Effective Mentorship
Larry Summers makes an important point about effective mentorship. He says that “if you pick able people and you make clear that you think very highly of their talents, they will welcome it if you tell them the truth about what they have done better and what they have done worse.” As a family member pointed out to me yesterday, emphasizing the positive makes it much more likely that criticisms will be well-received. Personally, I have been lucky to have very effective mentors. Effective mentors make good mentoring seem effortless. But the truth is effective mentoring is a skill that requires substantial effort to develop.