Mentor Myth

Mentors are over-utilized, under-trained and, as studies show, under-deliver. From an employer's perspective, assigning a mentor is often a band-aid to a larger problem. From an employee's perspective, a lack of formal mentorship is seen as a serious, career-inhibiting problem, the equivalent of sailing a boat without a rudder. In The Mentor Myth, Debby Carreau represents this dichotomy, explaining that while a mentor's counsel can be invaluable, it is not the silver bullet human resources professionals often purport it to be. The opinions of a mentor are one data point, one piece in the much more complex game of navigating a career. In fact, the increasing overreliance on mentorship can actually be a hindrance to a successful career. Instead of continually looking outward for career guidance, aspiring professionals must realize that they possess all the tools necessary to take control of their own careers by using their own strengths, capabilities, and visions of success. Through her years of experience consulting, speaking, and writing about career development, Debby has created a comprehensive, easy-to-implement guide for taking ownership of your professional success. Debby begins by helping the reader create a professional roadmap, including how to build a personal brand, project the right amount of confidence, and manage time. She addresses mentors in the context of networks and sponsors, advising the reader how to incorporate outward influences rather than be defined by them.

Coached to Lead is the first consumer’s guide to executive coaching. Drawing on her twenty years of experience and direct research with an elite international clientele, renowned CEO coach Susan Battley offers step-by-step advice for achieving the same extraordinary results that top leaders get from executive coaching. Filled with insider tips, engaging real-life cases, and handy checklists and sample documents, Coached to Lead will help anyone who considers working with a professional coach to make smart decisions that maximize valuable resources. Battley reveals all the insider secrets about coaching—how to determine your coaching readiness, how to choose the right coach, and how to use a winning five-step coaching model. She covers all the issues commonly raised as well as not-so-obvious situations and troubleshooting.

2007 AJN Book of the Year Winner! Designated a Doody's Core Title! Mentoring in Nursing will help inspire a more cohesive, flexible, and empowered nursing force, whether in academia, the hospital unit, or health care facility. Featuring: Definitions and components of the mentoring process Models and strategies: classic, multiple, and peer mentoring; precepting, coaching, or shadowing models Mentor and mentee perspectives Best practices in nurse mentoring, including multicultural competency Mentoring evaluation tools "It is incumbent then on all of us in the helping professions to be cognizant of the need for continued support and guidance of the elders, but the elders must also listen and learn from the young, and the young must help each other if the profession's covenant with the public is to be kept."--From the Foreword by Grayce Sills, PhD, RN

What is leadership? How do you develop your leadership abilities? How is leadership different from management? How does leadership contribute to professional and personal success…improve patient care…and affect the future of nursing? An easy-to-read, interactive approach helps you to identify the characteristics of leaders and followers and illustrates not only how, but also when to use the qualities associated with each to achieve professional and personal success. Excellent book for nurse leadership. “This should be mandatory reading for all nurses.”—John P., Online Reviewer

This book offers a radically new theoretical analysis of mentoring, based on award winning research. The author draws upon detailed case studies, providing a unique and vivid account of mentoring from the perspective of the participants.

Many managers believe that effective mentoring is most often the lucky result of personal chemistry between two people. But in this book, author Margo Murray lays that myth to rest. Her guide gives you all the expert advice, tools, and case studies you'll need to harness the power of mentoring. Building on the solid principles outlined in the first book, this revised edition adds examples of mentoring from recent publications and the author's client experience. It also includes international examples. It reveals how mentoring can maximize employee productivity and provides information on how to assess organizational needs and link them to the mentoring process. Includes all the information needed to evaluate the effectiveness of a mentoring program.

Much of the theorizing about myth in philosophy and religious studies grows out of efforts to understand the classics and the Bible. In the case of the classics, the presence of myth has been taken for granted, and conclusions reached about Greek and Roman mythology have spurred generalizations about myth. In the case of the Bible, however, the existence of myth has been contested. In fact, Judaism and Christianity are regularly praised for their nonmythic outlook. Conclusions reached about the presence or absence of myth in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament have led to generalizations about myth per se. Many of the essays in this volume apply theories of myth to classical, biblical, and ancient Near Eastern cases, but in so doing they draw conclusions about the nature of myth itself. Those essays that criticize past applications make generalizations as weIl. By no means has aIl theorizing about myth from philosophy and religious studies centered on the ancient world, and this volume contains selections from theories in both disciplines that stern from reflections on the nature of science, language, knowledge, and reality.

Mentoring Away the Glass Ceiling in Academia: A Cultured Critique is different in that it calls attention to the role mentoring has played on the “glass ceiling” phenomenon in higher education. Narratives by and about the experiences of women of diverse backgrounds in the United States and beyond the borders of this nation shed needed light on the ways in which mentoring influences identity formation and internal coping mechanisms in environments often characterized by marginalization. Through these narratives, these women serve as “quasi mentors” and create spaces for other women to survive and thrive within the educational arena. This text honors and extends previous work on the experiences of women academics from diverse backgrounds. Through this book, there is a call for new ways of understanding the vital role that narratives play in speaking truth to the power of mentoring. The insights present an exposé of the extent to which politics, policies, and equity agendas for mentoring have supported or failed women.