"Q: Who was or still is your mentor?
The late editor of Nature, John Maddox, chose me straight out of graduate school to be a staff writer. This was like being picked for Arsenal after having a kick-around in the back yard. He taught me all I know about writing. He’d give you a task that was slightly too difficult, and throw you at it. I had no portfolio, no reporting experience, he just liked the look of me. Talk about a lucky break! I hope I’ve been worthy of his mentorship.'"
https://www.ft.com/content/87b79600-d8d7-4fb8-839b-4c22a91d03f5
@cyrilpedia Interesting. I remember a friend from Nature (years ago) saying that the culture there was to always have people slightly outside their comfort zone. I asked an HR person (at a different organization) about this strategy, and she said it was a well known (male) macho strategy that ultimately produced staff disharmony and didn't actually make people perform better.
@cyrilpedia I'm always surprised when people think they have a single strategy like this that works (I've heard plenty of others espouse this approach).
To me, knowing what works for whom is the real skill. Alex Ferguson did it best. His genius was "knowing which players need an arm round the shoulders and which need a kick up the arse".
@richardsever Absolutely - you need to pay attention to the people you are mentoring that's the, hum, "mentoring" part of mentoring. One size fits all is a terrible educational strategy at any level.
