It's always good to find a book or two on a subject when you want to be good at something. I grabbed two from Amazon, the first being The Elements of Mentoring ($15) and I've found it to be a very good book. It's actually written by a mentor/protege pair! The book breaks mentoring down into a lot of sub lessons, with overall there being more emphasis on the mentor side of sides because that's where the responsibility/power is. They talk about moving from accidental to deliberate mentoring, choosing proteges wisely, and even long term issues such as when the mentoring has to end for whatever reason. I thought they also spoke well about the dangers involved - not trying to be a mental health counselor, caution about the power involved in being a mentor, and even the dangers of sex between mentor/protege.

I learned a lot, but really it also awed me a bit - I won't say that I viewed mentoring as simple or as a trivial task, but this really impressed up on me the huge responsibility you incur as a mentor.

I think it's a must read for both mentor and protege, I think a great way to review the goals and ground rules of the relationship.