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9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Mentors: How to Inspire and Motivate Anyone
Most companies around the globe clearly believe that people should have the opportunity to achieve as much as their initiative and native talent can justify, but too many managers still lack the wherewithal to effectively groom junior employees who have the potential to climb the corporate ladder. The support of a mentor is an integral part of any effort to maximize someone's full potential. A mentor-protégé relationship has many unique features, which both sides of the relationship need to understand and appreciate. Serving in the role of mentor to protégés involves providing highly individualized guidance from someone with the appropriate background, life, and work experiences and, importantly, an avid interest in helping others reach their life and career goals.
9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Mentors features a set of proven techniques for those who serve as mentors in a variety of contexts, but particularly in the workplace.
This new title completes a trilogy of practical books on management skills along with 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Bosses and 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Teams by these two highly acclaimed authors.
9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Mentors features a set of proven techniques for those who serve as mentors in a variety of contexts, but particularly in the workplace.
This new title completes a trilogy of practical books on management skills along with 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Bosses and 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Teams by these two highly acclaimed authors.
224 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 25, 2025
Below are some of my personal takeaways from the book:
Mentoring happens when there is a neutral trust at the core.
The art of listening is critical to the mentoring success.
You want a mentor that is:
Motivated
Time committed — will give you the time needed to learn.
Positive and optimistic
Respectful
The 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Mentors:
Model emotional intelligence.
Your behaviors have tremendous influence on those watching you. This means discipline, self-awareness, self-control, and self-management.
Explore the motivation.
Build rapport through understanding of different people styles.
Identify and pursue stretch goals.
A stretch goal is reaching beyond your ability to achieve something.
Reinforce the importance of safeguarding credibility.
Credibility is difficult to earn, and could be lost quickly in a misstep.
Foster strategic thinking.
Encourage the protégé to draft a mentoring plan on their own.
Identify areas of development and create a plan to progress. They can access their own list of skills.
Identify and leverage teachable moments.
Reinforce the value of lifelong learning.
Mentoring shows the value of ongoing learning.
Mentors must model the behaviors they teach.
The concept of mentoring, which is learning from those that know more than you, must be practiced in the mentor’s life. Those that do not embrace the need for continual learning will not be effective in their mentor relationships.
When the meeting is enjoyable to the mentor, the mentee learns more.
A mentor is part advisor, part sponsor, part role model, part counselor, part friend, and part coach.
We’ve all heard that you can’t take your wealth with you, so share it. In the same way, you can’t take what you know with you, so share it with others.
Mentoring happens when there is a neutral trust at the core.
The art of listening is critical to the mentoring success.
You want a mentor that is:
Motivated
Time committed — will give you the time needed to learn.
Positive and optimistic
Respectful
The 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Mentors:
Model emotional intelligence.
Your behaviors have tremendous influence on those watching you. This means discipline, self-awareness, self-control, and self-management.
Explore the motivation.
Build rapport through understanding of different people styles.
Identify and pursue stretch goals.
A stretch goal is reaching beyond your ability to achieve something.
Reinforce the importance of safeguarding credibility.
Credibility is difficult to earn, and could be lost quickly in a misstep.
Foster strategic thinking.
Encourage the protégé to draft a mentoring plan on their own.
Identify areas of development and create a plan to progress. They can access their own list of skills.
Identify and leverage teachable moments.
Reinforce the value of lifelong learning.
Mentoring shows the value of ongoing learning.
Mentors must model the behaviors they teach.
The concept of mentoring, which is learning from those that know more than you, must be practiced in the mentor’s life. Those that do not embrace the need for continual learning will not be effective in their mentor relationships.
When the meeting is enjoyable to the mentor, the mentee learns more.
A mentor is part advisor, part sponsor, part role model, part counselor, part friend, and part coach.
We’ve all heard that you can’t take your wealth with you, so share it. In the same way, you can’t take what you know with you, so share it with others.
September 18, 2021
Definitely has me thinking about how I can help mentor our new lead or others if they'd like.
January 10, 2024
Maybe good if you are in a very specific corporate environment. It’s mostly telling boomer men to get some emotional intelligence. Not super helpful for my situation unfortunately
March 24, 2022
Stresses the importance of identifying fundamental objectives before launching a formal mentoring program at work. It mentions the career development aspects of sponsorship, coaching, and exposure among others. It emphasizes building rapport and credibility, modeling emotional intelligence and strategic thinking, and pursuing (stretch) goals and lifelong learning.
March 1, 2017
This is pretty basic stuff. Nothing very practical or addresses the tougher challenges.
1. Build emotional intelligence.
2. Explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
3. Build rapport through different people styles.
4. Identify and pursue stretch goals.
5. Reinforce importance of safeguarding credibility.
6. Foster strategic thinking.
7. Encourage protege to draft an initial mentoring plan.
8. Identify and leverage teachable moments.
9. Reinforce the value of lifelong learning.
It also talks about building trust.
1. Build emotional intelligence.
2. Explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
3. Build rapport through different people styles.
4. Identify and pursue stretch goals.
5. Reinforce importance of safeguarding credibility.
6. Foster strategic thinking.
7. Encourage protege to draft an initial mentoring plan.
8. Identify and leverage teachable moments.
9. Reinforce the value of lifelong learning.
It also talks about building trust.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews