A mentor with discipling as a goal, by the above examples has personal vision, ability to see potential in another. However, this means a personal commitment of time to intercede in another’s professional growth. Both mentor and prot?g? are encouraged to enter the relationship voluntarily or risk burdening each other.

It is important for mentors and prot?g?s to recognize how discipling occurs. O’Hair, et al (1998) offers these stages. The first stage is initiation, the prot?g? recognizes and appreciates the talents, and expertise the mentor brings to th

A 1997 figure on training costs for U. S. companies was in excess of 58 billion dollars. In September 2004, Chief Learning Officer e-zine reported U.S. companies spend an average of $2,000.00 per year per employee for training. The U. S. Department of Labor put employment for September 2005 at slightly over 150 million workers. At $2,000.00 per employee per year, training costs U. S. business $300 billion a year, almost a six-fold increase in eight years.

Training in most organizations is an abstract figure and accounting for training expenses usually becomes lumped into other expenses. Organizations recognize the need for training, allocate training money, and expense it. Training is an expense not an investment. However, the cycle of training for training sake is a trend reversing. Executives want to margin their spending on training with a training strategy to link individual capabilities with the organizations business strategy.

Most companies that send employees to training or provide tuition assistance for college degrees require some pay back in time – one month per college credit hour for example. This does assure that training dollars spent stay in the company for a known period. However, after that period a worker is no longer obliged to the organization and can sell talents to the highest bidder.

Organizations often label training as training; however, the idea stated above to link individual capabilities into the business strategy suggests something more far reaching – mentoring. Spending billions of dollars on training does not necessarily make a worker a better employee. Yet, linking mentoring and training, leaders become acutely aware of worker skill development.

Beyond Training and Mentoring

This begins the discussion on creating workers who are elevated beyond just an employee. The next level beyond training and mentoring, seen by most as a Judeo/Christian concept, is discipling. Most agree that discipling is a spiritual engagement. However, does discipling have a place in secular organizations?

Initially, defining disciple in secular terms is easy. A disciple is someone who is a believer of or in organizational vision and values. A disciple helps spread the vision and values as root doctrines of the organization. Webster’s dictionary (1913) defines disciple as, “One who receives instruction from another; a scholar; a learner; especially, a follower who has learned to believe in the truth of the doctrine of his teacher; an adherent in doctrine; as, the disciples of Plato; the disciples of our Savior.”

That definition suggests more than mentoring. One facet of a disciple is one who, when taught, accepts the teaching and buys into the vision. Upon buy in, the new disciple desires to share the learning and supreme commitment to the vision. Charlie Ragus, founder of AdvoCare International, built a distributorship by having quality products, backed by science and medicine, with a simple approach to teaching duplicated repeatedly, making AdvoCare disciples.

Mentoring and discipling are like connecting the dots. A mentor shows the prot?g? a picture; however, the picture is just a bunch of numbered dots. The mentor can explain the picture and the prot?g? my sense the completed picture from looking at the pattern of dots. A mentor transfers knowledge of a vision in describing the pattern or dots. Discipling occurs when the prot?g? begins to connect the dots. As the picture becomes clearer, the mentor and prot?g? relationship expands to one of greater understanding. When the dots are all connected and the prot?g? sees the complete picture, transformation is underway.

Consider another example, Champoux (2006), describes a process of organizational socialization that fits this position well. He begins by stating the new employee goes through a process of unfreezing, to leave behind parts of an old self-image. After accepting the unfreezing, the worker goes through change. This change is mentored episodes of behavioral role development. When this learning process concludes, the worker refreezes the new image. This new image includes expected behaviors and norms of the organization. What the unfreezing, changing, and refreezing describe is metamorphosis. Metamorphosis may be abrupt or occur over time. Discipling metamorphosis is a process taking time.

A mentor with discipling as a goal, by the above examples has personal vision, ability to see potential in another. However, this means a personal commitment of time to intercede in another’s professional growth. Both mentor and prot?g? are encouraged to enter the relationship voluntarily or risk burdening each other.

It is important for mentors and prot?g?s to recognize how discipling occurs. O’Hair, et al (1998) offers these stages. The first stage is initiation, the prot?g? recognizes and appreciates the talents, and expertise the mentor brings to the

Most companies that send employees to training or provide tuition assistance for college degrees require some pay back in time – one month per college credit hour for example. This does assure that training dollars spent stay in the company for a known period. However, after that period a worker is no longer obliged to the organization and can sell talents to the highest bidder.

Organizations often label training as training; however, the idea stated above to link individual capabilities into the business strategy suggests something more far reaching – mentoring. Spending billions of dollars on training does not necessarily make a worker a better employee. Yet, linking mentoring and training, leaders become acutely aware of worker skill development.

Beyond Training and Mentoring

This begins the discussion on creating workers who are elevated beyond just an employee. The next level beyond training and mentoring, seen by most as a Judeo/Christian concept, is discipling. Most agree that discipling is a spiritual engagement. However, does discipling have a place in secular organizations?

