National Mentoring Month
The New Year marks the start of National Mentoring Month, a 31-day-long celebration of community and connection. This month includes several specific days dedicated to the people who make these connections possible, including:
- January 9: I Am A Mentor Day
- January 15: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service
- January 17: International Mentoring Day
- January 24-26: National Mentoring Summit, Washington, D.C.
- January 25: Thank Your Mentor Day
To learn more about mentorship in academia, business, and beyond check out our featured books below or visit the current month's page on the lefthand menu.
Mentoring in 2024
According to the 2023 Who Mentored You? report, which drew from surveys of more than 2,600 intergenerational Americans, American adults give their mentors more than half of the credit (56%) for the success they have achieved in life. Mentoring is critical in the business world and beyond for those at the beginning of their careers. Read on for some featured titles on being a mentor, a mentee, and leading by example.
Featured Reading
Older and Wiser: New Ideas for Youth Mentoring in the 21st Century
Location: Online
In Older and Wiser, mentoring expert Jean Rhodes draws on more than thirty years of empirical research to survey the state of the field. Her conclusion is sobering: there is little evidence that most programs are effective. But there is also much reason for hope. Mentoring programs, Rhodes writes, do not focus on what young people need. But research makes clear that effective programs emphasize the development of specific social, emotional, and intellectual skills. Rhodes doesn't think we should give up on mentoring--far from it. She shows that evidence-based approaches can in fact create meaningful change in young people's lives. She also recommends encouraging "organic" mentorship opportunities--in schools, youth sports leagues, and community organizations.
Mentoring in Intercultural and International Contexts
Location: Online
Academia can be a lonely place, especially for those people who are members of marginalized communities. Effective mentoring helps to provide guidance and support and can ease the transition to and success in higher education. The chapters in "Mentoring and International Experiences" analyze unique situations that international students face in higher education and how effective mentoring can guide these students through academic and life challenges. The second section, "Mentoring and Cultural Contexts," focuses on diverse cultural settings within the higher educational system in the United States and on historically marginalized students and/or faculty.
Mentoring 2. 0 : A Practitioner's Guide to Changing Lives
Location: Online
Mentors are magical people. They can potentially transform ordinary folks into amazing icons of achievement. The best of them can morph their subtle and exalted practice into an art form. This book is a walking tour of the workings of the mentoring process, the key aspects of the practice of mentoring, and the snares and snags to look out for. Several cases and examples cited in the book are of actual people living through the process, and are drawn from the author's long years of experience, practice and research.
Books for National Mentor Month
Leadership Through Mentoring : The Key to Improving the Confidence and Skill of Principals by
Leadership through Mentoring shows how effectiveness, vision, and engagement can be grown through intentional, supportive guidance and wise counsel, leading to longer and more successful principal tenures and significant improvements in school performance
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2021
Peer Coaching at Work: Principles and Practices by
When it comes to mentoring, peer coaching is an undervalued workhorse. It's effective, inexpensive, widely applicable, and relatively easy to implement. Many coaches consider it to be the next wave in professional development. Peer Coaching at Work draws on research and practice to deliver a hands-on guide to this powerful relational learning technique. The authors—all leaders in the field—present a rigorously tested three-part model for facilitating peer coaching relationships in one-on-one settings and in larger groups. With lively case studies, they define peer coaching as a focused relationship between equals who supportively learn from, actively listen to, and judiciously question each other, which leads to breakthroughs that may otherwise lie dormant in one's career. A fundamental guide for anyone with an interest in mentoring and transformational learning, this book is a must-have for the talent management bookshelf.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2018
Mentorship-Driven Talent Management : The Asian Experience by
Evidence suggests that research on mentorship has been dominated by the West, and little is known about the cultural variations of the mentoring phenomenon. While some research has begun in emerging economies such as China and India, there is obviously a need for more research in different country contexts on the practice of mentoring, as well as its antecedents, intervening variables and expected outcomes in order to move the field forward. There is a need to identify the core theories and methodologies of mentorship which can be utilized to examine the Asian cultural context and the nuances of its management practices. This book aims to provide a deeper understanding of the contextual interpretation of mentoring by focusing on the Asian experience in countries such as China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Bangladesh. Shining a light on the importance of cross-cultural awareness and demographic dynamics when applied to talent management, it questions the positivist trend of decontextualizing HRM from the social-historical context of the workplace. It will provide business leaders and scholars with a critical understanding of what makes development, training and competency initiatives thrive in particular cultural contexts under the influence of larger historical and social structures. Heeding the call for mentoring relationships to be studied across cultures, this book on mentoring experiences in Asia is the need of the hour.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2020
The Simple Care of a Hopeful Heart: Mentoring Yourself in Difficult Times by
In the end, it is not the amount of darkness in the world, our country, family or even within ourselves that matters-It is how we stand in that darkness that is crucial. In light of this, the overall question addressed in this book is simple and challenging: How can we best mentor ourselves with the knowledge that already surrounds us so we learn and grow from the changes, stress, and even trauma, that we must face in today's uncertain times? Underlying the book's overall message is the signature strength of humility because as the author emphasizes: When we take knowledge and add humility, we get wisdom, and when we then add this very wisdom to compassion, we get love... and love is at the heart of a rich, compassionate, and resilient life. The book presents a series of 50 brief lessons on such topics as: · Developing a renewed and deeper interest in creative approaches to self-care · Overcoming resistance to change · Ways to gain, maintain, and regain a healthy perspective · Appreciating the advantages of the "psychological detours" forced on us in life · How spending only 2 minutes each day in silence, solitude, and wrapped in gratitude can be transformative · Understanding how we can best apply the principles of posttraumatic growth (PTG) to our own life situation · Dealing effectively with necessary change and unexpected loss · Recognizing the importance of pacing and timing in our interactions with others
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2021
Starting Strong : A Mentoring Fable by
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.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2014
Trillion Dollar Coach : The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell by
#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller New York Times Bestseller USA Today Bestseller The team behind How Google Works returns with management lessons from legendary coach and business executive, Bill Campbell, whose mentoring of some of our most successful modern entrepreneurs has helped create well over a trillion dollars in market value. Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt. In addition, this business genius mentored dozens of other important leaders on both coasts, from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to educators to football players, leaving behind a legacy of growing companies, successful people, respect, friendship, and love after his death in 2016. Leaders at Google for over a decade, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle experienced firsthand how the man fondly known as Coach Bill built trusting relationships, fostered personal growth--even in those at the pinnacle of their careers--inspired courage, and identified and resolved simmering tensions that inevitably arise in fast-moving environments. To honor their mentor and inspire and teach future generations, they have codified his wisdom in this essential guide. Based on interviews with over eighty people who knew and loved Bill Campbell, Trillion Dollar Coach explains the Coach's principles and illustrates them with stories from the many great people and companies with which he worked. The result is a blueprint for forward-thinking business leaders and managers that will help them create higher performing and faster moving cultures, teams, and companies.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2019
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