Ken Blanchard - One Minute Mentoring - How to find and work with a mentor - and why you’ll benefit from being one

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First published by Thorsons 2017

FIRST EDITION

© Blanchard Family Partnership and Claire Diaz-Ortiz 2017

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This is a business parable. Names, characters, places, businesses, events, and incidents are either the products of the authors’ imaginations or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780008146818

Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780008146825

Version: 2017-03-29

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

A Note to Readers

Introduction

Part I

No Compass, No Map: Life in a Mentorless Land

Asking for Direction

Who Me, a Mentor?

The Search

The First Meeting

Mission Imperative

Engagement: Establishing the Relationship

Taking Time for Introspection

Speaking Your Truth

Learning to Network

Building Trust

Networking Done Right

Sharing Opportunities

Review and Renewal

Mentoring Never Ends

Part II

The Mentor Model

Creating a Mentoring Program in Your Organization

Coaching Versus Mentoring

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Services Available

Join Us Online

About the Publisher

One Minute Mentoring is a fictional parable about the power of finding—or being—a mentor. Perhaps you’re wondering about the title. Why One Minute Mentoring? Because we have found that the best advice we ever gave or received was given in less than a minute. In other words, the guidance that really made a difference did not come in the form of long, complex theories—it came in short, meaningful insights.

Are you feeling less than certain about the path forward in your career? Are you wondering if you really have what it takes to reach your goals? Are you wondering what your goals should be? Then perhaps it’s time you found a mentor.

Maybe you answered all the above questions with a resounding, “No!” If so, perhaps it’s time you became a mentor.

The Business Hall of Fame is filled with the names of people who discovered that finding a mentor made all the difference in reaching success, as well as the names of leaders who attained greatness by mentoring others. You can be in that good company.

Most people agree that having a mentor is a good thing, but they don’t know how to find one or use one. And while most agree that being a mentor is a good thing, they don’t think they have the time or skills to do so.

That’s why we wrote this book: to give readers simple knowledge and easy-to-use tools to find and leverage mentoring relationships.

No matter what kind of mentoring you get involved in—new hire, peer-to-peer, adult-to-adolescent, or cross-generational—we know that it can positively transform not only your life, but the lives of others as well.

What is cross-generational mentoring? That’s when a young person is paired with an older person, so they both can learn and grow. Ken is a leadership expert in his midseventies and Claire is a former Twitter executive in her midthirties, and that makes us a living example of the lessons we are teaching. Through our own mentoring partnership—and through others—we have personally experienced the life-changing power of this practice. That said, we do want to point out that the age spread doesn’t have to be as wide as ours for mentors and mentees to get value out of the relationship.

In One Minute Mentoring , we tell the story of Josh Hartfield, a young sales rep whose motivation is flagging, and Diane Bertman, a sales executive whose crammed schedule isn’t delivering the satisfaction it once did. As the story of Diane and Josh unfolds, readers will learn the six action steps to creating a successful mentoring relationship, as well as key insights such as:

How to find a mentoring partnership—whether you are a mentee seeking a mentor or a mentor seeking a mentee.

How to work with a mentoring partner to make the positive changes you want to see in your work and life.

How to apply succinct, One Minute mentoring advice.

How to tap into the wisdom and skills of people from all age groups and backgrounds.

Successful people do not reach their goals alone. Behind even the most independent achiever is a person or group of people who helped that person succeed. So no matter your age, we encourage you to start finding a mentor today.

We also encourage you to mentor someone else, because those who extend a helping hand to others have much to gain. In the words of an ancient Buddhist proverb, “If you light a lamp for someone, it will also brighten your own path.”

If you are ready to build a powerful mentoring relationship and watch your work and life transform, then read on!

KEN BLANCHARD

coauthor of The New One Minute Manager ®

CLAIRE DIAZ-ORTIZ

author of Twitter for Good

Josh Hartfield sat at his desk and stared at his computer screen, paralyzed about what to do next. His in-box contained fifty priority e-mails. He had seven urgent voice mails from existing clients, and he needed to finish a new presentation before a sales appointment on Friday.

In terms of work, he had plenty. In terms of motivation, he had none. It wasn’t exactly the ideal frame of mind to be in for his quarterly review, which was coming up in five minutes.

“Ready?”

Josh looked up to see his boss, Eva Garcetti, who managed western regional sales for their company.