This first comprehensive guide to helping mentors and mentees bridge gaps between and among cultures—a growing issue in today's diverse workplace—is coauthored by the founder and CEO of the Center for Mentoring Excellence. As the workplace has become more diverse, mentoring has become more challenging. Mentors and mentees may come from very different backgrounds and have limited understanding of each other's cultures and outlooks. But mentoring remains the most powerful tool for creating meaningful relationships, furthering professional development, and increasing engagement and retention. Younger workers and emerging leaders in particular are demanding it. Lisa Z. Fain and Lois J. Zachary offer a timely, evidence-based, practical guide for helping mentors develop the level of cultural competency needed to bridge differences. Firmly rooted in Zachary's well-known four-part mentoring model, the book uses three fictional scenarios featuring three pairs of diverse mentors and mentees to illustrate how key concepts can play out in real life. It offers an array of accessible tools and strategies designed to help you increase your self-awareness and prepare you to embrace and leverage differences in your mentoring relationships. But beyond tips and techniques, Fain and Zachary emphasize that authenticity is the key—the ultimate purpose of this book is to help the mentor and mentee make a genuine connection and learn from each other. That's when the magic really happens.

This first comprehensive guide to helping mentors and mentees bridge gaps between and among cultures—a growing issue in today's diverse workplace—is coauthored by the founder and CEO of the Center for Mentoring Excellence. As the workplace has become more diverse, mentoring has become more challenging. Mentors and mentees may come from very different backgrounds and have limited understanding of each other's cultures and outlooks. But mentoring remains the most powerful tool for creating meaningful relationships, furthering professional development, and increasing engagement and retention. Younger workers and emerging leaders in particular are demanding it. Lisa Z. Fain and Lois J. Zachary offer a timely, evidence-based, practical guide for helping mentors develop the level of cultural competency needed to bridge differences. Firmly rooted in Zachary's well-known four-part mentoring model, the book uses three fictional scenarios featuring three pairs of diverse mentors and mentees to illustrate how key concepts can play out in real life. It offers an array of accessible tools and strategies designed to help you increase your self-awareness and prepare you to embrace and leverage differences in your mentoring relationships. But beyond tips and techniques, Fain and Zachary emphasize that authenticity is the key—the ultimate purpose of this book is to help the mentor and mentee make a genuine connection and learn from each other. That's when the magic really happens.

In order to succeed in today’s competitive environment, corporate and nonprofit institutions must create a workplace climate that encourages employees to continue to learn and grow. From the author of the best-selling The Mentor’s Guide comes the next-step mentoring resource to ensure personnel at all levels of an organization will teach and learn from each other. Written for anyone who wants to embed mentoring within their organization, Creating a Mentoring Culture is filled with step-by-step guidance, practical advice, engaging stories, and includes a wealth of reproducible forms and tools.

A hands-on and usable guide to making the first 90 days of your mentoring relationship a success In Starting Strong, mentoring experts Lois J. Zachary and Lory A. Fischler weave a compelling tale that exemplifies the concepts, highlights the dynamics, and outlines the issues involved in mentoring relationships. The authors use the form of a fable to tell the story of a budding mentoring relationship filled with possibilities, problems, and triumphs. The story of Cynthia, a seasoned professional, and her new mentee Rafa, brings to life Zachary and Fischler's wealth of mentoring suggestions and best practices and each episode of the fable is accompanied by reflection questions, key learnings, and strategies that readers can apply to their own mentoring relationships. The authors include a conversation playbook that guides mentors and mentees through six essential conversations that will help them establish a strong mentoring connection, and keep it moving forward. As organizations face the transition of departing Boomers and arriving Millennials, Starting Strong offers a hands-on and readable guide to create effective mentoring relationships that will ensure the success of that transition. The book: Covers the key components of a successful mentoring relationship including building trust, establishing a comfort zone (and then having the courage to leave it), holding productive meetings, dealing with power dynamics, setting goals, and keeping momentum going Shows how to avoid common pitfalls and overcome mentoring obstacles Applies to any organizational or institutional setting Starting Strong is more than an engaging story of mentorship, it's a vital resource for understanding how to implement and sustain a meaningful mentoring relationship.

PRAISE FOR THE MENTEE'S GUIDE "The Mentee's Guide inspires and guides the potential mentee, provides new insights for the adventure in learning that lies ahead, and underscores my personal belief and experience that mentoring is circular. The mentor gains as much as the mentee in this evocative relationship. Lois Zachary's new book is a great gift." Frances Hesselbein, chairman and founding president, Leader to Leader Institute "Whether you are the mentee or mentor, born or made for the role, you will gain much more from the relationship by practicing the fun and easy A-to-Z principles of The Mentee's Guide by the master of excellence, Lois Zachary." Ken Shelton, editor, Leadership Excellence "With this deeply practical book filled with stories and useful exercises, Lois Zachary completes her groundbreaking trilogy on mentoring. Must-reading for those in search of a richer understanding of this deeply human relationship as well as anyone seeking a mentor, whether for new skills, job advancement, or deeper wisdom." Laurent A. Parks Daloz, senior fellow, the Whidbey Institute, and author, Mentor: Guiding the Journey of Adult Learners

Amazing Benefits, Unique Risks A stellar mentor can change the trajectory of a career. And an enduring mentoring program can become an organization’s most powerful talent development tool. But fixing a “broken” mentoring program or developing a new program from scratch requires a unique process, not a standard training methodology. Over the course of her career, seasoned program development specialist Jenn Labin has encountered dozens of mentoring programs unable to stand the test of their organizations’ natural talent cycles. These programs applied a training methodology to a nontraining solution and were ineffective at best and poorly designed at worst. What’s needed is a solid planning framework developed from hands-on experimentation. And you’ll find it here. Mentoring Programs That Work is framed around Labin’s AXLES model—the first framework devoted to the unique challenges of a sustained learning process. This step-by-step approach will help you navigate the early phases of mentoring program alignment all the way through program launch and measurement. Whether your goal is to recruit and retain Millennials or deepen organizational commitment, it’s time to embrace mentoring as one of the most powerful tools of talent development. Mentoring Programs That Work will help your organization succeed by building mentoring programs that connect people and inspire learning transfer.

Thoughtful and rich with advice, The Mentor's Guide explores the critical process of mentoring and presents practical tools for facilitating the experience from beginning to end. Now managers, teachers, and leaders from any career, professional, or educational setting can successfully navigate the learning journey by using the hands-on worksheets and exercises in this unique resource. Readers will learn how to: Assess their readiness to become a mentor Establish the relationship Set appropriate goals Monitor progress and achievement Avoid common pitfalls Bring the relationship to a natural conclusion "The greatest gift one can give, other than love, is to help another learn! Every leader who cares about nurturing talent and facilitating excellence will find this book a joy to read and a jewel to share." --Chip R. Bell, author of Managers as Mentors