Mentor

The Mentor Leader

The Mentor Leader is a book written by Tony Dungy and Nathan Whitaker, Tony Dungy is a retired NFL head coach. He led the Indianapolis Colts to the 2004 Super Bowl victory, and has recently written New York Times best-selling books Quiet Strength and Uncommon. Nathan Whitaker is the coauthor of Quiet Strength and Uncommon; he is a Harvard Law School graduate whose firm currently represents NFL, college coaches, and administrators. The centralized theme of the book is Tony’s personal leadership style of not focusing on the goals or outcomes, but focusing on the greater good of the individual or individuals he is leading. Tony explains the distinct difference between people who lead, and people who lead and are mentors. Being a mentor leader is not rocket science, and it the skills can be taught and learned. In order for the skills to be absorbed, it must be practiced and focused on developing the strengths of the individuals around you. One must also have a general concern for the people they are mentoring. Throughout the book Tony tells stories of his college and NFL career where different players possessed the traits of mentor leadership, and their teams were inevitably successful in the long run.

Becoming a mentor leader is a process that must start with defining success in a well-rounded way, instead of short sighted, bottom line goals. If a team or company loses sight of the long term growth or development, and only concentrates on one season or one quarter; it could eventually prove to be meaningless if it has no lasting value. This is called shortsighted leadership; if this becomes the primary focus of the team or company it will realize one day that they are out of balance and that they have missed out on what is important in life, relationships. This is one area where I disagree with Tony’s view on not focusing on short term goals. I agree that with an NFL football team one cannot only focus on winning the next week’s game, but I... [continues]

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