediate Release:
November 14, 2005

Contact:
Mark J. Claypool
Mentors At Work, LLC
Phone 630-762-0614
Toll Free: 888-225-6968
Fax 630-762-0615
mclaypool@mentorsatwork.com

Mentor of the Year Award

St. Charles, IL – November, 2005 – The Mentor of the Year Award, that is presented each year by Mentors At Work, LLC to the selected nominee, is symbolic in a number of ways. First of all, the award itself, which was recently presented to Ronald Ratzlaff of 911 Collision Centers in Tucson, Arizona, is actually inspired by the monumental structures of ancient Greece, where the word “mentor” originated.

In Homer’s “The Odyssey”, set in ancient Greece, one of the main characters, Odysseus, was preparing for the siege of Troy. Knowing that he would be gone for many months, maybe never to return, Odysseus needed to appoint just the right person to look after his son while he was away. The person he chose for this very important task was a wise and trusted counselor by the name of “Mentor”. Mentor’s name has passed to our language – with a lower case “m” – as a shorthand term for wise and trusted counselor and teacher.

The base of the physical award itself represents a strong foundation. A business requires a sturdy foundation upon which to build, not just bricks and mortar, but a foundation of dedicated owners and managers as well who want to surround themselves with great employees… employees who will truly be their greatest asset.

Next, the pillars rising up out of this strong foundation represent key employees who are structurally critical to a business. The taller pillar represents the mentor, the shorter pillar represents the apprentice who will grow tall and strong like their mentor some day.

And just like the buildings from ancient Greece that still stand today, centuries later, our goal should be for our great employees to stay with us as a part of our team until they retire. Anything worth building should be done right, including the building of tomorrow’s workforce.

The architects, masons and laborers in ancient Greece took great care and used atypical ingenuity to build the magnificent structures that still stand as a monument to their efforts. As business owners, let’s take great care and use atypical ingenuity to build our businesses, putting key people in position as the “pillars” of our own magnificent structures.

Beware of the Trojan horse of your competitors; they lay quietly in wait for you to let your guard down, to capitalize on your weaknesses. Don’t let one of your weaknesses be the lack of skilled workers. Put your wise and trusted mentors to good use. If you don’t have wise and trusted mentors, find some before it’s too late and you are overrun by the competition.

Mentors At Work was founded in 2001 to help the automotive industry be successful in building successful apprenticeship and occupational mentoring programs. Mentors at Work’s clients include Caliber Collision Centers, DCR Systems and True2Form, as well as a number of independents and several clients outside of the automotive industry. Business partners include Sherwin-Williams, Akzo Nobel, and the DuPont Performance Alliance. Mentors At Work is headquartered just outside Chicago in St. Charles, Illinois and also has offices in Overland Park, Kansas and Alexandria, Virginia. For more information, go to the web at www.mentorsatwork.com, call toll free 888-225-6968 or e-mail info@mentorsatwork.com.

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