Friday, November 23, 2012

Resources on the crucial topic of mentoring


After my blog post of 27 October 2011, I’m happy to see that Deborah Corn of PrintMediaCentr is dedicating a blog series to the incredibly important topic of professional mentorship, in this case from a printing-industry perspective. http://vicg8hr.blogspot.ca/2011/10/please-share-your-experiences-regarding.html

In the first installment, Chris Echevarria, Customer Experience Center Manager at Océ North America, outlines her experience with a formally instituted corporate mentorship program and such basic mechanics as how many mentors to have at once (she says several are feasible) and how often to contact them (at least once each quarter works for her).  http://printmediacentr.com/who-needs-a-mentor/

In case the importance of mentoring hasn't crossed your radar screen, an on-line blurb for David Clutterbuck’s 2004 book Everyone Needs a Mentor: Fostering Talent in Your Organisation spells out just how essential it is:  “Mentoring is the most cost efficient and sustainable method of fostering and developing talent within your organisation. Talented employees can be stretched to perform even better by exposure to high performing colleagues. Experience can be passed on more effectively one-to-one. Employees from groups that are under-represented in the organisation can be supported and developed by talking to others who have overcome similar barriers.”  http://books.google.ca/books/about/Everyone_Needs_a_Mentor.html?id=4OYegB6lbQAC&redir_esc=y

The many other practical resources on mentoring available on the Internet include:


  1. Kristin Burnham’s 2011 article for CIO, examining why women aren’t reaching their full potential through mentorship and offering tips on how they can find and initiate fruitful mentoring relationships. http://www.cio.com/article/692472/LinkedIn_Tip_Why_You_Need_a_Mentor_and_How_to_Find_One
  1. Amy Barrett’s 2007 article for BloombergBusinessweek Magazine on Why You Need A Mentor:  http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-02-25/why-you-need-a-mentor
3.    Reg Pirie’s 2000 take on the nature of an effective mentoring relationship for CanadaOne:  http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/aug00/mentors.html

4.  I’ve also posted a few of the many printed and e-books available on this important topic to the Reading List on my LinkedIn Profile at:  http://www.ca.linkedin.com/in/vicg8                     

No comments:

Post a Comment