January is National Mentoring Month. Mentoring can change your life -- and the lives of your mentees. Mentoring means helping less-experienced people observe, experiment with and evaluate different work strategies. And the benefits are not limited to young people. People of all ages can gain from the guidance of a more-experienced person. A mentor can help even experienced managers boost their job performance and advance their careers.

I've had the privilege of mentoring hundreds of people over the course of my career. With some, it consisted of a few meetings. With others, the relationship lasted over months or years, with an occasional check-in when questions arose. Those are some of the most rewarding experiences of my decades in business.

At the same time, I am grateful for two mentors whom I have occasionally mentioned: my University of Minnesota history professor, Harold Deutsch, and golf coach, Les Bolstad. Both men taught me as much about life as about their particular subjects. Over my business career, I've had many great mentors.

Growing up, were there people in your life who encouraged you, showed you the ropes and helped you become the person you are today? Think about individuals who offered you encouragement, shared their experiences and knowledge, and sometimes just listened when you needed to talk.

Most successful people say they had mentors along the way who guided and encouraged them. For example, poet Maya Angelou cited a grade-school teacher who sparked her love of poetry; music producer Quincy Jones points to the powerful influence of musician Ray Charles; and musician Sting credits a teacher whose energy inspired a lifelong passion for learning.

Establishing the right relationship is critical to the mentor/mentee relationship. You know how important mentoring can be to younger or inexperienced employees. But how do you know if you're cut out to be a good mentor? Here are five key characteristics of an effective mentor:

-- Commitment. Are you willing to dedicate the time and effort necessary to a mentoring relationship? You should already be involved in helping employees learn new skills and develop professionally.

-- Courage. Do you have the courage to take risks, admit mistakes and let others do the same? You'll have to tolerate the occasional error and use it as a learning experience, and at the same time teach your staff or co-workers how to tell the difference between a reasonable risk and an unacceptable one.

-- Curiosity. Are you hungry for knowledge? Don't limit your answer to professional areas. If you're always asking questions, trying to find out how things work and why, you'll be a good mentor.

-- Compassion. Are you patient with others when they make mistakes? Do you try to understand situations from the other person's point of view? As a mentor, your job isn't to pass judgment but to create opportunities for insight and growth in other people.

-- Communication. Explain what works for you and why. Telling a protege what to do in a specific situation doesn't really teach him or her much. You'll be more effective if you communicate as explicitly as you can what strategies and techniques have worked best for you. After a meeting with a client, for instance, you might tell the protege why you took the approach you did.

When you are on the other side of the equation, how do you go about finding a good mentor? To find the right match, look for someone with skills similar to yours but who has progressed further up the professional ladder. He or she doesn't even have to be in the same city. With email, teleconferencing and the phone, location is immaterial.

Don't limit yourself to one mentor. You may want to have several mentors to help with different aspects of your life, a kind of mentoring "board of directors." And remember, mentors change over a lifetime.

Manage your time together. Be mindful of the amount of time a mentor can commit to the relationship. Ask for referrals if you feel like you're imposing. Let your mentors know that you are grateful for their guidance.

Mentoring presents a tremendous win-win opportunity that few business relationships offer. And who doesn't want to be a winner?

Mackay's Moral: Show that you care with the knowledge you share.

According to "The Yogi Book," when the late Yogi Berra was playing in the minor leagues for the Newark Bears before joining the New York Yankees for his Hall-of-Fame career, his manager told him not to swing at balls out of the strike zone.

The manager urged Yogi to think about what he was doing.

That's when Yogi uttered one of his famous sayings: "You can't think and hit the ball at the same time."

Concentration may be something as simple as keeping your eye on the ball. If you are concentrating totally on what you're doing, you'll have total control of yourself. If your thoughts and hopes are elsewhere, it is impossible to set your mind to the work required.

With so many distractions in modern life, it's easy to lose focus. Concentration takes a backseat to the multitasking that rules our schedules. Time to rethink priorities.

This doesn't mean you can't have multiple interests or responsibilities. You just have to learn to give your full attention to the matter at hand to avoid getting sidetracked. I'll admit, that's easier said than done. But you can train your brain to block out the clutter with these tips.

-- Time management. I like to say, killing time isn't murder; it's suicide. Improve your time management and your time will improve you. It's not how much time you have; it's how you use that time. Time is one of your most precious resources. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back. Using your time efficiently and effectively takes organization, planning and information.

