Dr. Joan's Mentoring Book: Straight Talk About Taking Charge of Your Career

Dr. Joan's Mentoring Book offers a straight shot of down-to-earth, real advice for me. As an engineering student, I can relate particularly well to her analogy of figuring out what is good enough, instead of going for perfection. In that example, she writes about expanding a highway so that more cars can drive on it. But, in the interim, traffic would actually increase because of the blocked lanes. In the long run after construction, the traffic problem would still be there because of the increase in the number of cars deciding to take the highway. A perfect highway would mean that there are no cars, but that would defeat the original purpose for a highway. However, she also serves up advice that anyone advancing in their career (either in academia, industry, government, nonprofits, or elsewhere) can use. She talks about empowering people through mentoring, leadership and management, and continued learning. I particular liked her tidbit about having five mentors: one who of the opposite gender, a new hire, a colleague, someone outside of the company, and someone at the next promotional level. These individuals offer valuable advice and different perspectives so that the protégé can learn from their mentors' mistakes and have accelerated growth. Also, mentors learn as much from their protégés as their protégés learn from them.