Those who view mentoring as an important step toward leadership have it right, according to associate professor of psychology Susan Murphy. Most leaders can identify at least one person who invested time and resources in their burgeoning career, someone who spotted a talent and wanted to nurture it.

Before being named president of Universal Pictures Distribution, Nikki Rocco worked in the mailroom for MCA/Universal president Lou Wasserman. "She used to have to calculate the box office returns every night. When he saw how good she was with numbers, she started moving up," says Murphy, who interviewed Rocco earlier this year.

More about Rocco, plus the stories of 49 other high-profile leaders, are included in a forthcoming book by Murphy and Professor Ellen Ensher of Loyola Marymount University, titled Power Mentoring: Lessons from the Top in Media, Technology and Politics. The book examines mentoring relationships between colleagues in the fields of politics, media, and high-tech industries. Its contents introduce "power mentoring," a specific form of mentoring "that leads to great outcomes, people who move ahead quickly in organizations," Murphy explains. "But it's an extremely flexible, dynamic, and challenging form of mentoring, typically sought from those who have the highest visibility within a company. And it's not usually a one-way street. Many of the people we interviewed talked about picking people to mentor whom they felt they could learn just as much from. It's very strategic."

Among those discussing their own mentoring experiences were U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin; Dixie Garr, vice president of customer success engineering at Cisco Systems; Martha Coolidge, president of the Directors Guild of America; and Ron Meyer, president and chief operating officer of Vivendi Universal Entertainment. Garr, whom Murphy names as one of her favorite interviews, grew up the youngest of eight children in the small farming town of Dubach, La., before graduating summa cum laude from Grambling State University. In her role at Cisco, she "has been phenomenal to the people she mentors. In fact, she gets asked quite frequently to mentor," Murphy says.

Marin was born in Mexico and moved to the United States when she was 14. She got her start in politics helping Gov. Pete Wilson translate his message to the Hispanic communities, and mentors a Republican Latina from Orange County. Congressman and CMC Trustee David Dreier '75, another interviewee, talked about asking lots of questions of his colleagues when he got to Congress. "What we found is that political networking and mentoring crosses party lines," Murphy said. "That was surprising."

The book also addresses how mentoring varies by industry. At IBM, for instance, Murphy says mentoring is part of an employee's performance appraisal. "Some of the people we talked to there had as many as 20 proteges," Murphy said. "It's a regenerative thing for the company because the lessons and culture are being passed on to a whole group of employees who aren't in the management line to get that information." High-tech employees also focus on networking because "people in this field are more identified with their careers than with their organizations," she says. On the other hand, mentoring within politics is more apt to be a hybrid of traditional and power mentoring-traditional in the sense of the seasoned professionals looking out for new blood, but power-infused because it can also be a very directed type of mentoring, in which someone is saying, "You need to help the party. It's your time to serve," Murphy says.

The book, more than a year in the making, provides many lessons for individuals new to a career, or those looking to increase their visibility. Murphy says today's organizations are different from those of the past; there aren't clear promotion paths. Finding a mentor, she says, will help navigate the environment. She also cautions against overlooking mentoring opportunities. "Often, individuals are not mindful of the offers they receive to be mentored," Murphy says. "Sometimes it may be the only offer they receive and if they ignore it, the possibility of that mentoring relationship is gone forever.

"Mentoring is a powerful leadership tool," Murphy says. "Mentors provide a wealth of information. They role-model effective professional and personal leadership. It's not just about career advice, it's about handling challenges and overcoming adversity."

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