Power Mentoring: How Successful Mentors and Proteges Get the Most Out of Their Relationships

by Ellen A. Ensher, Susan E. Murphy

Overview

Written to reflect the realities of today’s business environment, Power Mentoring is a nuts-and-bolts guide for anyone who wants to create a connection with a protégé or mentor, or to improve a current mentoring relationship. Filled with illustrative examples and candid insights from fifty of America's most successful mentors and protégés, Power Mentoring unlocks the secrets of great mentoring relationships and shows how anyone (including those who are well established in their careers, or those who are just starting out) can become a successful mentor or protégé. Based on compelling interviews from Ellen Ensher and Susan Murphy’s own research, this important resource explains what it takes to develop a “power mentoring” network consisting of a variety of mentors across a range of organizations and industries. The authors provide strategies for establishing such power mentoring relationships, outline the best practices, and offer insights from mentors and protégés in a variety of fields including technology, politics, and the media.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780787979522
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	09/01/2005
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

THE AUTHORS

ELLEN A. ENSHER is an associate professor of management at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

SUSAN ELAINE MURPHY is an associate professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College and the associate dean of the Henry R. Kravis Leadership Institute in Claremont, California.

The authors will donate 50% of their profits from this book to three mentoring organizations: Big Brothers Big Sisters, Covenant House, and Special Games.

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction to Power Mentoring 1

Who Are Our Power Mentors and Protégés? 3

The Changing Career Landscape 13

Overview of the Book 21

2 The Many Faces of Power Mentoring 26

Classic Versus Contemporary Approaches to Mentoring 28

The Many Types of Power Mentoring 45

Conclusion 64

3 Mentoring as a Two-Way Street: 67

Benefits of Giving and Receiving

Give-and-Take in Power Mentoring Relationships 68

Road Map to This Chapter 70

Meet the Power Mentors and Protégés: 71

Stories of Give-and-Take Summary of Benefits for Protégés and Mentors 96

Conclusion 100

4 The Mind of the Mentor 102

Mental Models: The Philosophies of Mentoring 105

The Mentor’s Attraction to the Protégé 116

The Perfect Protégé 121

Tests and Challenges 125

Conclusion 136

5 The Protégé’s Perspective: 138

How to Get and Keep a Power Mentor

Initiation and Attraction 140

Developing Trust in the Mentoring Relationship 142

Identifying a Power Mentor 152

Cultivating the Art of Impression Management 155

Developing a Goal-Oriented Attitude 157

Forming Connection Strategies 161

Conclusion 173

6 Unlocking the Secrets of 175

Great Power Mentoring Relationships

Building Blocks of Effective Relationships 177

Defining Moments 190

Deepening the Mentoring Relationship 196

Conclusion 208

7 Power Mentoring and You 209

The Relationship Development Plan 210

Conclusion 253

8 Conclusion: What We Have Learned About Mentoring in Today’s Work Environment  255

Turning Everyday Mentoring into Power Mentoring 256

What We Know About Effective Mentoring Relationships 256

What We Are Still Learning About Mentoring Relationships 260

The Lessons of Power Mentoring for Formal Mentoring Programs 262

Getting a Formal Mentoring Program Off the Ground 268

Conclusion 271

Appendix A: The Interviewees 273

Appendix B: Studying Power Mentoring Relationships 303

Notes 313

Acknowledgments 333

The Authors 339

Index 343

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A wonderfully useful and readable book about the underacknowledged significance of mentoring."
—Warren Bennis, author, On Becoming a Leader, and coauthor, Geeks and Geezers

"There are few career relationships as pivotal as the one with a mentor. This wonderful book takes readers deep into the chemistry of the best of these. Full of compelling stories to illustrate its lessons, it is a treasure trove of insights.
—Jay A. Conger, Kravis Professor of Leadership, Claremont McKenna College, and author, Building Leaders

"All successful people have someone in their life who helps them at various stages in their development. In Power Mentoring, one finds close-up examples of how mentoring has played an important part leading to individual success. This is one of the most important books on the subject of mentoring to be written in years."
—Henry R. Kravis, founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

