Starting Strong E-Book

Lois J. Zachary

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 330

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

A hands-on and usable guide to making the first 90 days of your mentoring relationship a success In Starting Strong, mentoring experts Lois J. Zachary and Lory A. Fischler weave a compelling tale that exemplifies the concepts, highlights the dynamics, and outlines the issues involved in mentoring relationships. The authors use the form of a fable to tell the story of a budding mentoring relationship filled with possibilities, problems, and triumphs. The story of Cynthia, a seasoned professional, and her new mentee Rafa, brings to life Zachary and Fischler's wealth of mentoring suggestions and best practices and each episode of the fable is accompanied by reflection questions, key learnings, and strategies that readers can apply to their own mentoring relationships. The authors include a conversation playbook that guides mentors and mentees through six essential conversations that will help them establish a strong mentoring connection, and keep it moving forward. As organizations face the transition of departing Boomers and arriving Millennials, Starting Strong offers a hands-on and readable guide to create effective mentoring relationships that will ensure the success of that transition. The book: * Covers the key components of a successful mentoring relationship including building trust, establishing a comfort zone (and then having the courage to leave it), holding productive meetings, dealing with power dynamics, setting goals, and keeping momentum going * Shows how to avoid common pitfalls and overcome mentoring obstacles * Applies to any organizational or institutional setting Starting Strong is more than an engaging story of mentorship, it's a vital resource for understanding how to implement and sustain a meaningful mentoring relationship.

Leseprobe

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Part One: The Fable

The Week Before: Questions Before We Start

Digging Deeper

The First Meeting: Powering Up

Digging Deeper

The Second Meeting: Taking Care of Business

Digging Deeper

The Third Meeting: Let’s Get Real

Digging Deeper

The Fourth Meeting: Sorting It Out

Digging Deeper

The Fifth Meeting: Straight Talk

Digging Deeper

The Sixth Meeting: Holding Up a Mirror

Digging Deeper

Epilogue: Five Years Later

Cynthia’s and Rafa’s Advice for Mentors and Mentees

What Cynthia Learned from Mentoring Rafa

What Rafa Learned from Cynthia

Part Two: The Mentoring Conversation Playbook

Moving the Conversation from Monologue to Dialogue

The Five Levels of Conversation

Strategies for Good Conversation

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Listen Actively

Clarify Understanding

Six Essential Mentoring Conversations

Conversation 1. Building a Relationship

Conversation 2. Establishing Mentoring Agreements

Conversation 3. Moving from Starter Goals to Smarter Goals

Conversation 4. Creating Learning Opportunities

Conversation 5. Managing Stumbling Blocks

Conversation 6. Checking In on Progress

Afterword: Starting Strong, Moving Forward

Suggested Reading

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Index

Advertisements

End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Figure 10.1 Levels of Conversation

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Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

Praise for Starting Strong

“Whether seeking to strengthen your own mentoring practice, administer a mentoring program within your organization, or develop your ability to ‘tune in’ to others and navigate candid conversations—Starting Strong provides a unique avenue to help mentors and mentees become more reflective, observant, and introspective—to allow them to grow into the type of professionals they wish to become.”

—Peg McCue Guillon, chairperson, MetLife Legal Affairs Mentoring Program

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“Remarkable! One of the finest books I have read on mentoring, this accessible and practical book reads like a novel, and rings with the reality of the business world even as it brilliantly moves us deep inside the mentoring relationship at its best. Zachary and Fischler both entertain and instruct us as we watch how a savvy yet very human mentor works with an earnest younger protégé, artfully ripening the relationship into the kind of respect and affection that characterizes a powerful mentoring experience. For anyone wanting to learn more or teach others about how mentors can make a difference in real peoples’ lives, this trove of practical advice and genuine wisdom is pure gold.”

—Laurent A. Parks Daloz, Senior Fellow, Whidbey Institute, and author of Mentor: Guiding the Journey of Adult Learners

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“In this strikingly engaging book, Zachary and Fischler focus on one of the most important dynamics in mentoring: how trust is established at the beginning of the relationship. The story of Rafa and Cynthia is one of bumps and affirmations, growing understanding, and the conjunction of ambition and experience. Through a series of conversations that show the ways listening and questioning work to deepen communication, Starting Strong takes us to the heart of what it means to be a mentor.”

—Stephen Brookfield, John Ireland Endowed Chair, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis-St. Paul

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“Congratulations, you have a mentor (or mentee)! Now what? Instead of winging it, hoping for the best, you can now structure the relationship right from the beginning to make it a satisfying experience for both of you. Part fable, part guidebook, part manual, the authors have highlighted the keys to success for a rich mentor-mentee partnership. Starting Strong is not to be missed by anyone open to this life-changing partnership.”

