by W Johnson & C Ridley
Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
$42.00
Mentoring has steadily moved from being a buzzword to a term of real reference for a growing number of both employees and executives over the past couple of years.
With this in mind, The Elements of Mentoring concisely summarises the substantial existing research on the art and science of mentoring. With a wealth of publications and other material already available on mentoring, the authors take a distinctly different approach in that they reduce this to what they see as the fifty most important and succinct mentoring truths for supervisors in all fields.
Patterned after Strunk and White’s classic guide to grammar The Elements of Style, this reference explores what good mentors do, what makes a successful mentor, how to set up a successful mentor-protégérelationship and how to work through problems that develop between mentor and protégé. It also examines what it means to mentor with integrity and how to end the relationship when it has run its course.
The book is a superb guide not only to the mentor-protégé relationship, but to interpersonal communication, values and relationships in general. Presentation follows suit, with simple but effective layout. If you’re involved in mentoring in any capacity, either formally or informally, get this book.