The Pocket Guide presents an expanded view of the traditional concept of mentoring by examining the behavioral expertise now required by modern mentors.
Today, mentors are clearly faced with the difficult challenge of establishing and sustaining meaningful mentoring relationships in an often intensely competitive world. Due to the increased speed, scope, and depth of change, people are confronted daily with a multiplicity of new demands on their mental ability and judgment, psychological stability, and emotional resiliency.
For a large number of individuals, the compressed transition time between even the recent past and the immediate present has created a condition of considerable situational stress. By sponsoring a variety of mentoring initiatives, many leaders of our culture have certainly recognized their responsibility by actively supporting programs devoted to the growth of adaptable, productive, and mature citizens.
However, to participate as intelligent and skilled practitioners, it is critical that mentors redefine and adapt the powerful opportunity available through the classic one-to-one model of interaction to the unique needs of our contemporary adult learners, who must function within more complex workplace, academic, social, and personal environments.