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Liz Strauss has an excellent post about an alternative to the one-on-one mentoring concept:
6 Ways to Build Your Own Personal Developmental Network

Many folks find a mentor by accident. Some never had one. Some turn to the closest person they meet at a new job or choose to go it alone it. Others work with a coach or a trainer. A few make a commitment to a mastermind team. They’re similar, but not the same as a Personal Developmental Network.

In their Wall Street Journal report Kathy E. Kram and Monica C. Higgins defined a personal developmental networks this way.

A better approach is to create and cultivate a developmental network — a small group of people to whom you can turn for regular mentoring support and who have a genuine interest in your learning and development. Think of it as your personal board of directors.

Kram and Higgins’ approach to building a developmental network is career and business focused — pointing out how network composition might change based on where we are professional path: entry level, midcareer, or senior manager. Their suggestions focus on career goals.

Their key steps match my own, but their execution is more narrow.

I need a more holistic approach. I don’t want a professional life that’s divorced from my life as a human. When I face down my hugest goals and quests, I want my whole life — head and heart — focused on the same purpose. So I suggest that we start with their key steps to building a Personal Developmental Network and expand them to include more than what happens under the heading “business / professional.”

For me, the purpose of a Personal Developmental Network is to offer guidance in becoming the best I can be inside and outside the world of business. My approach to building my network is life focused — I want a network that helps me grow as a human meant to achieve something and I believe that a network that grows with me offers depth and insight that are priceless.

Here are the five solid, complete, and intuitive main ideas Kram and Higgins put forward and suggestions after each for building your own Personal Developmental Network.

Liz recommends these 6 steps:

1. Know Thyself — Start with a foundation of concrete not sand.
2. Know Your Context — Pick your path.
3. Enlist Developers — Choose unique and valuable guides.
4. Regularly Reassess — Seek opportunities to learn what you’re learning.
5. Develop Others — Return the favor and pay it forward.
6. Communicate. Let your network know when you need help, when you have questions, or even when you need to vent in a safe venue. A developmental network that doesn’t know where we are can’t help us move ahead.

This is a fantastic resource, and rather than copy it wholesale, I recommend that you pop over to Liz’ blog and read the whole thing. And subscribe. Liz has been my semi-formal blogging mentor for a couple of years now, and her knowledge is well worth seeking out.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5uhlzg. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen