Book The Mentor’s Guide

Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships

Lois J. Zachary
Jossey-Bass, 2011 more...
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Mentoring expert Lois J. Zachary offers insight into and guidance for the mentoring

process for mentors and protégés.

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 In this second edition of her original 2000 book, Lois J. Zachary presents a
comprehensive guide to mentoring. She explores how mentoring has evolved
and how its foundational principles match those of adult education. She
describes how mentors and their protégés can learn about themselves and how
that self-knowledge strengthens the mentoring process. She offers case studies
and role-playing exercises participants can use to prepare for the mentoring
process. By its nature, mentoring poses challenges because it involves adult
learning. Zachary clarifies the mentor’s role: Promote learning by focusing
attention on the person being mentored. getAbstractrecommends Zachary’s
insights to HR professionals, mentors, “mentees” and anyone considering a
mentoring relationship.

In this summary, you will learn

 How the process of mentoring has evolved,
 How to be a better mentor and
 How both parties can make mentoring a success.

Take-Aways
 Mentoring has become “collaborative.”
 Seven elements underpin the “learner-centered mentoring” paradigm:
“reciprocity, learning, relationship, partnership, collaboration, mutual…goals”
and “development.”
 Each partner must assume responsibility for certain parts of a mentoring
relationship.
 Learning is the core of mentoring. Without it, mentoring can’t exist.
 Mentors must guard against projecting their own experience onto their
protégés.
 Self-reflection helps mentors understand how to encourage learning in
mentoring relationships.
 People in mentoring relationships must make sure they maintain their
distinct identities.
 Mentors should create a timeline of events that influenced them
profoundly.
 People too readily assume that they understand others. Mentors need to
guard against such assumptions.
 Considering their protégé’s experience lets mentors get to know their
partner better. 

 
 Mentoring’s Potential Results

Mentoring relationships can have varied outcomes. Randy’s company asked

him to mentor Pat, a recent recruit. Pat wanted to make a good impression, and
his relationship with Randy, a manager, started out well. Eventually, Randy got
busy and had little time to mentor Pat. As a result, their relationship became
purely transactional. They had no time for discussion, and Pat became unhappy
with the arrangement.

Carmon and Jocelyn’s mentoring relationship worked out differently. Jocelyn

also wanted to make her mark. She approached Carmon, a well-respected
manager, to ask if she’d act as her mentor. From the beginning, Carmon worked
with Jocelyn to clarify her objectives. They agreed on guidelines that would
govern their relationship. They regularly evaluated how their mentoring
partnership helped meet Jocelyn’s goals.

“Every relationship faces obstacles, and the mentoring relationship is no

exception. The challenge is to overcome them and learn from the experience.”
Jocelyn and Carmon used the idea of forming a partnership as the foundation
for their relationship. Both sought to learn from working together. By contrast,
Pat’s failed relationship with Randy derived from earlier modes of education. In
that obsolete dynamic, mentors provided insight and their protégés absorbed it.
Mentoring has since become more “collaborative,” as evidenced by Jocelyn and
Carmon’s successful relationship.

“Mentoring is a process of engagement. No one can mentor without

connection.”

“Learner-Centered Mentoring Paradigm”

Seven vital elements together underpin the learner-centered mentoring

paradigm:

1. “Reciprocity” – Each partner assumes responsibility for tasks in the

relationship. They both gain from working together.
2. “Learning” – Learning lies at the core of mentoring. Mentors must
develop insight into how their protégés learn and how to promote learning.
3. “Relationship” – Healthy connections between two people encourage
mentoring relationships, but they take time to develop.
4. “Partnership” – Mentors and those they mentor must honor each
other and respect the commitments they make.
5. “Collaboration” – Both partners must work together to strengthen
their relationship and share what they know. They must agree on what the
protégé wants to learn and how they can together achieve those objectives.
6. “Mutually defined goals” – Mentors and “mentees” must define their
goals at the inception of the program and continually evaluate them during their
relationship.
7. “Development” – Mentoring seeks to boost mentees’ acquisition of
knowledge and skills that add to their capabilities.

“Most mentees will tell you that the most important way that a mentor can
support them is to listen.”

