The Heart of Mentoring - Book review

The Heart of Mentoring: Ten Proven Principles for Developing People to Their Fullest Potential, by David A. Stoddard with Robert Tamasy

Navpress is a great publisher of books on discipleship and mentoring and I learned mentoring through Navigator’s own Paul D. Stanley co-writing ‘Connecting ‘with J. Robert Clinton and Regent College’s founder, James Houston’s ‘The Mentored Life. All published by Navpress.. Initially I confess some disappointment reading this new book, finding it a substantially lighter read. Perhaps the simplicity of the main idea that mentoring is essentially founded in meaningful relationship and the subtext that there is no difference between discipling and mentoring, is my problem. Reading the back cover and internal commendations from US corporate leaders and the extensive reference to the Harvard Business Review and FORTUNE magazine, revealed that this book is not written for me, someone in the academic arena, to read. This book is written for the corporate business person to encourage them to take their faith seriously beyond the churches doors and into the work and home environments. The message is Go out and make a difference.

There are plenty of stories from the corporate career journey; many examples and situations to resonate with. It tries to resist the “how to” approach of a method rather introducing what Christians would call fellowship into mentoring. If you want the theory read Houston’s book, the different models read Stanley’s, if you want the motivational talk then read this book by Stoddard.