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Managers as Mentors
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Managers as Mentors

Building Partnerships for Learning

Chip R. Bell
Berrett-Koehler, 1998
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Editorial Rating

5

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Chip R. Bell thinks that the future relationship between the managing and the managed will resemble a partnership, and at the core of this partnership will be mentoring. In Managers as Mentors he describes the ideal relationship between mentor and protégé. Unfortunately, Bell’s description of the "magical dance" of mentoring is perhaps the book’s weakest offering, composed mainly of amorphous passages related to things like "synchronization and synergy." When Bell narrows his focus to practical advice, however, the book begins to shine. His insights into how to give advice and ask questions, although aimed at the mentor/protégé interaction, will be useful to readers in many other situations. For that reason, //getAbstract/ recommends this book to executives and managers who want to be mentors, any student or professional that might someday be in the market for a mentor, or anyone who wants to pick up some common-sense communication pointers.

Summary

Why Mentor?

When you act as a mentor, you act as a teacher, guide, or sage, a catalyst for someone else’s learning. In the process, you help your protégé grow, and you grow yourself. Mentoring is a mutual search for knowledge, the act of helping another learn.

This two-way relationship involves the synchronized efforts of two people. Synchronization and synergy make the relationship a kind of magical dance between the two participants. The mentoring relationship has become especially important today because the old model of command-and-control leadership is rapidly disappearing. Traditionally, the leader was seen as an authority and corporate parent. Now the leader is viewed as a supporter, enabler, and even partner. Thus, you need to let go of the reins of power so you can create more egalitarian partnerships with your employees. You might as well see yourself as a liberator, barrier remover, facilitator, and mentor - that is the wave of the future.

The Major Characteristics of Mentoring

As a mentor, you help someone learn something he or she would not have learned as well, or as quickly, or at all, without you. Thus, you are facilitating the learning...

About the Author

Chip R. Bell  , a senior partner with Performance Research Associates, Inc., manages their Dallas, Texas office. He is the author or co-author of 10 books including Customers as Partners, Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service, Instructing for Results, and Understanding Training. He has served as a consultant or trainer to major organizations, including IBM, GE, Microsoft, Motorola, 3M, Ritz-Carlton, Harley-Davidson, Marriott, Cadillac, Lucent Technologies, USAA, GTE, and Victoria’s Secret.

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