Mentoring Is “Based on Principles of Adult Learning”

American adult educator Malcolm Knowles (1913–1997) was a pioneer in the

use of learner contracts and the development of the Humanist Learning Theory.
He enunciated the fundamental drivers of how adults learn and discussed the
concept of self-directed learning. Mentoring today embodies many of his ideas.
Knowles suggests that:

“When you take the time to discuss the guidelines for your mentoring
relationship…both partners know what to expect going forward.”

 Adults can optimize how much and how well they learn if they have a role
in analyzing, designing, carrying out and appraising their own learning.
 Facilitators must encourage an environment that promotes learning.
 Adults become more willing to learn when they want specific knowledge.
 Adults want to direct their own learning.
 Individual experience provides a rich source of information for adult
education. Adults learn from their own experiences and those of other people.  
 Adults want to use what they learn as quickly as possible.
 Adults learn best when they feel a need to learn.

“Learning Styles and Cognitive Frameworks”

People learn in their own unique ways. Mentors should learn their protégés’
style of learning, adopt it and work with it. These styles are often based on
individual cognitive frameworks, or ways of learning. Educational psychologist
William Perry (1913–1998) explained the cognitive frameworks that shape how
people make sense of the world. He listed:

“Context influences how we perceive reality, what we see as possible and

achievable. From it, we draw our identity and formulate our thinking and
attitudes.”
1. “Dualism” – People adopting this framework tend to see things as black
or white. Learners who use this approach see their mentors as authorities who
hand out knowledge.
2. “Multiplicity” – People with this perspective believe everyone has his
or her own version of the truth. They rely on their emotions rather than on a
rational examination or discussion. Mentors should help these learners evaluate
their options objectively. They need to discuss how to integrate the data they
encounter.
3. “Relativism” – Those who learn this way understand that people all
have different viewpoints. They examine and compare these viewpoints. Learners
see their mentors as one potential resource. Mentors can help these learners
analyze and clarify their thinking.
4. “Commitment” – This framework differs from the others because it
describes ways of being rather than ways of thinking. Mentors can encourage
learning by helping their protégés integrate “thinking with acting.”

“As mentoring partners, we each bring our own multiple contexts and create a
new context of partnership, which itself influences our relationship.”

Adult Learning Concepts

When Swiss-American biologist Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) worked as a

professor of natural history at Harvard University more than 100 years ago, he
asked a student to examine a fish. The student soon lost interest. To keep
himself occupied, the student drew the fish. As he did, he found attributes he
hadn’t noticed. Agassiz praised the student and dared him to find more things
he hadn’t noticed. Agassiz encouraged the student to examine the fish from
different angles. He didn’t give the student a solution. Instead, he provided the
student a chance to explore his own way of thinking.

Adults assimilate knowledge best when they have a chance to think through
what they’ve experienced. Stephen Brookfield, author of 16 books on adult
education, studied critical reflection and adult learning. He suggests that critical
reflection grants insight into your assumed premises, so you can act more
effectively.

“Sometimes mentoring partners prefer to avoid closure because they fear

hurting the feelings of their mentor partner or are otherwise anxious about
terminating the relationship.”

“The Mentor’s Journey”

Mentors must consider the roads their own lives have taken. This reflection can
give them a greater understanding of the rhythm of their lives. Yet mentors
must guard against projecting their experiences onto their mentees. A mentor’s
 failure to “differentiate between self and other” means that his or her protégé
could learn mechanically and not explore themselves. Mentors can undertake
this three-step exercise to reflect on their lives:

“Many mentoring relationships end because one of the partners has a shift in
personal priorities that changes the balance of the relationship.”

1. “Gain self-awareness” – By reflecting about themselves, mentors can

better understand how to encourage someone else’s learning.
2. “Understand the mentee’s journey” – Mentors have their own
experiences, and they can’t help bringing their history to the mentoring
relationship. However, mentors must focus on their protégé’s experiences to avoid
unintentionally coaching someone else to become a replica of him or herself
instead of reaching his or her potential.
3. “Gain perspective” – Mentors must reflect upon their mentees’
journey and their own.

