Passing It On

Walter W. Powell

doi:10.6092/issn.1971-8853/21145

Authors

Walter W. Powell Graduate School of Education, Stanford University https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2319-5815

Woody Powell is Jacks Family Professor of Education, and Professor of Sociology, Organizational Behavior, Management Science and Engineering, and Communication at Stanford University. He is also an External Faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. He was a founding co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS) in 2006. At PACS, he heads the Civic Life of Cities Lab, which studies civil society organizations in the SF Bay Area, Seattle, Shenzhen, Sydney, Taipei, and Vienna. From 1999–2010, he was director of SCANCOR at Stanford, and he continues his involvement through supervising the postdoctoral fellows and running the annual PhD workshop in Europe. His research interests focus on the processes through which ideas and practices are transferred across organizations, and the role of networks in facilitating or hindering innovation.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/21145

Keywords:

On mentoring, On being mentored, trust

Abstract

This essay reflects on experiences with extraordinary mentors and decades of experience as a mentor. Mentorship is not about imparting knowledge top-down, but about creating an environment where people feel comfortable to ask hard questions and learning flows in multiple directions.

References

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Passing It On

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