ABSTRACT
The stereotype of a mentor as a wiser, older man who sits on the mountain top dispersing pearls of wisdom was debunked in an Australian study that asked people to describe the personal characteristics of their mentors. Few significantly significant differences were found among industry groups and the Dimensions of Mentor Inventory (DOMI), indicating that people describe mentors in similar ways regardless of organizational or occupational groups. Authenticity identifies mentors who are genuine, fair, honest, supportive, understanding, loyal, helpful, principled, thoughtful, believing, respectful and empowering of others. Protgs who attributed high Volatility scores to their mentors were able to observe the mentors behaviour, utilize the best and discard the worst. Characteristics of mentors were clearly important in the initial instigation of mentoring relationships. Kathy E Kram in her seminal work on mentoring described two main mentoring functions: psychosocial functions and career functions.
