The HBR Guides Collection (8 Books) (HBR Guide Series)

Starting and Maintaining Relationships with Mentors

109

The IT profession is well stocked with people who

have far more responsibility than authority. Since they

can’t do things by fi at, they have to be persuasive and

consultative. Kohlman—soon to be in the thick of imple-

menting a new IT architecture designed to tie together

all of Cook’s far-fl ung business units and regions—felt

he needed to fortify his selling skills to pull that off .

Through a series of group mentoring sessions, Pathways

helped Kohlman increase his powers of persuasion.

The group aspect—about which he was initially ap-

prehensive—had a natural multiplier eff ect. Each group ...