As a result of commenting on a blog post at www.michaelhyatt.com, I was given the book titled: Mentor Like Jesus by Regi Campbell. I must say that I really enjoyed this book. In this book, the author defines a process he developed on his own to called “next-generation mentoring mentor a few men (8) in a year long process. The author defines a great mentor as “one who can listen, ask good questions, bring others into the conversation, and tell a relevant story to make a point.” He uses Jesus as the model mentor.
He defined 11 elements of next-generation mentoring: 1) On purpose, 2) Selfless, 3) in a group, 4) handpicked 5) for defined period of time, 6) Scripture, 7) Prayer, (8) Modeled, 9) Taught along the way, 10) Mutual commitment, 11) Required multiplication.
The elements that touched me the most included:
Handpicked – Generally, a mentee, chooses a mentor, but in this program, the mentor choose the mentees HE wants to mentor…Just like Jesus picked his 12!
Defined period of time – Too often, I think mentoring, once started, goes on for an undefined period. In this program, there is a specific end date
Required mutual commitment – The sessions are scheduled out a year in advance and there are no ‘excused’ absences or tardies. His math is simple. If there are 9 men in the group (1 mentor and 8 mentees) and you are 5 minutes late for a meeting, you aren’t just wasting 5 minutes, you are wasting 45 minutes of time!
Several quotes hit me as well:
- More time with fewer people equals greater kingdom impact
- “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7
- A good mentor is like a good tennis coach: I hit the balls over the net(issue or opportunity), and he simply changes he angle of the return(with great questions).
The book gets a ’6′ on the dogear scale that I use; however, most of the books that I review have 220-250 pages. This book only has 152 pages, so the effectiveness of the book is much higher than it’s ’6′ rating. I will be passing a copy along to a friend and would suggest it to you. I want to thank Michael Hyatt for the opportunity to read this book.
So, what are you waiting on? When are YOU going to start a mentoring group? Actually, the book has a great list of questions to let you know WHEN you are ready to start and WHO to mentor! I have the date set on my calendar for when I will start my mentoring group. I want to work to prepare myself for it.
Recently, I completed Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leading by John C Maxwell. This book took me over a year to complete. Not because it wasn’t a good book, quite the contrary. This is a book that you can pick up, scan the table of contents, and go to a specific lesson without the need to complete the book front to back. There will be times you are on your leadership journey that some of the lessons may impact you more or less, but clearly, this is a valuable resource for leaders. As valuable as ‘Gold’? I will let you decide!
