Julian Lippi

Doing, Knowing and Being: the Athena Factor in Mentoring - Athenic Mentoring Julian Lippi

Mentoring and coaching are popular, modern ways ofdeveloping talent?mostly using the ?wise old man?notion of Mentor in Homer?s Odyssey with an older, wiser person taking a younger, much less experiencedperson under their wing. Surprisingly, the art ofmentoring should bear the goddess Athena?s name. Sheis the real mentor in Homer''s text. Drawing on ancient and modern sources this bookexplores mentoring and its transformative power fromthe perspective of Athenic mentoring. This embodiesthe development of what a person is ''doing'' and''knowing'', and goes to the heart of who theyare?their ''being''. This exploration of the nature of transformativepersonal change is useful to anyone who is or wantsto be part of a mentoring relationship. Examples are given throughout from the stories ofpeople who have been in mentoring relationships(either as mentor, mentee, or both) as well as theauthor?s own experience. Understanding the difference between Athenicmentoring (facilitating the transformation of aperson?s ?being?) from mentoring that helps todevelop what a person ?knows? or ?does? cansignificantly improve a mentoring relationship andits outcomes.