The Mentor's Way Eight Rules for Bringing Out the Best in Others

Drawing on the author?s extensive experience training mentors, The Mentor?s Way outlines eight rules for engaging in a mentoring relationship. Nemanick examines the ways in which mentoring differs from managing or leading, and details the various roles of the mentor as a role model, motivator, confidant, coach, and more. Readers will learn how to develop successfully in each of these roles while helping a protégé to develop his or her own skills.

Clear and elegant chapters, each prefaced with a real-world example, emphasize to readers that their role as a mentor lies in listening and responding to a protégé?s individual strengths and needs. Special attention is paid to creating a safe space, displaying empathy, and fielding a protégé?s questions while knowing what to ask as a mentor. The author takes the anxiety out of the mentorship journey, accompanying practical insight with chapter exercises that are designed to help readers use their own experiences to identify best practice. Suggested topics for difficult mentor/protégé conversations allow readers to facilitate a stronger, more open relationship with their protégé.

This practical guide will provide mentors with the toolkit they need to get the most out of a relationship with their protégés.

1. Overview

2. Lead by Following

3. Chart a Course

4. Create a Safe Place

5. Good Questions Beat Good Advice

6. Balance Empathy and Action

7. Foster Accountability

8. Fill the Toolkit

9. Honor the Journey

Rik Nemanick, PhD, is a principal with The Leadership Effect, a leadership development consulting firm based in St. Louis, USA. He trains 750–1,000 mentors each year through formal mentoring programs in the corporate setting, and has worked with Anheuser-Busch, Build-A-Bear Workshop, and Massachusetts General Hospital, among other organizations.