Doing, Knowing and Being: The Athena Factor in Mentoring - Athenic Mentoring

Mentoring and coaching are popular, modern ways of developing talent-mostly using the 'wise old man' notion of Mentor in Homer's Odyssey with an older, wiser person taking a younger, much less experienced person under their wing. Surprisingly, the art of mentoring should bear the goddess Athena's name. She is the real mentor in Homer's text. Drawing on ancient and modern sources this book explores mentoring and its transformative power from the perspective of Athenic mentoring. This embodies the development of what a person is 'doing' and 'knowing', and goes to the heart of who they are-their 'being'. This exploration of the nature of transformative personal change is useful to anyone who is or wants to be part of a mentoring relationship. Examples are given throughout from the stories of people who have been in mentoring relationships (either as mentor, mentee, or both) as well as the author's own experience. Understanding the difference between Athenic mentoring (facilitating the transformation of a person's 'being') from mentoring that helps to develop what a person 'knows' or 'does' can significantly improve a mentoring relationship and its outcomes.