Crisp: Making the Most of Being Mentored: How to Grow from a Mentoring Partnership (Crisp Fifty-Minute Books) [Paperback]

Gordon F. Shea (Author)

Book Description

Series: Crisp Fifty-Minute Books | Publication Date: January 29, 1998

This book will teach you how to create a strong mentor/mentee relationship, and how to grow from that partnership. You will learn what mentors can offer you, ten reasons to become a mentee, how mentoring can help you manage your self-development, and how to pick a mentor. Mentoring programs have become prominent in many organizations, especially in today’s highly technical environment. Developing a strong mentor relationship is beneficial to the mentor, the mentee, and the organization. Some of the many benefits of being mentored are self and career development, new perspective and insights into organizational culture, and performance improvement and talent development.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Crisp Learning; 1 edition (January 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560525460
• ISBN-13: 978-1560525462
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mentor: Tutor or Coach?, July 5, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crisp: Making the Most of Being Mentored: How to Grow from a Mentoring Partnership (Crisp Fifty-Minute Books) (Paperback)

The original meaning of mentor was defined by the role that Mentor (a friend of Odysseus) played in educating Telemachus (Odysseus's son) while Odysseus was away on the Odyssey. The dictionary also mentions definitions of a trusted counselor or guide, tutor, or coach.

This book clearly is about mentoring as coaching in the business rather than the sports sense. Mr. Shea suggests that mentoring has more intervention than counseling or short-term teaching assignments, because it goes beyond the merely obligatory. As such, I think the book's concept falls short of the full potential to mentor or to be mentored. In particular, the book suggests not giving advice beyond posing questions to focus the learner's attention. I think that many people will construe that advice too narrowly and will miss the chance to tell stories from their own experience that are relevant to the mentee's (his word, not mine) needs. That is why I graded the book down one star.

In every other way, the book is very well done. Having been helped by many outstanding mentors over the years, I was interested to see how one should go about playing that role oneself. I found what I was looking for here.

Some may find the material a little on the light side about the special issues associated with mentoring people of the opposite sex, of vastly different ages, and different cultural backgrounds. But the book does have a sound process for being sure that the mentor and mentee share with one another what their objectives are, and continue to communicate with each other about how it is going. That should solve most problems. The book also has good material on how to interpret the words, emotions, and body language that people exhibit, and how to probe for unexpressed information. That should deal with much of the rest.

The book is designed to serve those who wish to learn how to assist in the development of other people, to suggest behavior that mentors should adopt and avoid, and to show how mentoring works in today's workplace.

The chapters cover (1) mentoring as an art (2)whether mentoring is for you? (3) understanding mentee's needs (4) positive behavior (5) behavior to avoid (6) mentor/mentee gains (7) special situations and (8) a brief summary.

Some of the book's strengths include lots of self-diagnostic questions, case studies with more questions attached, and a general background on the popularity of mentoring (leaders today see it as a way to fill in the gaps on their company's training programs). There is also a self-assessment tool available to you by toll-free call.

For those who have not had much mentoring, this book will be a real eye-opener. For those that have, it will be an encouragement to become involved as a mentor.

Reduce your communication stalls and prosper!

Donald Mitchell

Coauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise (available in August 2000) and The 2,000 Percent Solution

([e-mail])

5.0 out of 5 stars making the most of being mentored, January 31, 2010

By 

Carl E. Martikean - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crisp: Making the Most of Being Mentored: How to Grow from a Mentoring Partnership (Crisp Fifty-Minute Books) (Paperback)

This book gives both sides of mentoring. If you are looking for a mentor or you are thinkingabout becoming one or have been asked to e one, then this book will help get the basics doen and get you off on a fast track. Chapters are simple idea encounterd in mentoring. Each chapter ends with a mini case study for review. These are good starting point in the relationship because they can foster conversation for how this idea would work in any business culture.