Mentor networks and career success: Lessons for turbulent times.

Title:

Title: Review of Janasz, Sullivan, and Whiting’s “Mentor networks and career success: 
Lessons for turbulent times.”

Citation:  Janasz, S. C., Sullivan, S. E., & Whiting, V. (2003). Mentor networks and career success:        Lessons for turbulent times. Academy of Management, 17(4), 78-91. Summary: Mentor networks and career success focuses on the importance of building your personal mentoring network.  While, historically, the mentor relationship has been more of an apprenticeship, in today’s organizations where we have boundaryless jobs, it is important to build an intelligent network of multiple mentors in order to be successful, grow, and compete. It is important to keep in mind that your mentor network must be dynamic as your career progresses and changes.  Mentoring helps you to learn who you are, what you can do, and what you know.  Discussion: This article challenges the singularity of the traditional mentoring system.  Individuals  learn a great deal through their interactions with others, especially those with different backgrounds and expertise.  Traditionally, individuals have looked to individuals that  have and seniority in their organization or other organizations to provide mentoring.   Forces such as rapidly changing technology, shifting organizational structures, and  global marketplace dynamics have transformed mentoring into a process that by necessity extends beyond the services of a single mentor (Janasz, Sullivan, and Whiting, 2003).  The intelligent career comprises three career competencies that are manifested in people’s  beliefs and identities (knowing why), knowledge and skills (knowing how), and networks  or relationships (knowing whom) (Arthur, 1995). It is important to look for mentors that  support all 3 of these areas of your career.  The authors interview successful executives  and detail the success of diverse mentoring networks.  They have found that successful executives not only look to senior leadership to fill their mentoring voids but also to peers  and employees. Through these interviews they have developed 5 steps for building an  intelligent mentoring network. Steps for Building an Intelligent Mentoring Network 1.                           Become the Perfect Protégé´. 2.                           Engage in 360-Degree Networking. 3.                           Commit to Assessing, Building, and Adjusting the Mentor Network. 4.                           Develop Diverse, Synergistic Connections. 5.                           Realize That Change Is Inevitable and That All Good Things Must Come to an End. "What made a difference for me was having different kinds of people who served as mentors. These were individuals whose ideas resonated with me. What they said made sense to me personally. They were not necessarily senior people in the organization. They included my employees, my peers, and senior management." —D. McDonough, Managing Shareholder, Retired, Lozano Smith Professional  Corporation Conclusion: I found this article to be very current to the way we approach mentoring today.  Technology gives us a multitude of opportunities to develop our personal learning networks through blogging and social media. The authors made me stop and think about what voids I see in my own mentoring.  I tend to focus more on mentoring for improving my knowledge and skills (knowing how) and less on my beliefs and relationships (knowing why and whom).   I think this is a fascinating topic and one that can help my organization grow. Even with all the mentoring available through the internet, we still need to develop in person mentoring relationships.  We talk to our people about finding a mentor but we don’t focus on making sure that all their needs are being met.  I think a good mentoring network is an important part of a personal learning network and this article helps to give direction to taking it to a higher level.

References

Arthur, M. B., et al. 1995. Intelligent enterprise, intelligent careers. The Academy of Management Executive, 9(4): 7–22.