Over the past few weeks I have helped over 100 people create their first ever OTM Plan For Personal Success™. The process for creating these plans have ranged from large group facilitated workshops to one on one executive coaching.

One of the fascinating and recurring themes of my work in this space is that people do not have mentors currently present in their lives. Yet everyone with whom I have worked over the past few weeks (to a person) has agreed that they need other people to help them to achieve their success (and in turn recognise that they too should assist other people in achieving their success).

Dee Hock, the founder of VISA International considered mentors to be crucial to anyone’s success. I agree. In fact I currently have three formal mentors in my life, each of them adding clear and distinct value to my success journey. The insights, practical steps and good old fashioned ‘sounding boards’ are but a few of the benefits I have received as a result of conversations with my mentors. These days most of the conversations I have with my mentors is over Skype. (While all three of my mentors reside in Australia, one lives in Melbourne but some distance from me, another lives in Adelaide and the third lives in Perth). It is such a simple and effective tool for these types of conversations.

The challenge for most people is that each of us have to take personal responsibility for recruiting our mentors. One of the success tools I use in the OTM Planning For Success™ program is called Establishing Your Personal Success Team. This is a group of people who have either holistic and/or specific skills that can contribute to your success. Mentors, coaches, advisors, partners and close friends fit into this category.

Establishing a list of the sort of roles people will need to fill is a great first step to creating your Personal Success Team. Once this list is established, it becomes obvious that mentors will need to be sought.

So, how do you find a mentor? One way is to ask people. Another way is to find suitable people and pay them  for their value (as I do). The more I study success, the more I am discovering that successful people never stop seeking help from other people. Ever.

So, who is on your Personal Success Team? If you don’t have anybody, what are you going to do about it?