—Marshall Goldsmith, author of the New York Times and global bestseller What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

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“I love this book! It captures the essence of mentoring in a very unique way by taking the reader on an intimate journey as two individuals create and foster their mentoring relationship. The insights gained will enable those new to the mentoring process and those who have been involved for years to acquire insights and understandings they’ve never before fully explored. If you buy only one book on mentoring this year, it should be this one.”

—Dr. Frances Kochan, Wayne T. Smith Distinguished Professor, Auburn University

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“Lois Zachary and Lory Fischler provide insight into the distinction, yet interdependence, of a mentoring and coaching culture. Highlighting the keys to fostering successful and sustainable mentoring relationships, their easy-to-read storytelling style and practical working guides make this an invaluable resource to any individual or group mentoring or coaching program looking to adopt successful techniques.”

—Dr. Joanne Robinson, director of professional development, Ontario Principals’ Council

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“Starting Strong is a very readable, real-world how-to reference for understanding just how mentoring works. Once you read the fable and use the playbook, you will have all the tools you will need to deepen and enrich your mentoring practice.”

—Michele D. Klein, senior engineering manager, Fortune 100 Aerospace Corporation

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“Starting Strong is an engaging story that contains all of the most important elements of successful mentoring relationships. This incredible format will make the tools of mentoring accessible to many people who are unlikely to read workbooks and manuals. I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated Starting Strong and look forward to using the book in our program.”

—Joanne Goldberg, Medtronic Women’s Network

Starting Strong

A Mentoring Fable

Lois J. Zachary, Lory A. Fischler

Strategies for Success in the First 90 Days

Cover design by Wiley

Cover Icon: © palau83 | Shutterstock

Copyright © 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zachary, Lois J.

Starting strong : a mentoring fable / Lois J. Zachary, Lory A. Fischler.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-76771-9 (hardback); 978-1-118-76790-0 (ebk.); 978-1-118-76805-1 (ebk.)

1. Mentoring in business. 2. Corporate culture. I. Fischler, Lory A., 1947- II. Title.

HF5385.Z334 2014

658.3'124—dc23

2014013596

Foreword

In Starting Strong, Lois Zachary and her colleague, Lory Fischler, craft a memorable fable that takes us inside and alongside a mentoring relationship as it plays out over time. We find ourselves listening in on the conversations and learning firsthand about the issues a mentor and mentee experience at the start of their relationship.

The story these authors relate focuses on the evolution of one particular relationship. Yet, its characters, conversations, and context are familiar enough that they will be recognized by anyone who has been in a mentoring relationship or has been charged with supporting mentors and mentees.

I am a great believer that the continuing learning conversations that take place over time are the core of a mentoring relationship. In the most effective mentoring relationships, there are many learning conversations: one in the head of the mentor and mentee before they meet; one after they meet, reflecting on the conversation and the learning to be taken from it; the spoken conversation during the mentoring meeting; and the unspoken, silent conversation in the heads of mentor and mentee as they converse. Zachary and Fischler expose all these conversations. Experienced mentors, like the one in this fable, continuously work at honing this skill.

The mentor and mentee in this fable are both keen to establish a clear sense of direction in their early conversations. They cast this purposeful activity in the language of goals because this is part of the managerial culture and education. We know that setting goals that are too specific at the beginning can be detrimental to the quality of the relationship, causing it to focus on narrow, transactional outcomes. It gets in the way of one of the most powerful processes of effective mentoring—the gradual emergence and flowering of deeper goals, more closely aligned to the mentee’s personal values and energy. The mentor and mentee in this relationship do get to SMART goals, but only when the mentee is far enough along the path of understanding himself and his career purpose.

The mentor is very specific about what she will and won’t do on behalf of the mentee and makes it very clear from the start that her mentee must take responsibility for his own learning. When the mentor gives advice, it is timely and designed to provide context, so that the mentee can make up his own mind about what to do and how to apply it.

Successful mentoring relationships tend to involve periodic reviews of the relationship itself. What would we each like the other to do more or less of? Do we want to broaden or deepen the issues we explore? How can we be more honest with each other? What needs to change as the mentee’s knowledge (wisdom) grows and he becomes more aware of his inner and external environments? We see in this fable how the very act of asking questions like these enhances the mutual respect and trust between mentor and mentee and stimulates their conversations that deliver even greater value.

Stories, like this one have the power to capture our imagination in a way that textbooks can’t. Each mentoring relationship is a learning journey, in the tradition of the “hero’s journey”—a voyage into the unknown, meeting challenges and conquering fears, and gradually learning to know and respect oneself. Homer (the ancient Greek, not Simpson) would have approved of the lessons learned from Zachary and Fischler’s fable!

David Clutterbuck

Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK