Clinton, J. Robert and Paul D. Stanley, 1992. Connecting: The Mentoring Relationships You Need to Succeed in Life. Colorado Springs: Navpress.
J. Robert Clinton has served on the faculty of the Fuller Theological Seminary as an associate professor of leadership and currently coordinates the Leadership concentration at School of Intercultural Studies. He has completed extensive research in the field of leadership and specializes in leadership training, selection, and emergence patterns. As background for his contributions in the study of leadership development, he has extensively researched the lives of over 600 past and present leaders. Bobby Clinton has extensive publications on leadership development. Bobby Clinton has also served with his wife as missionary in Jamaica. He has also taught and ministered in Papua New Guinea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Singapore, among other places.
J. Robert Clinton has served on the faculty of the Fuller Theological Seminary as an associate professor of leadership and currently coordinates the Leadership concentration at School of Intercultural Studies. He has completed extensive research in the field of leadership and specializes in leadership training, selection, and emergence patterns. As background for his contributions in the study of leadership development, he has extensively researched the lives of over 600 past and present leaders. Bobby Clinton has extensive publications on leadership development. Bobby Clinton has also served with his wife as missionary in Jamaica. He has also taught and ministered in Papua New Guinea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Singapore, among other places.
Paul D. Stanley has begun several Navigator ministries throughout Europe and the United States. He currently serves as the International Vice President of the Navigators overseeing ministry in seventy countries around the world.
The purpose of Clinton and Stanley’s book, Connecting, is born out of a concern that some (even “many”) leaders do not "finish well” (11ff). The method of response to this concern is to use mentoring as a leadership tool. The authors define the tool of mentoring in relationship terms as an experience where one person empowers another using “God-given resources” (12).
Connecting follows then a pattern established in the preface of four clearly defined objectives. The first is covered in ten chapters of reviewing mentoring functions and is accomplished by breaking down the task of mentoring into seven functions, Discipler, Spiritual Guide, Coach, Counselor, Teacher, Sponsor and Model. Model is further sub-divided into Contemporary and Historical Models.
There are three essential dynamics of mentoring, Attraction, Responsiveness, and Accountability address the second objective of the book, "what makes mentoring work." These dynamics are addressed throughout the book, but mentioned in the early chapters.
Chapter eleven describes what the authors term the "Constellation Model" of mentoring (161-168).
Chapter eleven describes what the authors term the "Constellation Model" of mentoring (161-168).
This model sets forth a framework for the seven functions of mentoring detailed in chapters 3-10. The Constellation Model is defined in images of upward mentoring, downward mentoring, and peer co-mentoring. The peer co-mentoring is further described as either external (outside your organization) or internal (inside your organization). Peer co-mentoring is also described in terms of "close buddy", friend and acquaintance. The objective of a “balanced model of mentoring relationships” is met here.The fourth objective of the book is met as Connecting offers numerous illustrations and tidbit ideas for practical application of the mentoring concepts presented.
For me, Connecting offers something I have not discovered in the past. Mentoring has always had a negative connation for me because of a poor experience in the past. Allowing the authors to define for me the varying degrees of mentor relationships has provided a freedom for me.
I appreciate the personal illustrations and aspects which the authors have discovered, as well. Specifically, the "Ten Commandments of Mentoring" in chapter 13 is particularly helpful. I like the samples of contacts in approaching potential mentors, as well as insights from the mistakes that have been made.
I appreciate the personal illustrations and aspects which the authors have discovered, as well. Specifically, the "Ten Commandments of Mentoring" in chapter 13 is particularly helpful. I like the samples of contacts in approaching potential mentors, as well as insights from the mistakes that have been made.
I am also appreciative of a perspective of a need based mentoring – relationships that arise out of an understanding of need in either the mentor or the mentored. One particular call to 
need is the rampant lack of prominent leaders who “finish well.” I want to be among those leaders who finish well. I have so many opportunities to fail that it sparks a measure of need to be accountable, a need to grow strong in my faith, curb the judgmental dimensions of my thinking and hone the gifts God has given me. I appreciate the review of the five characteristics of leaders who finish well.
need is the rampant lack of prominent leaders who “finish well.” I want to be among those leaders who finish well. I have so many opportunities to fail that it sparks a measure of need to be accountable, a need to grow strong in my faith, curb the judgmental dimensions of my thinking and hone the gifts God has given me. I appreciate the review of the five characteristics of leaders who finish well.The heart of the book is to present a method by which leaders may use to finish well. While the concept of finishing well is addressed significantly in the final chapter, the methods presented in the core of Connecting build up to and support the conclusion of the book with this thesis.
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