The Mentoring Advantage: Creating the Next Generation of Leaders

Mentoring is sweeping through companies both large and small. Increasingly, companies are running formal mentoring programs as a means to speed employee growth, build corporate cohesiveness, shorten learning tracks, support diversity initiatives, and address succession issues. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of informal mentoring relationships exist as ambitious young managers and would-be entrepreneurs look for ways to achieve their career goals faster. Regardless of the scenario, mentoring demands a variety of skills, according to award-winning business author Florence Stone. In The Mentoring Advantage, she outlines how executives, managers, and employees can get the very most out the mentoring relationship. She details specific behaviors that mentors require, as well as others they should avoid. In the process, readers will learn how to: • Use corporate mentoring for developmental purposes. • Design mentoring programs for strategic purposes, from succession planning to diversity training to lifelong learning. • Avoid the pitfalls, get through crises and morale issues, clarify misconceptions, and realize the full benefits of a mentorship. • Spot raw talent and mold others toward achieving growth and excellence, so they come away from the experience feeling better about themselves and what they do. • Get out of a nonproductive mentoring relationship. Stone describes the state of the art of mentoring, focusing on both information relationships as well as the numerous structured programs, from IBM to MTV to JP Morgan Chase. She also includes assessment tools, checklists, templates, case studies, and tips.