Developing a Timeline

Mentors should list a timeline of events that profoundly influenced them –

whether negatively or positively. They should examine what helped them grow
and enumerate the hurdles they encountered. They should include unplanned
events that affected them. Mentors also ought to document the people who
helped them grow and explore the lessons they learned. As they think about
how their mentors shaped their thought processes and explore the lessons in
their timelines, they can reflect on how they want to mentor.

“Plan the process of coming to closure, taking into consideration how it will
play out both when closure is anticipated and when it is not.”

“Miriam’s Timeline”

Miriam, a health care executive, wanted to mentor women who sought career
change. She created her timeline. She had begun her career by completing an
associate degree at a community college and taking a job with a utility company.
After a decade, the company promoted her to manager. A few years later, her
daughter died in a hit-and-run accident.

“Technology can accommodate most types of mentoring relationships.

However, being virtually connected with your mentee doesn’t necessarily
mean that you’ve connected on a deeper level.”
Soon after that tragedy, Miriam earned a nursing degree and, in time, became a
nursing director at a local hospital. Her timeline acknowledged seven significant
incidents: “two marriages, a divorce, the death of her daughter, going back to
school, specific job promotions and her 40th birthday celebration.”

Miriam recognized three breaks that helped her progress and develop. These
included a positive mentoring experience, opportunities her company offered
her to educate herself, and her second husband’s encouragement and support.
She also faced obstacles, including work, colleagues who sought to obstruct her
education and her first husband’s lack of understanding of her aspirations.

“Engaging in feedback – asking for it, giving it, receiving it, accepting it and
acting on it – is a vital part of enabling growth for your mentee.”
Through examining her timeline, Miriam realized that several people she hadn’t
previously recognized had helped her. She saw how much she had changed.
Miriam understood more clearly why she wanted to be a mentor: She felt
grateful and sought to share her good fortune.

“The learning that adults do arises from the context of their lives.” (University
of Georgia professor Sharan Merriam)

“Reflecting on Your Mentoring Journey”

Cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson – daughter of Margaret Mead

and Gregory Bateson – wrote a memoir, Composing a Life, in 1989. She
describes how she evolved due to her interactions with women friends who each
contributed to the development of her personality.

Mentors should create a “mentor timeline” that identifies the people who
strongly influenced them and then examine what they gained from each of their
mentors. They can contrast what they liked most in these relationships with
what they didn’t like, and then they can consider what they learned about being
both a mentor and a protégé. Mentors should identify lessons they learned
while experiencing both success and failure, and then think about what
quandaries they face regularly and what they have learned from them.

“An old African proverb says, ‘If you want to travel fast, travel alone; if you
want to travel far, travel together.’ At its core, that is what mentoring is:
traveling far, together, in a relationship of mutual learning.”

“The Mentee’s Journey”

People often assume they understand others. Mentors need to remain cognizant

about what differentiates them from their mentees. Madeleine wanted someone
to take over her role in a condominium association. Gordon volunteered, but
Madeleine didn’t think he was capable. Worried about what she believed to be
“gaps in his knowledge,” she offended him by how she prepared information for
 him. Madeleine didn’t know Gordon had an MBA and had owned two
construction companies. If she had researched his background, their
relationship might have turned out differently. 

Mentors should consider their protégés’ experience to gain a better sense of who
they are. This equips mentors to explore their assumptions and to consider
anything that might affect the mentoring relationship. Mentors should identify
gaps in their understanding about their mentees and ask questions to fill those
gaps.   

Mentoring Challenges

Both parties in a mentoring relationship must maintain their distinct identities.

As mentors gain a sense of their own and the other person’s journeys, they can
compare where both stand on their respective timelines, understand how they
differ, and assess how this affects what protégés want to learn. Mentors must
learn what actions to avoid in order not to harm the relationship.

Niles worked as a teacher and then joined his city’s government. He volunteered
as a mentor in a school-to-work program. He attempted to construct timelines
for himself and for a potential mentee, Juliana. Niles wanted to become a
lawyer. He recognized he might not have enough time to meet Juliana’s
requirements and informed her and the mentoring coordinator. They
appreciated his frankness and devised ways of meeting both his requirements
and Juliana’s objectives.                                                                                                                                   

uthor
ry is president of Leadership Development Services LLC, a consulting firm. She also wrote the
ting a Mentoring Culture and The Mentee’s Guide.