CAREERS & MANAGEMENT 3/2020 Business Spotlight 73Illustration: Minho Jung; Foto: Johanna Hilton
➻ To the mentor. David Clutterbuck writes: “There
are few roles more rewarding in life than helping oth-
ers achieve their potential and their dreams...” Men-
torship therefore offers personal satisfaction as well
as greater self-understanding in supporting someone
else’s professional and personal development. Men-
toring can also help to improve one’s communication
skills and one’s ability to build relationships in more
diverse contexts.Getting personal
Over the past 50 years, mentoring has evolved from
being a primarily male-dominated, top-down, career-
oriented activity taking place in US corporations to
a much wider range of approaches and applications
both inside and outside the private sector. This has
not, however, diluted the concept. On the contrary,
the personalization and customization of mentoring
has made it an increasingly powerful tool.
Mentoring is also playing an essential role in a
world where older family members, priests and fam-
ily doctors are no longer central parts of our social
fabric. Mentoring is replacing the help and guidance
that people used to get from these traditional sourc-
es and which they need more than ever to navigate a
way through the bewildering choices we face in the
modern world.
Russell Brand has had an eventful career as a
stand-up comedian, presenter and actor — and, more
recently, as a writer and activist. His earlier promis-
cuity and disruptive behaviour gained him notori-
ety. But he has written seriously about his success-
ful fight against drug addiction, about politics and
the state of the world, and about the journey of self-
discovery that has led him into marriage, fatherhood
and a search for some more fundamental truths
about life.
In his book Mentors: How to Help and Be Helped, he
recounts how this journey could not have been pos-
sible without the help of a number of mentors. These
include the former addict at a treatment centre who
helped him out of addiction, an acupuncturist, a ther-
apist and a martial-arts instructor. Brand’s search has
taken a more spiritual turn and he profiles Amma, a
Hindu spiritual leader, the “hugging saint” who has
hugged more than 33 million people, and Radhanath
Swami, another spiritual teacher of American origin.
Brand argues that mentoring can and must be central
to any search for self-realization and truth in oneself.
It supports the essential process of our becoming
who we want to be.
At the end of the book, Brand talks about the men-
toring he himself now does with young reforming
addicts like his former self. This is a long way from
the white-collar males of the 1970s — although less
far from the goddess Athena in disguise.alumnus (pl. alumni)
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stellterGetting a mentor
Think about the people who have mentored you informally. Who were
they? What did they do to help you? What qualities did they have and what
skills did they exercise? There is overwhelming anecdotal and research ev-
idence to demonstrate that mentoring has a positive impact on people’s
lives, so if you don’t have a mentor, why not get one?
Blanchard and Diaz- Ortiz say in One Minute Mentoring: “As you search for
a mentor, make sure you turn over every stone.” They recommend that you
think about people such as former supervisors, college alumni, teachers,
professors, neighbours, friends as well as using the services of volunteer
associations and online mentoring organizations.Becoming a mentor
Think also about the people you have mentored. If you don’t think you have
mentored anyone yet, could you do so? There may be an organization near
you that would like to hear from you. Mentors are not normally expected
to have a formal qualification in the same way that coaches are — partly
because coaching is more commonly a full-time professional activity. But
training is important and is offered, for example, by all the organizations
listed in the “For more information” box on this page. If your company runs
a mentoring programme, then training should be an essential element. And
once you start mentoring, it is helpful to join a mutual support group of
mentors to exchange experiences and ideas.