Initially, defining disciple in secular terms is easy. A disciple is someone who is a believer of or in organizational vision and values. A disciple helps spread the vision and values as root doctrines of the organization. Webster’s dictionary (1913) defines disciple as, “One who receives instruction from another; a scholar; a learner; especially, a follower who has learned to believe in the truth of the doctrine of his teacher; an adherent in doctrine; as, the disciples of Plato; the disciples of our Savior.”

That definition suggests more than mentoring. One facet of a disciple is one who, when taught, accepts the teaching and buys into the vision. Upon buy in, the new disciple desires to share the learning and supreme commitment to the vision. Charlie Ragus, founder of AdvoCare International, built a distributorship by having quality products, backed by science and medicine, with a simple approach to teaching duplicated repeatedly, making AdvoCare disciples.

Mentoring and discipling are like connecting the dots. A mentor shows the prot?g? a picture; however, the picture is just a bunch of numbered dots. The mentor can explain the picture and the prot?g? my sense the completed picture from looking at the pattern of dots. A mentor transfers knowledge of a vision in describing the pattern or dots. Discipling occurs when the prot?g? begins to connect the dots. As the picture becomes clearer, the mentor and prot?g? relationship expands to one of greater understanding. When the dots are all connected and the prot?g? sees the complete picture, transformation is underway.

Consider another example, Champoux (2006), describes a process of organizational socialization that fits this position well. He begins by stating the new employee goes through a process of unfreezing, to leave behind parts of an old self-image. After accepting the unfreezing, the worker goes through change. This change is mentored episodes of behavioral role development. When this learning process concludes, the worker refreezes the new image. This new image includes expected behaviors and norms of the organization. What the unfreezing, changing, and refreezing describe is metamorphosis. Metamorphosis may be abrupt or occur over time. Discipling metamorphosis is a process taking time.

A mentor with discipling as a goal, by the above examples has personal vision, ability to see potential in another. However, this means a personal commitment of time to intercede in another’s professional growth. Both mentor and prot?g? are encouraged to enter the relationship voluntarily or risk burdening each other.

It is important for mentors and prot?g?s to recognize how discipling occurs. O’Hair, et al (1998) offers these stages. The first stage is initiation, the prot?g? recognizes and appreciates the talents, and expertise the mentor brings to th

Beyond Training and Mentoring

This begins the discussion on creating workers who are elevated beyond just an employee. The next level beyond training and mentoring, seen by most as a Judeo/Christian concept, is discipling. Most agree that discipling is a spiritual engagement. However, does discipling have a place in secular organizations?

Initially, defining disciple in secular terms is easy. A disciple is someone who is a believer of or in organizational vision and values. A disciple helps spread the vision and values as root doctrines of the organization. Webster’s dictionary (1913) defines disciple as, “One who receives instruction from another; a scholar; a learner; especially, a follower who has learned to believe in the truth of the doctrine of his teacher; an adherent in doctrine; as, the disciples of Plato; the disciples of our Savior.”

That definition suggests more than mentoring. One facet of a disciple is one who, when taught, accepts the teaching and buys into the vision. Upon buy in, the new disciple desires to share the learning and supreme commitment to the vision. Charlie Ragus, founder of AdvoCare International, built a distributorship by having quality products, backed by science and medicine, with a simple approach to teaching duplicated repeatedly, making AdvoCare disciples.

Mentoring and discipling are like connecting the dots. A mentor shows the prot?g? a picture; however, the picture is just a bunch of numbered dots. The mentor can explain the picture and the prot?g? my sense the completed picture from looking at the pattern of dots. A mentor transfers knowledge of a vision in describing the pattern or dots. Discipling occurs when the prot?g? begins to connect the dots. As the picture becomes clearer, the mentor and prot?g? relationship expands to one of greater understanding. When the dots are all connected and the prot?g? sees the complete picture, transformation is underway.

Consider another example, Champoux (2006), describes a process of organizational socialization that fits this position well. He begins by stating the new employee goes through a process of unfreezing, to leave behind parts of an old self-image. After accepting the unfreezing, the worker goes through change. This change is mentored episodes of behavioral role development. When this learning process concludes, the worker refreezes the new image. This new image includes expected behaviors and norms of the organization. What the unfreezing, changing, and refreezing describe is metamorphosis. Metamorphosis may be abrupt or occur over time. Discipling metamorphosis is a process taking time.

A mentor with discipling as a goal, by the above examples has personal vision, ability to see potential in another. However, this means a personal commitment of time to intercede in another’s professional growth. Both mentor and prot?g? are encouraged to enter the relationship voluntarily or risk burdening each other.

It is important for mentors and prot?g?s to recognize how discipling occurs. O’Hair, et al (1998) offers these stages. The first stage is initiation, the prot?g? recognizes and appreciates the talents, and expertise the mentor brings to th

Mentoring and discipling are like connecting the dots. A mentor shows the prot?g? a picture; however, the picture is just a bunch of numbered dots. The mentor can explain the picture and the prot?g? my sense the completed picture from looking at the pattern of dots. A mentor transfers knowledge of a vision in describing the pattern or dots. Discipling occurs when the prot?g? begins to connect the dots. As the picture becomes clearer, the mentor and prot?g? relationship expands to one of greater understanding. When the dots are all connected and the prot?g? sees the complete picture, transformation is underway.

