The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way [Hardcover]

Shirley Peddy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

"Rachel, I'm disturbed when I hear managers delight in bringing new people into their organizations and practicing a philosophy of sink or swim. I don't believe we can hold someone up indefinitely to keep him from 'drowning,' but neither should we consider employees disposable....Sometimes we just have to look back and ask ourselves how we can do better." (p.169). The Art of Mentoring is a universal guide to developing the talents of others. If you're a new mentor or just want to sharpen your skills, you'll find it a source of practical insight and inspiration.

It teaches us how to create a partnership of trust and learning for people in today's chaotic organizations. This is the captivating story of Rachel, an internal consultant sent to a small subsidiary. Her challenge: rekindle motivation in the five marketers there or recommend their termination. Her decision: create a culture in which each person has the opportunity and help to succeed. Mentors learn: To begin building a trusting relationship To teach a new employee the 'unspoken rules' of organizations To help someone find her life's purpose and transform her mundane job into a satisfying role To use straight talk to prevent someone from derailing his career To coach on interpersonal skills To use the 'lead, follow and get out of the way' process

The Art of Mentoring covers in detail some of the most contentious mentoring issues: helping employees master the work and unspoken rules, improving their interpersonal skills, dealing with job dissatisfaction, workaholism, cynicism and the lack of motivation at the end of a career. It shows how to create a mentoring culture in a company or a work group. It offers advice in such key areas as how to give feedback to someone who is defensive, how to coach an employee on simple things (like asking for a raise) or more complex matters, as how to help someone overcome a natural defensiveness.

It describes the process "lead, follow and get out of the way," answers the question who should mentor-and who shouldn't, explains what to look for in a mentor and illustrates how important mentoring is at every stage of a career.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Peddy mentors the mentor in her new book...." -- Corpus Christi Caller Times, January 7, 1999

"Peddy uses storytelling as a tool to illuminate the key elements of a mentoring culture and to examine how mentoring works in practical situations. Peddy's frame story is the temporary assignment of her narrator, Rachel Hanson, a corporate training specialist for Perry Winkle Enterprises, to supervise the Houston marketing office of a recently acquired subsidiary, To Your Health, a health food producer and distributor. To complicate Rachel's situation (appropriately) her own rather disaffected college-dropout son needs mentoring, too, during the months she spends in Houston-but can she (via long distance) or his father (face-to-face) provide the advice and support he requires? This frame makes Peddy's key points accessible and entertaining, and she addresses thoughtfully the wide range of issues mentors face over the "life" of a mentoring relationship." -- Booklist, February 15, 1999

"The Art of Mentoring expands on Peddy's 1996 book, Secrets of the Jungle: Lessons on Survival and Success in Today's Organizations. She says companies are losing some of their best workers because people don't feel appreciated anymore. "A lot of it is due to downsizing and other things companies have done to reduce loyalty. How do companies restore that sense of belonging and company loyalty? By enacting a mentoring culture." -- Birmingham News, February 1, 1999.

"This book is about more than mentoring. It covers contentious and prevalent issues of the workplace: learning the unspoken rules, improving interpersonal skills, dealing with job dissatisfaction, workaholism or lack of motivation-and anyone looking for advice or looking to advise another will find this book an indispensable reference." -- New York Metropolitan News, March 1999

From the Publisher

The first edition of The Art of Mentoring was meant for managers, human resources professionals, and training consultants whose organizations were involved in mentoring. Before long, it found a large audience among personal coaches and people who wanted to use its practical insights and ideas to improve their lives at work and at home.

This second edition contains two totally new chapters on "being mentored." The reader learns a complete process for establishing a mentoring relationship, the stages of a mentoring relationship, how to get the most from that relationship and pitfalls to avoid.

