The Manager As Mentor

A description of the principles of coaching and mentoring, seeking to enable the reader to assess and develop their ability to improve the performance of others. It addresses: the key skills and appropriate coaching styles; conducting effective feedback and progress reviews; establishing your own competence through a series of simple self-assessments; putting learning theories into practice; drawing up individual learning contracts; using mentoring to encourage and support learning; and designing successful development programmes.

One of the most valuable roles a manager can perform in today's rapidly changing environment is to mentor and inspire the people around them to learn. By nurturing talent, motivating individual development, and encouraging excellence, a manager's mentoring can enhance individual performance and the organization's prospects for success. Mentoring is not an easy skill to develop, and many managers, who may excel at leading or coaching, may be disasters as mentors when it comes to creating a bond and bringing out untapped qualities in others. The Manager as Mentor goes beyond traditional approaches to explore the newest techniques in mentoring and collaboration. Featuring personal development tools, worksheets, and references, The Manager as Mentor will enable managers to bring out the best in themselves, the people they guide, and their organizations. Mentoring is an age-old practice, tracing its roots in ancient Greek folklore to Odysseus' friend, Mentor, whom the Homeric hero entrusted as guide to his son's development. Today, with the ascendance of the knowledge age and the transformation of the workplace into an environment of continual learning, mentoring has emerged as one of the most important and valuable roles a manager can perform. By serving as a role model, providing feedback, nurturing talent, inspiring individual development, and facilitating excellence, a manager's mentoring strengthens relationships within the organization, and ultimately contributes to such critical factors as improved job performance, low turnover, and greater profitability. Mentoring is not an easy skill to attain, however, and many managers who may excel at leading teams or coordinating projects may be disasters as mentors. The Manager as Mentor explores emerging trends and approaches to help managers master the skills of effective mentoring—and enhance themselves, their proteges, and their organizations in the process. Drawing from extensive research, dozens of examples, and their own practical application in training managers around the world, the authors argue that exceptional mentoring skills can be developed. They guide the reader toward understanding the key roles that mentors play and the activities and techniques they can employ for maximum impact. Diagnostic exercises will help readers assess their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for development, and create a step-by-step action plan for achieving goals—either individually or in groups. The authors also offer an extensive listing of resources for more in-depth information on various aspects of mentoring, such as problem solving, active listening, and employee advocacy. Ultimately, The Manager as Mentor offers the tools by which managers can promote learning, empowerment, and insight to create vibrant organizational cultures.

Bell's book introduces a revolutionary new paradigm for creating a learning organization, one person at a time. Practical tools and techniques are provided here for leaders to circumvent the barriers of rank and enter learning relationships.

In this profound and profoundly controversial work, a landmark of 20th-century thought originally published in 1971, B. F. Skinner makes his definitive statement about humankind and society. Insisting that the problems of the world today can be solved only by dealing much more effectively with human behavior, Skinner argues that our traditional concepts of freedom and dignity must be sharply revised. They have played an important historical role in our struggle against many kinds of tyranny, he acknowledges, but they are now responsible for the futile defense of a presumed free and autonomous individual; they are perpetuating our use of punishment and blocking the development of more effective cultural practices. Basing his arguments on the massive results of the experimental analysis of behavior he pioneered, Skinner rejects traditional explanations of behavior in terms of states of mind, feelings, and other mental attributes in favor of explanations to be sought in the interaction between genetic endowment and personal history. He argues that instead of promoting freedom and dignity as personal attributes, we should direct our attention to the physical and social environments in which people live. It is the environment rather than humankind itself that must be changed if the traditional goals of the struggle for freedom and dignity are to be reached. Beyond Freedom and Dignity urges us to reexamine the ideals we have taken for granted and to consider the possibility of a radically behaviorist approach to human problems--one that has appeared to some incompatible with those ideals, but which envisions the building of a world in which humankind can attain its greatest possible achievements.

Today's employees do not respond to the old hands-on, militaristic management styles. They are highly independant, individual professionals with their own fully developed ideas. Leaders and managers who try to micro-manage them will inevitably confrom wide-spread disgruntlement, absenteeism, and turnover...and increase their and their employees stress levels. Chandler and Black offer a new vision for all managers. With stories, examples, and vibrant activities for the reader to practice, this book shows any manager, new or seasoned, how to coach and mentor employees rather than hover over their shoulders and goad them into action.

The transition to management is difficult. Management Mentor: Techniques for New Managers teaches you the 15 techniques all new managers must learn. From setting a vision to promoting an employee, it captures the techniques your need to be successful. Designed to be read alone, with a coach, or a mentor, this book will guide you as you grow as manager.

Authors Dowling and Mielenz provide their readers with a step-by-step practical approach to mentoring that combines successful management methods with down-to-earth parenting practices. This thoughtful and insightful guide teaches how to build respectful, collaborative relationships at work and at home.

NEW EDITION, REVISED AND UPDATEDThis classic guide to mentoring for managers returns with a publishing dream team--Marshall Goldsmith, voted number one leadership thinker by Harvard Business Review, joins bestselling author Chip Bell. Now with more research and case studies for a wired workforce.