Consider another example, Champoux (2006), describes a process of organizational socialization that fits this position well. He begins by stating the new employee goes through a process of unfreezing, to leave behind parts of an old self-image. After accepting the unfreezing, the worker goes through change. This change is mentored episodes of behavioral role development. When this learning process concludes, the worker refreezes the new image. This new image includes expected behaviors and norms of the organization. What the unfreezing, changing, and refreezing describe is metamorphosis. Metamorphosis may be abrupt or occur over time. Discipling metamorphosis is a process taking time.

A mentor with discipling as a goal, by the above examples has personal vision, ability to see potential in another. However, this means a personal commitment of time to intercede in another’s professional growth. Both mentor and prot?g? are encouraged to enter the relationship voluntarily or risk burdening each other.

It is important for mentors and prot?g?s to recognize how discipling occurs. O’Hair, et al (1998) offers these stages. The first stage is initiation, the prot?g? recognizes and appreciates the talents, and expertise the mentor brings to th

A mentor with discipling as a goal, by the above examples has personal vision, ability to see potential in another. However, this means a personal commitment of time to intercede in another’s professional growth. Both mentor and prot?g? are encouraged to enter the relationship voluntarily or risk burdening each other.

It is important for mentors and prot?g?s to recognize how discipling occurs. O’Hair, et al (1998) offers these stages. The first stage is initiation, the prot?g? recognizes and appreciates the talents, and expertise the mentor brings to the relationship. Second, the prot?g? and mentor begin a process of interpersonal bonding. In this deepening relationship, they begin sharing vision, values, and connecting personal goals and organizational goals. At some point the third stage occurs, separation. The prot?g? or the discipling mentor experiences a drifting apart. One or the other receives a promotion, become physically separated, or the prot?g? is more independent. The final, fourth stage is redefinition. Some event in the organizational life of the prot?g? brings her/him back to the former mentor. They re-establish their relationship on different terms, not as mentor and prot?g?.

Therefore, leaders who disciple rather than mentor often behave like a parent. They correct a discrepancy, offering direction and suggestion, and praising a success – leaders who disciple do so with unconditional love.

Love is a word avoided in most organizational settings. Love takes on some kind of physical characteristic of sexual love; however, unconditional love is not physical, it is self-sacrificing. Winston (2002) uses the Greek word agapao. He makes the distinction by defining agapao as “… to love in a social or moral sense, embracing the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty, and propriety” (pg. 5).

Winston (2002) does not end on love. He continues that leaders must respect all superiors, because someone is watching over them, and especially peers and subordinates. Leaders need humility to make disciples of others. Again Winston, “Humble leaders place the goals of the organization above their own goals” (pg. 25). Leaders need to understand that people hurt, suffer loses, need rest from their toils and Winston cites Augsburger (1982) who tells leaders to mourn (Greek penteo act or feeling of mourning having deep concern (pg. 29)) for their employees, to care for them, the organization, and even competitors.

Mentoring and disciple making cannot occur in a vacuum or one directional. A prot?g? has to accept responsibility for and actively participate in the process. The next element of the process involves the capacity for the prot?g? to accept mentoring and discipling.

The Prot?g?

The prot?g? is one who is willing to accept the wisdom offered. Reiterating a point made earlier, the ideal relationship with the mentor is voluntary. Bell (2002) asks us to imagine the new person entering the learning experience telling the mentor, “I want to make my learning experience positive for us both.”

Glenn (2003) writes of teaching a class in which she asked students to give examples of a good mentor. Then she asked the class to imagine using their examples to mentor themselves. She tells her readers to have a dream and be able to tap themselves as their trusted guide. She continues by challenging that mentoring ourselves leads us to opening our own greatness and releases us from our fears.

For the new prot?g?, having a sense of social skill is important. The prot?g? seeks out people who influence them, who know them, like them, and respect them. In return, the prot?g? returns the respect and amiability.

Mentoring and discipling is like a partnership and the prot?g? needs to recognize others’ behaviors change as they change theirs. The prot?g? is not likely to change the behavior of the mentor until they change their own behavior. Glenn (2003) quotes Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world” (pg. 110).

Leader Communication/Leadership and Communication

Richmond and McCroskey (2001), address organizational climate as it relates to leadership. They state that organizations exist somewhere, as part of a larger community and leaders cannot ignore external conditions as external conditions do influence events inside the office walls. Organizations assume aspects of local culture and local values as most employees come from within that community. Leadership communication within any organizational environment must be acceptable to be accepted.

People in organizations communicate with the purpose of influencing others. Leadership communication in the mentoring/discipling process is critical to successful growth of a prot?g? and the entire workforce. Several myths of communication have to be broken