Preface

This is the 4th edition of Everyone Needs a Mentor, and I am still amazed by how much more there is to say on the topic. In the past two years there has been a significant increase in the quantity and quality of mentoring at a distance, particularly by e-mail. Academic research, particularly in Europe, has given us valuable clues on key aspects of mentoring relationship management. There have been major moves to establish good practice standards across the world. And, again in Europe, the leading proponents of coaching and mentoring have recognised the value of combining resources and learning, forming the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. Already this body is having an influence over practice in both disciplines in Australasia and South Africa.

In this revision, we begin with a detailed review of the evolution of structured mentoring programmes, from their origins in the United States to their continued evolution in Europe and the rest of the world. We explore definitions of mentoring and the key differences between the two prevailing philosophies of mentoring - sponsoring and developmental.

Chapter 2 looks at the dynamics that underlie the two main models of mentoring and places them into the wider context of developmental alliances.

Chapter 3 opens up the vexed issue of formality versus informality. Just how much structure and management does a formal scheme need to approach the performance of a really effective informal relationship?

Chapter 4 explores the benefits of mentoring, from the point of view of four key stakeholders - the employer, the mentee, the mentor and the mentee's colleagues.

Chapter 5 examines the competencies of both mentor and mentee - what they do and the skills they need to extract the maximum value from this powerful developmental environment.

Chapter 6 covers the issues of selection and matching, providing some ground rules for managing both processes.

Chapter 7 deals with the basics of designing and initiating a programme, from setting clear goals, through training for all participants, to communication and securing adequate championship.

Chapter 8 focuses on how to ensure that the programme is self-sustaining. Although many programmes are designed to have a finite life, because they tackle specific business or social issues, it is important that they remain dynamic and vital for that period.

Chapter 9 is a new chapter, bringing together the rapid developments in standards for mentoring programmes and introducing the new International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment.

Chapter 10, also a new chapter, investigates another new phenomenon: the expansion of peer and upward (reverse) mentoring programmes.

Chapter 11 details how the typical successful mentoring relationship develops over time, and explores some of the implications this has for programme management.

Chapter 12 continues the management theme by illustrating some of the most common problems that occur within the mentoring relationship and within the mentoring scheme, and suggests ways of avoiding those problems.

Mentoring graduate recruits, explored in Chapter 13, is one of the longest-established applications of mentoring and is a priority area for many organisations. Mentoring has reduced turnover of graduate recruits by two-thirds and more in their first 12 months.

Chapter 14, which looks at the specific and rapidly growing area of mentoring in support of diversity, includes a new case study of one of the most innovative schemes, by the Audit Commission.

Chapter 15 addresses another rapidly growing area of application: mentoring at the most senior levels of organisations. Human resource directors are increasingly challenging the efficacy of individual relationships - and this, in turn, is driving the demand for professionalisation and measurement of the executive mentor role.

Chapter 16 examines the practicalities and potential for e-mentoring. Initial scepticism about the effectiveness of e-mentoring is fading as experience shows it has advantages as well as disadvantages.

The advice given in Everyone Needs a Mentor is based on nearly 30 years of research and practical experience in helping organisations in many parts of the world to design and implement mentoring programmes.

I have been lucky enough to work and exchange learning over this time with a remarkable array of academics and practitioners. Among the academics (at the risk of offending those I miss out) are Kathy Kram, whose original research in Boston was so influential in popularising structured mentoring programmes, Belle Rose Ragins, Liz Borredon, David Megginson, Bob Garvey, Stephen Gibb, Terri Scandura, Monica Higgins, Anthony Grant, Truls Engström, Unn Solle and Jennybeth Ekeland. Among the practitioners, Jenny Sweeney, Kim Langridge, Linda MacGregor and the entire team of colleagues at Clutterbuck Associates. I have also been lucky enough to learn from a host of clients, whose enthusiasm for mentoring has fuelled my own.

I hope this new edition of Everyone Needs a Mentor will prove as useful in supporting mentoring programmes as the previous three. It has not escaped my notice that the time between revisions seems to halve on each occasion. I guess I should be thinking about the 5th edition now!

David Clutterbuck