CHAPTER 2THE JOB DESCRIPTION

Now, there is one outstandingly important fact regarding mentoring, and that is that no job description comes with it.”

—The ITD Mentoring Team

A parody of a R. Buckminster Fuller quote, with apologies

Going Back to Basics

What does a mentor do?

The answer to that question should be straightforward, but the mentoring literature has unfortunately complicated matters. Over the years, people from all walks of life have attached layers of meanings to the words mentor and mentoring. The cumulative result of these actions is confusion, with virtually no agreement on the meaning of the word. Garvey (2004) has even suggested that we will never reach consensus. Hence, defining the word seems to be something of a fool’s errand. ...

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