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About The Encouraging Mentor
The Encouraging Mentor is a how-to manual that launches conversations that matter. The tools can be used with no training. They can also be used to outline new nonformal mentoring programs, leadership training, student or faculty development programs, and even onboarding work with new interns or employees.
40 Conversations is the companion journal. It can be used by someone you're mentoring, or as a self-study guide. It is a fillable "workbook" that includes the same question prompts (but provides space to write). This reflective activity is a critical component for growth.
These books were born from my research, teaching, and practice as a professor at Ohio State. Here, I teach graduate courses on leadership, and an undergrad section on personal and professional development. I coach students, fellow faculty members, department chairs, non-profits, and business leaders on mission and vision (for personal growth, and for the organizations they lead). Each topic ("conversation") in these books was derived from this real-life experience. They are grounded in adult learning theory (nonformal), but you need no training to begin using these in mentoring others.
About Nonformal Mentoring:
The nonformal mentoring construct (Raison, 2024) is grounded in nonformal education and teaching praxis (Coombs & Ahmed, 1974). It draws upon established methodologies in adult development and transformation (Kegan, 1994; Mezirow, 2000) and adult learning literature (Knowles, 1968, 1980, 1984). It also includes a component of motivation theory as applied to education (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Adults bring experience, and they desire relevance, application, and contribution in their learning (Knowles, 1995; Knowles, Holton & Swanson, 2014).
The nonformal approach effectively addresses disconnections often encountered in traditional formal mentoring programs, while steering clear of pitfalls associated with informal conversations that seldom incorporate goal-setting or evaluation components. In brief, nonformal mentoring meets individuals where they are and engages with them at their own pace, fostering both personal and professional growth.
About The author
Dr. Brian Raison’s mission in life is to encourage others. He has endeavored to practice this over the past 29 years serving at The Ohio State University where he teaches on campus and through OSU Extension. As a professor, he specializes in leadership and capacity building to help people and organizations. He holds a BS from OSU’s Fisher College of Business, the MA in Sociology from Ohio University, and a PhD in Extension Education (non-formal teaching and research) from Ohio State.
In June 2025, he was accepted as a U.S. Dept. of State, Fulbright Specialist and is planning a new international academic project around the positive impact of mentoring (as he continues his work at Ohio State).
Brian volunteers with his family in faith-based service organizations across the U.S. and carries on his Appalachian family traditions of storytelling and heirloom gardening learned from his grandparents.
Connect: brian@encouragingmentor.com