Business_Spotlight_No3_202..

74 Business Spotlight 3/2020 CAREERS & MANAGEMENT

Illustration: Minho Jung; Foto: privat

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FOR MORE INFORMATION

BOOKS

Mentoring Pocketbook, Geof Alred and Robert Garvey

(Management Pocketbooks)

One Minute Mentoring, Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz-Ortiz

(Harper Thorsons)

Mentors: How to Help and Be Helped, Russell Brand (Bluebird)

Everyone Needs a Mentor, David Clutterbuck (CIPD Books)

Coaching and Mentoring: Theory and Practice, Robert Garvey,

David Megginson and Paul Stokes (SAGE Publications)

Mentoring in Action: A Practical Guide for Managers, David

Megginson and David Clutterbuck (Kogan Page)

The Mentoring Manual: Your Step by Step Guide to Being a

Better Mentor, Julie Starr (Pearson Business)

ORGANIZATIONS

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development:

http://www.cipd.co.uk

European Mentoring & Coaching Council:

http://www.emccouncil.org

Institute of Leadership & Management: http://www.i-l-m.com

International Mentoring Association:

https://mentoringassociation.org

WEBSITES

The Coaching & Mentoring Network: http://www.ukcoaching.org

David Clutterbuck Partnership:

http://www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com

For the names of hundreds of mentors and mentees in

professional life, film and fiction:

http://www.mentors.co/mentorpairs.html

STEVE FLINDERS is a freelance writer, trainer and

coach based in Malta. He writes regularly about

business communication, and provides language,

international communication and leadership

training. He has an Institute of Leadership and

Management level 7 diploma in executive coaching

and mentoring.

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Mentoring and climate change

In November 2019, the United Nations described the future as “bleak”, after

a report showed greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at their highest-ever

levels. We know that every commercial and industrial sector needs to in-

itiate a process of deep transformation to get to zero net emissions. And

yet there is little evidence that businesses, particularly those with a vested

interest in the status quo, are taking the urgent action needed.

To change how companies operate, we could make two-way mentoring

an integral part of the culture of every workplace. It is the young who can

see most clearly what kind of world they will inherit if it is two or more de-

grees warmer than today, and therefore it is the young whose voice should

be heard in the reshaping of our whole business environment. Upward

mentoring on the climate emergency in every business organization would

help to change things.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT MENTORING

“My mentor was never one to dismiss

a student as being untalented or

unworthy of his attention or respect.

Despite his reputation for being

very frank in his assessments, he

was really respectful of the process

people go through to become real

artists, or to get closer to their vision”

Chris Buck, New York-based

photographer about his photography

teacher and mentor

“Mentoring has helped with a lot of

things. It’s given me the ability to

open up to others, helped me to make

new friends and given me confidence”

A young person in Bradford,

England, on the “Youth in Mind”

project supported by Yorkshire

Mentoring

“A mentor is not an agony aunt or a

miracle cure for all problems. We are

simply people who have probably

experienced similar situations in

the past. We can therefore help the

individual to find the best way to

tackle the issue themselves”

Helen Martin, BP Chemicals, quoted

by David Clutterbuck in Everyone

Needs a Mentor

“If I could go back and tell the

20-year-old version of me one thing,

it would be, ‘Get a mentor’”

Jon Acuff, American author, quoted

by Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz-

Ortiz in One Minute Mentoring

“My mentor taught me that I can

choose how I feel in response to

any circumstances, and how to be

mindful of my behaviours in the face

of everyday events. I learned that our

attachment to outcomes causes so

many problems, and that integrity is

more important than achievement”

John Akehurst, former CEO,

Woodside Petroleum, Australia

Concluding thoughts

We are all on a lifelong journey of self-discovery

that should be exciting and involving. If yours isn’t,

a mentor could help you rekindle that flame and em-

power your life. You can also gain enormous satisfac-

tion from sharing in and supporting someone else’s

journey. And we can both mentor and be mentored at

the same time, aiming to unlock potential.

So, let’s take the title of David Clutterbuck’s book

as almost our final word: Everyone Needs a Mentor —

and everyone needs to be mentored. Mentoring may

not save the world on its own, but it could play a big

part in our personal and collective salvation.