We live in an age of specialization. You see it in the medial profession, in corporate america, and in professional sports. One area where I have not noticed a great deal of content about specialization is in career mentoring. Career mentoring itself gets a great deal of thought in books, blogs, and self-help publications. From my reading though, the act of career mentoring is regarded as a specialty (of sorts) unto itself. So I wonder, is it too much to try to have mentors in specific areas of your career?
For example, as an executive with responsibilities in multiple areas should you seek to have a mentor in each area? (Finance mentor, Strategy mentor, Information Technology mentor, Career guidance mentor, etc. ) The idea is to get more focused mentoring with the trade-off of additional time commitment and complexity.
What are your thoughts and experiences with career mentoring? Have you used multiple mentors or just one?
I agree with you Bob that specialization is key. However, there are exceptions. For instance, project leaders or project managers would do well to have both a project mentor and mentors or coaches that can assist them in the related or in some cases unrelated processes and disciplines that they manage. Hope that adds to the discussion. Take care!