-- Organization. The more organized you are, the easier it is to concentrate. The people who know me well will laugh at this one because I'm a habitual packrat. My filing system is piles, and one pile for each project. And that's a lot of piles. But I can typically find things. I just need a lot of room to spread out. Corral your email. Email is one of the biggest distractions we have today. And to concentrate, you have to control distractions.

-- Exercise. My ability to concentrate effectively starts by getting up early and exercising to get my day off on the right foot. Keep the oxygen flowing to your brain. Get up and walk around occasionally to get your blood flowing and force oxygen to your brain.

-- Environment. As they say in real estate, it's location, location, location. For example, it's harder to study or concentrate in a place where you are used to relaxing. Working in a noisy or busy office makes it harder to focus. Would noise-canceling headphones make concentration easier? Perhaps a temporary "do not disturb" sign on your cubicle?

-- Take notes. I concentrate better and remember more when I take copious notes. And besides, pale ink is better than the most retentive memory. Jot down the items that need your attention and tend to them later when you have time to focus on them.

-- Practice. Like any activity, concentration takes practice. If you want to be good at something, you must practice. Concentration is like a muscle: The more we use it, the stronger it becomes.

-- Rest. One of the biggest factors affecting concentration is rest. If you don't get the proper amount of sleep, your mind tends to wander. Too much sleep is also not healthy.

-- And last but certainly not least, conquer procrastination. One of the worst things you can do is procrastinate, yet many people are guilty of putting off the inevitable. It's natural to perform the least important task first and save the most important for last -- if at all. That's why one of these days becomes none of these days.

You can make 2016 "one of those years." Keep your eye on the ball, and yes, think about what you are doing. Yogi Berra would be proud.

Mackay's Moral: Concentrate if you want to be great.

There are three simple rules in life:

-- If you do not go after what you want, you'll never have it.

-- If you do not ask, the answer will always be no.

-- If you do not step forward, you'll always be in the same place.

I can't take credit for these maxims: the author Nora Roberts came up with them. But they started me thinking about my own life and everything that I've learned over many decades in business.

The lessons I have learned could fill a set of encyclopedias. I would imagine anyone who has paid attention to the world around us could say the same. But there are several guiding principles that help me make decisions, plan strategy and sleep at night.

For example, I know that you have to dig your well before you're thirsty. I believe it so completely that it became the title of my book on networking. Here is the most important line in the book: "If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all the truly successful people I've met over a lifetime, I'd say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts."

In the end, it's not the amount of money that you make or the buildings that you own that matter. It's the people on whom you can depend -- and who can depend on you -- who make your life better.

A close second for the top lesson of my life would be the following: "People don't care how much you know about them, once they realize how much you care about them." It's so important I made this the theme of my first book, "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive." It's also central to my Mackay 66 Customer Profile, which is the cornerstone of all my speeches.

You have to learn as much about your customers and suppliers as you possibly can, because you can't talk about business all your life. You have to build those relationships and take it from a business level to a personal level. Knowing something about your customer is just as important as knowing everything about your product.

Many of my friends started out as customers. As our relationships grew, we discovered that we shared much in common. Our friendships are based on trust established in our business dealings. Trust is, after all, the most important word in business. And that extends to my personal life as well. You must be trustworthy to be a worthy friend.

Another key lesson: "Believe in yourself even when no one else does." I have never met a successful person who hasn't had to overcome either a little or a lot of adversity in his or her life. So, who says that you can't accomplish your goals? Who says that you're not tougher, better, smarter, harder working and more able than your competition? It doesn't matter if they say you can't do it. The only thing that matters is if you say it.

Next, I've learned that we can't go it alone. The boat won't go if we all don't row. What is teamwork? It's the product of a collection of diverse people who respect each other and are committed to each other's successes. The beautiful part of teamwork is that it offers us the opportunity to use our own special talents and abilities. We all have gifts to share.

The last thing I'll mention, and the way I finish all of my speeches, is to put some fun and creativity into your business and life. Don't be boring. Don't be predictable. You can take your work seriously, you can take your relationships seriously, but you should never take yourself too seriously.

The ability to laugh at yourself is one of the most endearing traits you can possess. Supremely confident people worry very little about being the coolest, smartest, most admired person in the room. They understand that by putting others first, they move to the front of the class. They have truly learned some of life's most important lessons.

In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take, the relationships we were afraid to have and the decisions we waited too long to make. Learn from your mistakes. Be grateful for second chances and forgiving friends.

Mackay's Moral: Make your life story a best seller.