In addition, Dr. Peddy explains the four purposes of mentoring: wisdom, judgment, resilience and independence. We believe readers will find this book an indispensable guide to enhancing the mentoring relationship. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Bullion Books; 1st edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965137635
• ISBN-13: 978-0965137638
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,470,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow and Get Out Of The Way, January 25, 2000

By 

"dpejones" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way (Hardcover)

Reading Shirley Peddy's book has truly been an engaging learning experience. By practicing the art of story telling, Shirley is able to captivate her audience and naturally become a mentor to all who read her book. Before I knew it I was deeply engrossed in the book and identifying with each character at various levels. Rachel (the Mentor in the story) focuses heavily on the importance of environment in relationship to performance among employees. After working within the same work space for a number of years and having experienced challenging times within our group, I can recognize the absolute importance of environment in relationship to performance. I wish I had been able to read her book in the beginning of my career. While reading about and experiencing what the characters were going through in my mind, I also learned important tools for starting mentoring relationships, identifying a mentoring spirit, understanding the role of a mentor, and working through problems.

The story had a happy ending for each of the characters. Although this may not always be the case in real life scenarios, I completely appreciate the focus on how effective, positive, mentoring relationships can turn about happy endings to otherwise difficult or impossible situations. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in dealing effectively with other people as well as those who play key roles in helping others succeed.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow and Get Out of the Way, January 24, 2000

By 

Susie D "Susie" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way (Hardcover)

Shirley Peddy addresses key mentoring skills, not in a sterile antiseptic way, but in real-life, 'it could happen', situations. In fact I found myself associating each mentoring challenge with a situation in my own environment. When skills are outlined and discussed, often it is the 'nitty gritty' of how would you really go about saying that to someone, that is not addressed. Not true here. You experience not only the dialogue, but also the toss and turn nights and the talks that don't end with the desired outcomes. I found this book entertaining as well as a keeper for referring back to for various mentoring issues. Peddy's work and family parallel story lines added to the picture of what mentoring is and isn't.

The title itself is very telling and helpful as a masterplan. I would recommend this book to anyone who's goal is to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

Susie =>

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mentor's Story, January 23, 2000

By 

K Bogni - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way (Hardcover)

In her preface, Peddy states, "the purpose of The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow and Get Out of the Way is to show those interested how to foster a mentoring culture in which people are respected and rewarded for helping each other succeed." This goal is achieved through storytelling.

Storytelling is a powerful teaching tool based on the need to communicate experiences, thoughts, feelings, and circumstances. Mentoring takes this art form one step further in an effort to share wisdom. In The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow and Get Out of the Way Peddy shares a story about a mentor's journey into the land of lost motivation, misdirected communication, confusion, mistrust, and anger. It is a tale of nurturing mentor leadership expressed in benevolence. In sharing of the self, leading by example, this mentor teaches how to gain new perspective, allowing for new ways to think about the work place in order to achieve a much more positive outcome. As this story of learning and discovering unfolded , I found myself experiencing a similar type of growth in my attitudes and thinking about my own work and the relationships I am responsible for.

There are many lessons to be learned in The Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow and Get Out of the Way. Peddy teaches both the how-to, while illustrating the reasons why the style of mentoring she advocates is effective in bringing about a working atmosphere filled with respect and cooperation. The title itself describes the mentor's process.

The book also addresses how a reader might find the information to be the most useful. It is divided into stories and other sections called, "Notes to Mentoring File" which summarize the stories and lessons learned. I especially like the notes sections, I've marked them (yes I'm one of those people who writes in their books) and use them as a reference guide.

I found this book to be extremely mind expanding. Having planted the seeds of how to become a better coworker, I am making very good use of Peddy's described mentor mentality. Not knowing very much about mentoring, I discovered that mentoring is not procedural skill teaching and that working with mentees requires a holistic approach, i.e., home life has to be taken into account because it can be tremendously influential on work place performance. Also, the true mentoring spirit is one of service motivated by a desire to uncover what is right for that particular mentee and, of course, no two mentees are alike.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy the narrative style. For me, The Art Of Mentoring: Lead, Follow and Get Out of the Way was a rewarding experience. I am grateful for the opportunity to have kept company with Ms. Peddy and in her I found an author and a teacher capable of expressing herself with kindness, grace, style and wisdom. What more could one ask of a Mentor?

Kathleen O'Reilly,

January 23, 2000