Making the Most of Being Mentored: How to Grow from a Mentoring Partnership

The original meaning of mentor was defined by the role that Mentor (a friend of Odysseus) played in educating Telemachus (Odysseus's son) while Odysseus was away on the Odyssey. The dictionary also mentions definitions of a trusted counselor or guide, tutor, or coach. This book clearly is about mentoring as coaching in the business rather than the sports sense. Mr. Shea suggests that mentoring has more intervention than counseling or short-term teaching assignments, because it goes beyond the merely obligatory. As such, I think the book's concept falls short of the full potential to mentor or to be mentored. In particular, the book suggests not giving advice beyond posing questions to focus the learner's attention. I think that many people will construe that advice too narrowly and will miss the chance to tell stories from their own experience that are relevant to the mentee's (his word, not mine) needs. That is why I graded the book down one star.In every other way, the book is very well done. Having been helped by many outstanding mentors over the years, I was interested to see how one should go about playing that role oneself. I found what I was looking for here. Some may find the material a little on the light side about the special issues associated with mentoring people of the opposite sex, of vastly different ages, and different cultural backgrounds. But the book does have a sound process for being sure that the mentor and mentee share with one another what their objectives are, and continue to communicate with each other about how it is going. That should solve most problems. The book also has good material on how to interpret the words, emotions, and body language that people exhibit, and how to probe for unexpressed information. That should deal with much of the rest. The book is designed to serve those who wish to learn how to assist in the development of other people, to suggest behavior that mentors should adopt and avoid, and to show how mentoring works in today's workplace. The chapters cover (1) mentoring as an art (2)whether mentoring is for you? (3) understanding mentee's needs (4) positive behavior (5) behavior to avoid (6) mentor/mentee gains (7) special situations and (8) a brief summary. Some of the book's strengths include lots of self-diagnostic questions, case studies with more questions attached, and a general background on the popularity of mentoring (leaders today see it as a way to fill in the gaps on their company's training programs). There is also a self-assessment tool available to you by toll-free call.For those who have not had much mentoring, this book will be a real eye-opener. For those that have, it will be an encouragement to become involved as a mentor.Reduce your communication stalls and prosper! Donald MitchellCoauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise (available in August 2000) and The 2,000 Percent Solution([email protected])