The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring

Our March 2025 Book of the Month is “The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring: A Complete Guide to Effective Mentoring (The FT Guides)” by Dr Ruth Gotian and Andy Lopata

ABOUT THE BOOK

Runner Up – Leadership Book of The Year (The Leadership Awards 2024)

The research on mentoring is clear. Those who are mentored, out-earn and outperform those who are not. They make higher salaries, get promoted more often, have greater job and career satisfaction and lower rates of burnout. For organisations that invest in mentoring their employees, they benefit from higher productivity and greater loyalty. Mentoring works as a great retention tool. But despite all this, only 76% of people understand the undisputed benefits of having a mentor, and only 37% of people actually have one.

But how do you do mentoring well, both as a mentor and in building a mentoring programme in your organisation? The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring gives you the tools you need to understand what mentoring is and its benefits, learn how to mentor effectively and be mentored. By breaking down each stage of the process, this book will enable senior and aspiring executives to both give the support they need to act as a mentor to future talent in their organisation and seek mentoring for themselves that they had thought no longer relevant but which will stretch them and fast track their further career progress. While it’s likely that they will have been mentored at some point in their career, in our experience many senior executives turn at some point from being mentored to mentoring others.

ABOUT ANDY LOPATA

We are delighted to work with Andy Lopata on his speaking events.

Andy Lopata is a specialist speaker on professional relationships, mentoring, networking, and social media strategy. He also speaks on Vulnerable Leadership.

Andy is a firm believer that professional relationships underpin our success in our business, our roles, and our careers. The right relationships with the right people can lead to new business opportunities, investment, collaborative working, innovation, and career progress. We just need to be comfortable approaching those relationships strategically, without making people feel ‘networked’ by us.

Andy has worked in the field of networking and professional relationships for 25 years, working with global giants such as Paypal, GSK, AstraZeneca, Wella, HSBC, Wembley Stadium, the BBC, the Prime Minister’s Office of the UAE and many more in that time. He has worked with leading universities including NYU, Duke University and Oxford University’s Said Business School.

Keynote talks INCLUDE –

• The Power of Professional Relationships
• Connected Leadership
• How NOT to Get Referrals
• Just Ask – Why Seeking Support is Your Greatest Strength
• Vulnerable Leadership
• Meaningful Mentoring
• How to Use LinkedIn as a Referral Tool

Vulnerable Leadership

Leadership people look to their leaders for strength and direction, particularly in times of uncertainty. But does that mean that leaders need to know all of the answers, all of the time? At a time when people are being encouraged to share their vulnerability, how can leaders do so while still commanding respect? If, indeed, it is desirable for them to do so.

Andy Lopata explores the apparent contradictions between vulnerability and strong leadership.

Andy proposes that not only is vulnerability an asset for leaders but it is a sign of strength and works to the benefit of the leader as an individual and the people they lead. In the talk, Andy discusses how we expect our leaders to be strong, and be seen to be strong; to be resilient and to be seen to be resilient; to take the lead and be seen to take the lead. Culturally we are conditioned to see these qualities as the polar opposite of vulnerability but Andy argues that, in fact, each of these qualities is aided by leaders being more vulnerable and authentic. This can be delivered as a keynote talk, a facilitated discussion, or a combination of the two.

For more info on Andy please visit his webpage and to order a copy of the book please visit the amazon website.