The New Managerial Mentor: Becoming a Learning Leader to Build Communities of Purpose [Hardcover]

This book is an excellent resource for helping to assess and to give you ideas on how to build your skills to become a better learning leader. Fritts creates a "learning moment" by having you take inventory your Learning Leader Role Preference and assess for yourself what areas are strengths and which need more development. I also liked the way it was clearly laid out. Each role was clearly defined, followed by focus of that role and the competencies needed. In addition to defining each competency, Fritts gives you an example of it in practice. Then you have an opportunity to assess your level in this competency with an exercise. The exercise was followed by ideas and/or suggestion of how to develop a plan to improve your level of learning in that competency. The way this book is laid out makes it a very practical read and a good learning resource.

As Fritts says on page 158 "To increase productivity in a knowledge economy, managers need to focus more on people than on technology". Fritts puts the mentor role in a new light, one of needing to fully develop a diverse set of roles, collaborator, innovator, producer, and integrator. Traditionally mentoring described a relationship of an "older individual imparting their wisdom to younger associates" (pg. 169). However, as Fritts states, "the new model calls for people at all levels to create reciprocal learning relationships and develop the technical and interpersonal competencies needed to thrive in the new economy", working in any business today requires us to be able to learn on the fly and be flexible, while meeting the marketplace needs. I think that Fritts hits the nail on the head with this book.

I enjoyed this book so much that I have purchased copies for my team and we are planning to use these concepts at our next offsite to see how we can continue to build our skills as learning leaders.

The author divides the book into three sections - (1) Mentoring in the learning organization addresses the role that managers play in mentoring relationship and the diverse competencies of the learning leader. (2) Becoming a learning leader addresses the different learner styles - collaborator, innovator, producer and integrator. These four managerial mentoring roles help to provide individual competency assessment. Assists in focusing on the strengths and abilities. (3) Putting your plan together steps the reader through the process to become a learning leader by leading with a purpose. The book is equipped with exercises and checklists throughout the book designed to step you through the different processes, preference inventory and scoring sheets help you focus your development effort.

The book is concise, easy to read and flows well. Pat Fritts has skillfully put together the tasks and processes essential for identifying innovative ways to engage in collaborative learning. Use this book as a guide to step you through the processes. The exercises and checklists will ensure a successful plan for mastering new learning competencies. I would highly recommend this book for any manager who wants to ensure the success of his organization as well as the success of its employees by partnering and co-learning. A word of caution, this book is not for every organization. Its' methodologies and approach is aggressive and requires organizations to build its foundation on mutual trust and collaboration. It requires employees to empower themselves and take risks. It requires a transformation at every level of the organization.