Strategic Relationships at Work: Creating Your Circle of Mentors, Sponsors, and Peers for Success in Business and Life

INTRODUCTION:WHAT ARE STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS?

With slews of websites offering advice on how to “mentor” and whom to do it with—to say nothing of the legions of corporations now offering formal mentoring programs—we’ll pose the big question you have right here at the beginning:

Why do I need to read this book?

The surprising answer is that good mentoring isn’t what most people think it is. In fact, the most effective form of mentoring for accelerating your career cannot be shrunk into a Q&A on the Internet or even within a company classroom. Rather, it’s a dynamic very personal process; one that can be learned. Further, it works to benefit both sides of the mentoring equation, and, in the best case, is rigorously informal. We repeat, informal. ...