"Power Mentoring adeptly bridges the academic-practitioner divide by providing practical advice that is firmly grounded in academic research and the authors’ own interviews with an amazing array of power mentors and their protégés. The result is a compelling, accessible, and engaging account of how to create, nourish, and flourish effective mentoring relationships. The book brings mentoring to life, and the reader quickly becomes captivated by the stories, accounts, and narratives of Power Mentoring. From Oprah to Spielberg to Welch—who can resist reading this book?"
—Belle Rose Ragins, professor of management, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and coauthor, Mentoring and Diversity: An International Perspective

"Mentoring is so important for any leader, small business owner or entrepreneur—this book is a must-read!"
—Charles Segars, head, Fine Living Cable Network, and executive producer of the movie National Treasure

Editorial Reviews

"...provides a useful snapshot of the issues, dramas and special challenges women and minorities face in the modern workplace..." (getAbstract, August 2006)

From the Publisher

How Successful Mentors and Proteges Get the Most Out of Their Relationships
In an effort to help professionals and managers make the most of their careers, management professor Ellen A. Ensher and psychology professor Susan Elaine Murphy have interviewed 50 of America’s most successful mentors and protégés to discover the secrets of great mentoring relationships. By showing readers how to obtain a mentor or protégé, or improve the mentoring relationships they already have, the authors provide practical advice to all types of professionals at all stages in their careers that can help them learn more and grow their careers faster than they could alone.

Some of the mentoring relationships described in Power Mentoring are the traditional connections that happen between an older, more experienced mentor and a younger protégé who gains vast insight from the guidance provided. However, the authors write, most of the people they interviewed did not rely on a single mentor for support, “but instead had a broad network consisting of a variety of mentors to support them.” The authors call this network approach to mentoring “power mentoring,” and they explain that those involved, both as mentors and protégés, received results that were mutually beneficial to their personal career growth and development.

Fifty Professionals
The 50 mentors and protégés whose interviews provide the lessons that comprise Power Mentoring have careers spanning a variety of industries and professions. They include corporate presidents, military commanders, film and TV directors, congressmen and politicians, and many other types of professionals.

Although the authors recognize the value of traditional mentoring, they explain that recent research reveals that mentoring relationships today are different. Power mentoring reflects the new work environment as well as today’s unique career challenges.

Although many people and organizations claim that mentoring is the answer to a variety of societal and organizational problems, the authors point out that researchers continue to find that formal mentoring programs are less effective than spontaneously developed relationships. They write that, instead of spending large amounts of money on formal programs, organizations would be better off expending those resources “on creating an infrastructure that enables mentoring relationships to grow and thrive organically.” To show how formal mentoring programs can be improved and brought up to the level of informal relationships, the authors present ideas about how to make these programs look and feel like informal relationships.

A Diverse Network
The authors’ approach to mentoring includes the idea that having a diverse network of mentors is the best solution for problems in today’s careers. They recommend that “if you are a protégé, you can take an active approach to getting a mentor rather than waiting to be chosen.” To do this, protégés must be creative when seeking out those they want to have as mentors.

Power Mentoring describes how the many people the authors interviewed have benefited professionally from networks of mentors and protégés. It also shows how people on both sides of the equation can develop relationships that enhance their own personal happiness.

The authors write that there are four differences between their power mentoring approach and traditional mentoring. Power mentoring differs in who initiates the relationship (it is often initiated by the protégé), in the extensive role of tests and challenges, in the prevalence of true reciprocity (both mentor and protégé benefit), and in its generative focus (giving back to the next generation occurs throughout the power mentor’s career).

Why We Like This Book
Power Mentoring shows readers how to develop their own personal plan for developing rewarding relationships while also providing many insightful stories that highlight the advice and lessons it imparts. Personal experiences and examples from many notable personalities and leaders describe how much can be gained when a network of mentoring relationships is pursued. Copyright © 2006 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Soundview Executive Book Summaries