Mentoring: The Most Obvious Yet Overlooked Key to Achieving More in Life Than You Ever Dreamed Possible

This book was a pleasure to read...it provides a "how to" guide for both mentors and proteges that is REAL! I really appreciate the specific ideas and steps that show you what to do. Great Stories from both sides of the fence.

Mentoring, A Success Guide for Mentors and Protègès by Floyd Wickman and Terri Sjodin is an excellent, enlightening and comprehensive book on the art of mentoring. For anyone who wants to enhance their knowledge and abilities in the practice of mentoring, this book meets their needs and expectations. What makes this book especially unique is that it is written as a guide for both the mentor and the mentee or protege. The authors provide a litany of practical information accompanied with charming anecdotes which give the reader simple, practical and easily understood information which can be applied to any developing mentoring relationship. Like an unfolding story, Mentoring describes insightful stories and letters about the mentoring relationships of others that are shared throughout the book. I especially enjoyed these stories because they touched the heart of human interaction, and personal growth, providing the reader brief moments for reflection and insight. Starting with a history of mentoring, the authors explore the reasons mentoring works. I found it interesting that the authors themselves were mentor and mentee in writing this book. After covering a number of aspects of mentoring: the 7 basic types of mentoring, the benefits of having or being a mentor, the qualifications of a good mentor and mentee and how to select one, the authors outline what they call the 16 Laws of Mentoring. Each chapter reaches into the soulful depth of a mentoring relationship without preaching. The feel is more in the lines of take what you want and leave the rest without threatening the developing relationship. If a mentor takes the advice, the opportunity for success increases tremendously. One needs to be conscious of where and how one chooses a protege and how a protege chooses a mentor. Each person needs to take responsibility for areas of reflection which create for each growth and insight into new areas of professional and personal development. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. This marvelous book offers the reader methods for taking advantage of the information given by those teachers who have learned well, embraced reflection, sacrificed, delved and explored their potential and are willing to share it with others. When one takes advantage of these angels who seem to appear at the right time, with their guidance, their support can only benefit one's journey and direction. Practical means of determining forces which direct a person to seek a mentor are revealed throughout the book. "Mentoring reveals the secrets to achieving high degrees of personal, professional, economic and emotional success through a real-world formula you tailor to create your own mentoring road map. One's mentor is a sounding board and source of pearls of wisdom. A mentor is someone who can help solve your problem yourself, a surveyor of your continent." (pg. 53) The authors believe that if each of us had a mentor, and each o

This is a great book for all of those who are at the turning point in their careers. It provides the answer to those inevitable questions, "What next?" "Is that all there is?" and "What can I do to get rejuvenated in my career?" Yes, the answer is mentoring, but this book provides the justification for this ancient form of education and it contains a detailed action plan to make it a successful experience for both the mentor and the protege. A definite must-read.