Book Description

Mentoring plays a very effective role in the current environment, which is described as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous). In order to cope with this environment, organizations have to be responsive, and for this, people in the organization have to be responsive. A responsive person quickly reacts to people or events and shows emotions such as pleasure and affection spontaneously while working with or for people. A responsive leader is driven to understand people and enhance their readiness to appropriately react or respond. Such leaders, equipped with the necessary competencies, can mentor others to transform them to become responsive. Therefore, such leaders and mentors can trigger a multiplying effect in the organization to create many more mentors like them. Mentoring gives one the opportunity to use one’s valuable possessions (knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and other attributes) respectfully in developing others. Nothing gives such a strong boost to one’s self-esteem and experience of self-actualization, as seeing the achievements of those, in whose development, he/she has invested. Responsive mentors put others first and care about their needs. This builds goodwill, strengthens relationships, and cultivates trust and mutual concern. Mentoring cannot be understood and practiced in isolation, it is very closely related to a few other interventions like Coaching, Feedback, Counseling, and Pygmalion. A number of appropriate behavioral skills help mentoring unleash its tremendous potential. This book, conceived after over 50 years of managerial experience in diverse fields, especially in developing people and organizations, is a valuable resource for being an exemplary mentor and also encouraging and developing others to become responsive and also become mentors. The process has been so vividly described that any organization can initiate mentoring smoothly. Written in simple language, with a formidable blend of theory and practice on one hand and content and process on the other, this book will be highly beneficial to mentors, mentees, line managers, HR/HRD professionals, management faculty, teachers, and trainers.