July 27, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships
by Lois J. Zachary
The best mentors are people who understand the major influences in their lives yet do not project their own experiences on the people they choose to help, writes the author.
Ms. Zachary, principal of the consulting firm Leadership Development Services, in Phoenix, provides several guidelines for people who wish to become mentors. Two important steps, she writes, are to understand one’s motivations for becoming a mentor and to agree on common goals with the person who is receiving guidance.
She provides chapters on preparing to be a mentor, as well as on the process of carrying out the mentorship, ending it, and learning lessons from the experience.
She advises mentors not be afraid of silence and to develop a working knowledge and appreciation of other cultures.
Ms. Zachary offers anecdotes about hypothetical situations that pairs might encounter and organizes exercises around themes such as starting conversations and setting goals.
An appendix shows steps for establishing a mentor program within an organization; Ms. Zachary also includes a bibliography.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94104; (415) 433-1740 or (888) 378-2537; fax (415) 956-3158 or (888) 541-2665; http://www.josseybass.com; 195 pages; $25.95; I.S.B.N. 0-7879-4742-3.
