The art of mentoring

Mentoring is a subset of leadership, an experience too often relegated to the context of situations too soft to be considered corporate. However, Shirley Peddy shows that mentoring is one of the core facets of enterprise-level leadership. In the Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way, Peddy illustrates the definition of mentoring, the role of mentoring in organizational culture, and techniques for effective mentoring.

The title of the book sets the stage for what is to come, clearly defining mentoring as an art and not a science. After all, diversity precludes mentoring from being anything quantifiable. What is quantifiable are the results that come from effective mentoring programs that are adopted by organizations. This is one of the reasons why Shirley Peddy is an in-demand public speaker whose views and techniques on mentoring are being employed to transform corporate culture, individual performance, and overall productivity in the workplace.

Because workplaces are comprised of employees from vastly different personal backgrounds, it is impossible to create a one size-fits-all approach to mentoring. In fact, age and other critical variables will impact the effectiveness of mentoring. Mentors are almost always synonymous with being "older," even if they are not actually old. The image of a mentor in the philanthropic sector would be that of a Big Brother or Big Sister, who serves as a mentor for a young child or adolescent. In the workplace, it would likewise seem that mentors would be employees who are older -- and perceived wiser. At the same time, Shirley Peddy and other theorists on mentoring neglect the fact that age cannot and should not be viewed as a defining feature of the mentor -- mentee relationship. For example, a young person can quite readily become an effective mentor for an older person in fields like Internet usage and information technology. There are absolutely no hard and fast rules when it comes to defining mentoring, implementing a mentoring program, and developing the techniques with which to mentor others.

Early in the Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way, Shirley Peddy presents two of the most common challenges mentors face in their professional lives. The first is the mentee who has no idea what his or her goals are, or even what questions to ask. When the mentee approaches the mentor, he or she may place undue pressure or expectations on the relationship. The mentee expects to be made perfect, molded by the mentor. Alternatively, the directionless mentee expects to have his or her hand held the whole way. Mentees who expect promotions simply be participating in a mentor program are also problematic. Shirley Peddy provides the specific ways of dealing with the communications that can arise at this early stage in the mentoring process. However, the author could have done a better job addressing some of the issues that do arise at this stage. The mentor that expects too much, or who misunderstands the mentoring relationship should probably read Shirley Peddy's book the Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way.

The second problem that can arise early in the mentoring relationship is the mentee who knows all the answers, and is simply seeking "confirmation" from the mentor of his or her inherent greatness (Peddy 2001, p. 25). In this case, the mentor might act defensively and sabotage the relationship. Yet Peddy (2001) points out that sometimes all the mentor needs to do is to offer a coach's pep talk that reinforces the mentee's strengths.

The art of mentoring, according to Peddy (2001), is "not merely knowing what to say but how to say it and when," (p. 25). For Shirley Peddy, how to say it is via the art of storytelling. Most of the book the Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way is not dry pedantic prose but rather, narrative. It is not clear whether the stories are actually true or not, but their verity matters little in light of the fact that the author's ultimate goal is to illustrate the mentoring process.

Through the mentor of Rachel, who may or may not be modeled after Shirley Peddy, readers can better understand circumstantial and situational variables that impact their leadership styles. Each character reacts to Rachel -- as well as to other leaders and managers -- with individuality. The role of the workplace environment is raised in more than one anecdote. Dialogue enables a naturalistic instruction about mentoring instead of a clinical one. Specific phrases and non-verbal cues are critical in the communication process. If the author had simply outlined the core tenets of leading following, and getting out of the way, the overall impact of the book would have been considerably compromised.

Therefore, the basic structure of the Art of Mentoring: Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way is solid. At the same time, there are weaknesses in the storytelling approach. The characters are relatively one-dimensional. Some readers can perhaps better relate to the character of Rachel than to a perceived authority figure like Shirley Peddy. Others might find the storytelling method puerile and counterproductive. A diverse readership is likely to react to the Art of Mentoring in different ways. Certainly, Shirley Peddy's book cannot be considered as a work of serious scholarship but is more likely to be located on the shelves of managers.

Managers and leaders in any organizational sector will find Shirley Peddy's book useful in developing their personal leadership style, their approach to management, and their creation of organizational culture. This may be one of the most important applications for Shirley Peddy's book.

A main strength of Shirley Peddy's book is that there is a humanism naturally involved in the storytelling process that is welcome from the usual fodder of academic jargon. Understandably, this is also one of the book's main weaknesses. The book comes across as being useless as a reference book, as it must be read practically from cover to cover.