Mentoring and Leadership Overemphasized Business

Question: Discuss about the Mentoring and Leadership for Overemphasized Business. Answer: The importance of mentoring in life cannot be overemphasized, and it is needless to say that everyone requires a wise and trusted counselor to train him, and to develop his potentialities for future use. However, cultural, generational, ethnical or sexual distinctions between a mentor and a mentee may create barriers of communication, which in turn may have a strong impact on the mentor-mentee relationship. I believe that while distinctions of any kind may discourage the development of a favorable relation between a mentor and a mentee in the primary level, I believe with the emergence of globalization, the obliteration of such distinctions has led to a more inclusive, and broader outlook towards the mentor-mentee relation. A mentor is an individual who is meant to guide, and counsel a less experienced, and less knowledgeable individual, and as long as he has the capacity to share his knowledge and ideas, and a positive, patient attitude to help his mentee grow, such socio-cultural distinctions do not hold any meaning. Although the patriarchal ideology compels one to believe that men are more capable to train and develop the skills of a mentee, I believe that women possess greater intuition, wisdom and endurance power, necessary to nurture the skills of the trainee. Although, age is an important factor while mentoring students, I refuse to believe that experience can determine the wisdo m and depth of knowledge of an individual. In case a young mentor is a highly qualified expert, possessing necessary expertise and skills, I do not believe there is any reason why he will be any less acceptable among the mentees than an old mentor. As far as racial and ethnic distinction is concerned, I think that people are often pre-disposed to think that the mentor belonging to a different race, or culture, may not be able, or may have a different way of communicating knowledge. However, it is important to note here that now that a black leader has become a president, or a black woman like Oprah has attained fame overnight, a huge number of people have overcome racial and ethnic prejudice (Morris Grant, 2012). However, I agree with Pawanti, on the point that black mentors can be more inclined to favor and guide a male mentee, rather than a white one (Thomas et al., 1990). However, I do not find Timogs point agreeable, as I do not think that similarity of race and ethnicity is an important factor the mentees look out in a mentor (Rhodes et al., 2014). I have been trained in communication skill by a black ma, and we had nothing in common as far as the cultural values were concerned, and yet I learnt a lot from him, simply because he transferred so much knowledge to me. Race cannot determine the extent to which a mentor exercises impact on the mentee, as the development of their relation solely depends on the knowledge and communication skills of the mentor (Rhodes et al., 2014). I agree with Jeff that in case of a male mentor, the mentee is usually encouraged to professionally develop himself, while a female mentor is usually focused on nurturing the intrinsic values of the mentee (Fowler et al., 2007). During my school days, I was being taught by a female teacher, and she was always so much focused on helping me learn the core values and important principles, that she usually could not help me finish my lessons. Reference List: Fowler, J.; Gudmundsson, A. O'Gorman, J. (2007). The Relationship between Mentee-Mentor Gender Combination and the Provision of Distinct Mentoring Functions.Women in Management Review, 22(8), 666-681. DOI: 10.1108/09649420710836335 Morris, Z., Grant, A. (2012). Be a good mentor.Education for Primary Care,23(1), 56-58. Rhodes, J. E., Schwartz, S. E., Willis, M. M., Wu, M. B. (2014). Validating a Mentoring Relationship Quality Scale: Does Match Strength Predict Match Length?.Youth Society, 0044118X14531604. Thomas, D.A. (1990).Journal of organizational Behavior. The impact of race on managers experiencesof developmental relationships (mentoring and sponsorships):An intra organisational study. Retrieved from:onlinelibrary.wiley.com