Mentoring Up, Down, In, and Out

You’re in the middle. That’s the most powerful seat in the building.

Leaders above need honest results. People below need direction, protection, and a reason to believe their work matters. You’re the one person who can change what flows in every direction. Most management books address only one of those directions. This one covers all four.

Four directions. One posture: a servant who wants others to succeed.

Each chapter is built in short “scenes,” so you can jump straight to what you need on a bad Tuesday, and closes with questions to carry into your own workplace.

Up

Mentor the chain of command

Serve leaders above you with honesty and courage, without flattery or manipulation.

Change your point of view
Make your leader successful
Right over popular
Be the voice for your people

Down

Build the people you lead

Move beyond reviews and one-on-ones to real investment, including when someone is struggling.

Four things you must know
Strengths first
Fair, but just
Mentoring the mentors

In

Let your team mentor you

The direction almost nobody talks about, and the one that separates good managers from great ones.

The door swings both ways
Control and power
Hard to hear
Walking in the light

Out

Multiply it beyond yourself

Turn a group into a team that coaches itself, and send people out to do the same for others.

From group to team
Where is your passion?
Beyond the walls
Sending people out

Five commitments you can remember on your hardest day

Do what is right, not what is popular.
When they differ, popularity is a poor master.
Do what best serves the employee.
Every employee, including the one who will never make your numbers look better.
Be fair, but be just.
Fairness is consistency. Justice is making sure the outcome is actually right.
Be transparent, open, and honest.
Say the hard thing early rather than the apologetic thing late.
Build people up to become their best selves.
If someone leaves your team better than they arrived, you’ve succeeded.

Why you’ll want it

Practical, not theoretical. Scripts for disagreeing with your boss, a seven-step response to hard feedback, and a five-step plan for loosening your grip on control.
A better path for struggling employees. Learn the “Mentor to Success” approach as an alternative to the standard performance improvement plan.
Honest about its limits. The author calls his insights common sense, and shows why common sense is rarely common practice.
Principles that stand on their own. Scripture appears throughout, but the practices are backed by research whether or not you share the faith.
Quick to start. A “Tomorrow Morning” list gives you one first step in each direction, each under an hour.

Who it’s for

Middle managers squeezed between executives and front-line teams
New supervisors learning to lead people they used to work beside
Directors who lead other managers and want mentoring to spread
HR and talent leaders who want managers to own development
Anyone who has been told “people leave managers, not companies” and wondered what to do about it

About the author

David has spent much of his career in the middle seat. His master’s research examined why organizations struggle to sustain mentoring programs, and led him to one conviction: whether or not a formal program exists, it is the manager’s responsibility to mentor. This book dedicates itself to “the manager who saw something in me before I saw it in myself, and to every person I have since been given the privilege to lead.”

MentoringUp, Down, In, and Out