Fifteen years ago, the usual place to look for a mentor was several rungs up the organizational ladder. But today, with org charts flatter and expectations of managerial know-how greater, your ideal mentor may actually be a network of mentors that includes peers and even subordinates. Think of it as the 360-degree model of mentoring.

“The advice used to be, ‘Go find yourself a mentor,”’ says Kathy Kram, professor of organizational behavior at the Boston University School of Management and coeditor of The Handbook of Mentoring at Work (Sage, 2007). “Now the advice is to build a small network of five to six individuals who take an active interest in your professional development.”

Here’s the rub, though. How to construct a mentoring network that delivers results?

1. Define goals and expectations. Before you can find the right mentors, you have to define what you want them to teach you. “Do you want technical or strategic expertise?” asks Leslie Camino-Markowitz, director of Next Generation Leadership Development Programs at Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, California). “Cultural awareness of how business is done? Perhaps expertise in Asia?”

Narrow your list to four or five objectives; any more, and you’ll have trouble taking in what your mentors have to offer. Then approach those you would like to have as mentors.

Whenever someone agrees to mentor you, clarify expectations upfront. For each mentor in your network, spell out what you’d like to learn from him or her and agree on how often you’ll talk and who will be in charge of scheduling the meetings. Keep in mind that you may have stronger or more intensive relationships with some members of your network than with others, says Kram.

2. Make every mentoring relationship reciprocal. The old model of mentoring was a one-way street. The new model is one of reciprocity. Both members of a mentoring relationship have teachable knowledge. Camino-Markowitz illustrates with this story:

“A high-potential manager in Europe approached our CFO to be a mentor. The CFO agreed. But part of that agreement was for the protégé to expand the CFO’s breadth of knowledge about the European part of the organization. The protégé invited the CFO to Europe, accompanied him on a tour and set up connections that gave the CFO better insight into that part of the business.”

3. Regularly evaluate progress. In every mentoring relationship, chemistry comes into play. Do the two parties click? Similarities in background, experiences or personality can help forge an initial connection, just as they do in personal relationships. But the connection between two people can also develop from a shared commitment to the mentoring relationship.

Because people’s needs change, Kram recommends regular check-ins. Every quarter, the mentor and protégé should ask each other, “Is this working for us? Should we continue as we were, adjust or move on?”

There is never enough time, it seems, and many mentoring relationships suffer as a result. Instead of fuming over missed commitments, says Camino-Markowtiz, the protégé should tell the mentor when things are not working. “Hold the mentor accountable to their commitment,” she says, “and let them off the hook if they cannot continue the two-way relationship.” She tells the story of a protégé who took this approach with a senior-level mentor. “That initiative turned the relationship around, resulting in deeper commitment and mutual respect. The mentor decided to continue but under different terms.”

Ending a successful mentoring relationship can be harder than walking away from a failing one, but recognizing when it is right to take this step is important.

James Hunt, associate professor of management at Babson College (Wellesley, Massachusets), tells of an individual contributor who had the goal of becoming a manager. With the help of her mentor, she succeeded. Instead of explaining to her mentor at this point that she no longer needed the relationship, she kept silent but stopped scheduling time with him. He was offended and hurt by her behavior. What she should have done instead is simply said, “Thank you very much for your help. I don’t want to take more of your time on this, but I’d like to stay in touch and let you know how things go.”

Serving as a mentor is “an act of citizenship,” says Hunt. Protégés need to reciprocate in kind by thanking their mentors for their time, energy and assistance, and helping them “transition to the next phase of the relationship.”                 

Elizabeth Collins is a freelance writer based near Boston.

360-degree mentoring

Fifteen years ago, the usual place to look for a mentor was several rungs up the organizational ladder. But today, with org charts flatter and expectations of managerial know-how greater, your ideal mentor may actually be a network of mentors that includes peers and even subordinates. Think of it as the 360-degree model of mentoring.

Online threats: Conclusion

Cybercriminal team

ACCORDING to software-security outfit Symantec, an attack relies on different roles to be successful. It has categorized cybercrooks into:

Online threats

IT is fascinating how the Internet, as the network of networks, has revolutionized communication and sped up data exchange and transmission around the world.

Notes toward a circumspect ruling on executive privilege

1. The issue of executive privilege before the Court arose from an investigation by three joint committees of the Senate; not by the Senate as a committee of the whole, let alone the joint houses of Congress. 

Three-dimensional leadership development

One of your strongest performers just resigned, citing greater opportunities for career growth at his new company. You suspect that several of his teammates are being wooed by recruiters.

Web retailing: in e-commerce, more is more

Many business leaders, disappointed by online sales growth, see Web consumers as disloyal and unwilling to spend. But that’s because the managers are not exploiting what customers value most: engagement.

A father’s legacy

THE family patriarch who built the group of companies which continues to grow today has long been dead.

Jollibee at 30

The company that began as a modest start-up in 1978 with an investment of a mere few thousand pesos continues to be one of the most remarkable success stories in Philippine business.

