In our travels, questions about mentorship come up quite often. We are seeing a very large population at our briefs of Third and Second Class Petty Officers. That is where mentorship is exceling right now. The difficulties we are seeing on the road have more to do with the mentorship of the senior First Class and Chief Petty Officers. We have to be consistent on our mentorship across all pay grades. 

I would submit that mentoring a Third Class on the “way ahead” is way different than mentoring an 11+ year First Class. Obviously one has years to formulate their path and the other has already formed a culture of success, or not, in their path. Be sure you know the difference. Understand if you have a 12 year First Class or 18 year Senior Chief you really have 2 years at best to guide them through the process.