The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring: A complete guide to effective mentoring

The research on mentoring is clear. Those who are mentored, out-earn and outperform those who are not. They make higher salaries, get promoted more often, have greater job and career satisfaction and lower rates of burnout. For organisations that invest in mentoring their employees, they benefit from higher productivity and greater loyalty. Mentoring works as a great retention tool. But despite all this, only 76% of people understand the undisputed benefits of having a mentor, and only 37% of people actually have one. 

But how do you do mentoring well, both as a mentor and in building a mentoring programme in your organisation? The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring gives you the tools you need to understand what mentoring is and its benefits, learn how to mentor effectively, and be mentored. 

By breaking down each stage of the process, this book will enable senior and aspiring executives to both give the support they need to act as a mentor to future talent in their organisation and seek mentoring for themselves that they had thought no longer relevant but which will stretch them and fast track their further career progress. While it’s likely that they will have been mentored at some point in their career, in our experience many senior executives turn at some point from being mentored to mentoring others. 

The research on mentoring is clear. Those who are mentored, out-earn and outperform those who are not. They make higher salaries, get promoted more often, have greater job and career satisfaction and lower rates of burnout. For organisations that invest in mentoring their employees, they benefit from higher productivity and greater loyalty. Mentoring works as a great retention tool. But despite all this, only 76% of people understand the undisputed benefits of having a mentor, and only 37% of people actually have one. 

But how do you do mentoring well, both as a mentor and in building a mentoring programme in your organisation? The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring gives you the tools you need to understand what mentoring is and its benefits, learn how to mentor effectively, and be mentored. 

By breaking down each stage of the process, this book will enable senior and aspiring executives to both give the support they need to act as a mentor to future talent in their organisation and seek mentoring for themselves that they had thought no longer relevant but which will stretch them and fast track their further career progress. While it’s likely that they will have been mentored at some point in their career, in our experience many senior executives turn at some point from being mentored to mentoring others.

The research on mentoring is clear. Those who are mentored, out-earn and outperform those who are not. They make higher salaries, get promoted more often, have greater job and career satisfaction and lower rates of burnout. For organisations that invest in mentoring their employees, they benefit from higher productivity and greater loyalty. Mentoring works as a great retention tool. But despite all this, only 76% of people understand the undisputed benefits of having a mentor, and only 37% of people actually have one. 

But how do you do mentoring well, both as a mentor and in building a mentoring programme in your organisation? The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring gives you the tools you need to understand what mentoring is and its benefits, learn how to mentor effectively, and be mentored. 

By breaking down each stage of the process, this book will enable senior and aspiring executives to both give the support they need to act as a mentor to future talent in their organisation and seek mentoring for themselves that they had thought no longer relevant but which will stretch them and fast track their further career progress. While it’s likely that they will have been mentored at some point in their career, in our experience many senior executives turn at some point from being mentored to mentoring others. 

Andy Lopata is an expert in professional relationships and networking for over 20 years, author of five books, blogger for Psychology Today and podcast host. Teaches mentoring to senior executives at leading global organisations such as Philip Morris International, Accor Group and to the global Board of Mercer. Other clients include Glaxo SmithKline, Astrazeneca, HSBC, Academi Wales (Welsh Government leaders), The Prime Ministers’ Office in Dubai (through Duke Fuqua Business School). He is also the author FT Publishing title: Recommended. 

Dr. Ruth Gotian is the Chief Learning Officer and Associate Professor of Education in Anesthesiology and former founding Assistant Dean of Mentoring and Executive Director of the Mentoring Academy at Weill Cornell Medicine. She has been hailed by the journal Nature and Columbia University as an expert in mentorship and leadership development and has won multiple international mentoring awards. In 2021, she was selected as one of 30 people worldwide to be named to the Thinkers50 Radar List, dubbed the Oscars of management thinking, and recently won the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement “Radar” Award ranking. In 2022, she was named one of the top 20 mentors in the world by the International Federation of Learning & Development. 

How to use this book and who it is for  

Why mentoring is so important 

Types of mentoring programme 

Why mentoring is NOT coaching 

Part One – Being an effective mentor 

1. Why should you mentor other people? 
2. What are your responsibilities? 
3. The ingredients of an effective mentoring relationship 
4. The Mentoring Meeting  
5. How to deliver the best value 
6. How do you know and what should you do if the relationship is not working? 

Part Two – Your organisation’s approach to mentoring 

1. Where mentoring relationships go wrong 
2. Who is responsible for leading the programme and who needs to support it? 
3. How do you identify and match mentors and mentees? 
4. How will you measure success? 

Part Three – Being an effective mentee 

1. Why are we talking about being a good mentee in a book about being an effective mentor? 
2. How do you find the right mentor for you?