mentoring - Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Power of the Other: The Startling Effect Other People Have on You, from the Boardroom to the Bedroom & Beyond – and What to Do About It

By Scott J. Pearson | January 16, 2024January 16, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Modern leadership is often contrasted with healthy relationships. Leaders, we are told, have to be a lonely and isolated genius, like Steve Jobs. However, in truth, no one can lead without relying on other people. Getting things done requires healthy relationships, and most key advances just cannot be made without others’ influence. In this book, leadership psychologist Henry Cloud examines how to best take advantage of others’ help by identifying mutually beneficial relationships. Cloud’s main…

Mentoring

Co-Active Coaching: The Proven Framework for Transformative Conversations at Work & in Life

By Scott J. Pearson | May 3, 2023May 3, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Coaching and mentoring are crucial ingredients for success in almost every endeavor. At first, the coachee needs to learn technical skills to succeed, but later, they must learn how to navigate more complex areas with many shades of grey. For instance, coachees might need to figure out how to find fulfillment and happiness in the midst of competing demands in work and family. There is no black-and-white answer for these. Fortunately, the authors of this…

Management-Business Mentoring

HBR Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need

By Scott J. Pearson | December 7, 2022December 7, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Education invests over a decade into teaching youth about life and their speciality, but the need to learn does not stop with graduation. In some ways, it’s just starting. The wise learn how to learn in their organization and community. This allows them to adapt and advance over time. This collection of essays, written by business leaders and compiled by the Harvard Business Review, initiates and inspires learners in their quest to benefit from those…

Mentoring

The Mentoring Guide: Helping Mentors & Mentees Succeed

By Scott J. Pearson | November 5, 2022November 5, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Mentoring relationships are point-blank critical to career development. They’re not just for the school setting but for anyone interested in a growing career. This book, written by three MDs in academic medicine, delineates the principles of mentoring based on research and experiences. It concisely teaches how to be both an effective mentor and an effective mentee (an under-appreciated virtue). Finally, it has a lengthy appendix (around 50 pages) that provides summaries of articles about mentoring,…

Management-Business Mentoring

The Mentor’s Toolkit for Career Conversations

By Scott J. Pearson | October 10, 2022October 10, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Many students and people in their early careers need to learn how to think and act about careers. To them, learning this understanding can be an “elephant in the room” holding them back from achieving their goals – and personal happiness. Mentoring is one way to help these people get their lives on track. This tool is especially used in educational settings. However, mentoring is harder than it first appears. To help mentee-mentor relationships get…

Mentoring

Super Mentors: The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Asking Extraordinary People for Help

By Scott J. Pearson | September 30, 2022September 30, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

As adults move from school into the workplace, learning from teachers in formal settings often shifts to learning from mentors in more informal settings. However, in this new environment, being a successful mentee is often more important than having a successful mentor. Being a successful mentee means growing in self-awareness and persistent towards finding out the right answers to your specific dilemmas. Learning to ask the right questions to the right people in the right…

Mentoring Society

Critical Mentoring: A Practical Guide

By Scott J. Pearson | September 16, 2022September 16, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

The next generation is always society’s most important resource, so it follows that mentoring youth is an important activity. The author Weiston-Serdan leads a non-profit network of youth mentors in Southern California. She encounters situations where mentors have to unpack social baggage that can hold youth back – issues like race, gender, class, and sexuality. These issues are often classified under the label of critical theory, issues where power relationships can exist. Therefore, her message…

Management-Business Mentoring

High-Impact Mentoring: A Practical Guide to Creating Value in Other People’s Lives

By Scott J. Pearson | July 24, 2022August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Business research repeatedly proves that the vital skill of mentoring enhances the odds of career success among mentees. Further, it provides a sense of fulfillment and purpose among mentors. It helps with imposter syndrome and makes both parties feel a sense of belonging. Further, it can help both sides of the relationship keep in touch with the latest trends and overcome new challenges. So why don’t more organizations take advantage of this type of relationship?…

Fiction-Stories Management-Business Mentoring

Starting Strong: A Mentoring Fable

By Scott J. Pearson | June 9, 2022July 24, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

A key way to develop careers is forming a mentoring relationship. To facilitate this, a mentor has to gain specific skills, and a mentee, likewise, has to possess certain skills. Although this relationship can make a healthy career, not a lot of conversation about this topic exists, even in education circles. In this work, Zachary and Fischler try to examine traits that make mentoring relationships work. They do so through a fable (or allegory) that…

Biography-Memoir Mentoring Psychology

Mentors: How to Help & Be Helped

By Scott J. Pearson | May 23, 2022July 24, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

The well-known Russell Brand advocates for mental health in the United Kingdom. He has been open about his recovery from numerous addictions in his best-selling memoir Recovery. He follows up that book with this look at mentoring, which helped him out of his hard spot. He is not focused as much on professional or career mentoring, but instead personal and life development. By remembering healthy relationships he’s had in the past, he teaches how to…