Editorial Reviews
Simone J. Nathan, Chief Operating Officer Electronic Long Distance Learning Network
A Mentor's Companion is a practical compendium of action and reflection. Its seven brief chapters are designed to help individuals improve on-the-job performance in collaboration with colleagues, supervisors, senior executives and peers. The author aptly states that this not a "beach book", but understates its powerful clarity in addressing meaningful change in behaviors that impact portable learning skills.
The book is the product of practical application and thoughtful experimentation derived from two decades of local, regional, national and international consulting. With their consulting staff, Ambrose and his partner, James Perrone, provide management counsel, organization development and human resource issue resolution. Drawing on ingredients from the financial sector, health, retail, publishing, manufacturing and a host of service industries, the Companion serves rich fare from real recipes to those who hunger for performance power. Groups, teams and professionals-at-large can get a lot to digest from this big little book. One of its most intriguing flavors is its case demonstration of a female executive in the high tech industry successfully mentoring a male colleague to improve team effectiveness.
Book Description
A Mentor's Companion is a book written for the active or prospective mentor. Its goal is to be a focused, practical guide into the texture of the mentoring interaction between mentor and protg. Combining a unique recipe of live dialogues between a mentor and her protg, with guidelines that glean the key learning from the dialogues, the book teaches the "moves" the mentor should consider in maximizing the learning possibilities for the protg. Each dialogue and summary is followed by a third course - menus of questions and statements from which the mentor can sample when preparing a mentoring conversation. . As a part of their mission, mentors give advice, but this book is not a "how to give advice" book. The concentration, instead, is on using oneself as a catalyst with the mentee (who is also referred to as "protege" or "partner"). The mission of this book is to distinguish and dramatize the skills of the mentor-those probes, those challenges, those inquiries and provocative questions that will inspire thought, stimulate reflection, tap discovery, and generate a new intelligence in the protg.
The early chapters describe the mentoring process, the purpose of mentoring, what it is and what it isn't, and the kinds of skills necessary to develop as a mentor. The purpose of later chapters is to carry the mentor through the mentoring action itself, dramatizing it with examples, guidelines, and specific menus of questions and inputs for interacting with the mentee. Each chapter features a different major activity one can expect to engage in with a protg: making contact and getting acquainted, working on problems, giving performance and behavioral feedback, making developmental assignments, and conducting after-action reviews.
This is probably not a "beach" book. It's also not a book the mentor will likely read from beginning to end-in fact, skipping around is recommended, using what is most relevant at the appropriate moment. It is, however, a valuable reference and guide for any aspect of the mentoring charge. A Mentor's Companion's vision is to accompany the mentor as he or she takes on the important challenge of helping others unlock their true potential.
A Mentor's Companion
A Mentor's Companion,Larry Ambrose,Perrone-Ambrose Assoc Inc,0967008301,Business & Economics / Business Communication,Business & Economics / Leadership,Business/Economics,Business,Business & Economics,Business / Economics / Finance,Business communication,Coaching,Leadership,Mentoring,Mentors in business
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