Winning: Just your average economic downturn

Q: What can the average person do to help the economy? Jane Brown, St. Louis

Filipinos enabled through IT

FOUR years after joining Microsoft Philippines as sales manager for enterprise accounts, Rafael “Pepeng” Rollan literally climbed to the top of the corporate ladder and is now managing director for the local unit of the world’s largest maker of software for personal and business computing.

A Test of Resilience

The export-furniture industry is perhaps the best example of the Filipino’s entrepreneurial spirit and creativity that can battle it out with the best of the world.

Avoid hazardous design flaws

Although Chinese manufacturing sites produced many of the toys that have been recalled in recent years for safety flaws, the vast majority of those flaws came not from China but from companies in the United States and other developed nations.

The hidden risk in cutting retail payroll

Managers of big retail stores have an opportunity to boost profits by maintaining or increasing staffing levels even when sales are slipping.

Taking off

QATAR Airways’ Philippine chief is happy about the weather.

“It’s good out there, isn’t it?” was Rohan Seneviratne’s first comment to the writer, while he peeks through the light-green blinds of his office in Makati City.

Early learning engagement, solution to sustainable development

The concept of sustainable development can be passed to the next generation through early learning engagement, a principle that,

Winning: Stopping sliders

Q: What do you do about an employee whose performance has declined from stellar to mediocre? I have tried talking to this person, but six months have passed with no improvement in results, and he is beginning to affect the team. Is it time to let him go? Anonymous, Nairobi, Kenya

The Democrats’ Ballot Brawl of 1924

Those TV yappers are in a tizzy about the upcoming Democratic convention. They keep jibber-jabbering about how neither Clinton nor Obama will have enough delegates to win the presidential nomination and they’ll need to woo the high-powered superdelegates.

Sketch of a day

THE ralliers rushed down the short stretch of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue from Boni Serrano Street to Ortigas Avenue, as if they were in a hurry to catch up with a long-lost legacy.

Art of investment

A group of Spanish journalists were huddling around the president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System, Winston Garcia, just days after having officially launched the landmark $1-billion global investment program.

Online shopping

Online auction and shopping site eBay.com is committed to further connect Filipino e-commerce to the global market through the enhancement of features and functionality introduced last year and with the promotion of transaction safety in its local site eBay.ph.

Winning: This silly season

Q: With the presidential candidates ranting and raving about corporate greed—all the while feeding at the trough—shouldn’t members of the business community be doing a better PR job explaining the basics of capitalism? --Charlie Porten, Weston, Connecticut

Capitalism in an apocalyptic mood

An apocalyptic mood has seized the highest levels of global capital as the global financial system continues to implode. This implosion is but the latest financial crisis to wrack global capitalism. 

Upgrading standards

IRWIN C. Nidea Jr. sought occasions by which he could express himself.

But as a tax lawyer of one of the four largest accounting firms in the Philippines, his venues for self-expression were limited.

How can I do a better job of managing up?

The first step in effectively managing up is accepting that every decision in your company is made by the person who has the power to make that decision, even if he or she is not necessarily the right person or the best person to make that decision.

My blackberry ate my accountability

No sooner is a new tool invented than someone cooks up an off-label use. Sometimes an off-label application improves on the initially conceived one.

Zooming ahead

After his early retirement as the senior vice president for integrated sales and marketing of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., Nicanor Gabunada Jr. is back in marketing as the president and chief executive officer of ZOOmms, a company that is pushing mobile marketing in the country.

Winning: Getting lean in lean times

Q: How do you effectively maintain service levels when you’re headed into a recession? Rob Chiuch, Toronto, Canada

Sterling achievement

Organizing and building a lender from scratch is the wish of any banker. And if he or she is given that chance, most likely a banker will not waste a second in grabbing that golden opportunity.

Tradition in Peril

Much has been said and written about the majestic Eighth Wonder of the World, described also as “stairways to heaven.” But there is more to appreciate in Ifugao than just the terraces. Safeguarding the spectacular rice terraces of the Philippines begins with preserving the culture of those who created them.

Staying with no

No one likes hearing “No,” and few can resist pushing back—sometimes quite persistently. Roger Fisher, negotiation expert and coauthor of the widely influential book ‘Getting to Yes’, used to tell his law students that sometimes he wished he had written a book about getting to no and staying there.

Understanding opposition

Top executives are good at competing, but when they come up against opposition rather than competition, they flounder. The problem is getting worse because, for a variety of reasons, businesses face better organized and more vocal opponents than ever before.

Born to be a hotelier

Even at a young age, Arthur G. Gindap, country general manager of Ascott International in the Philippines, had already decided to work in the hospitality industry when the time comes.

Winning: Money talks!

Q: Bonus time just came and went at my company, and once again I got less than I expected, especially considering my performance review. Do I say something to my boss, or just accept the fact that companies will always try to give you as little money as possible? Name Withheld, Valparaiso, California