{"id":3887,"date":"2025-04-14T21:12:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T21:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3887"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:25:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:25:00","slug":"famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous Mentors Can Be a Blessing and a Curse"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Students and young professionals who get well-respected, or even famous, mentors gain can gain skills that help put their careers on promising trajectories. But mentees\u2019 identities and reputations becoming connected with prominent mentors can provide both benefits and challenges.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Bess Rouse<\/a> of Boston College said that, on the positive side, relationships and connections with prominent mentors can improve mentees\u2019 opportunities. On the negative side, the entanglement of an individual\u2019s career with a prominent mentor can also lead to being taken for granted, having their contributions underappreciated, and feeling overshadowed. She and her coauthors of an Academy of Management Review<\/em> article<\/a> refer to this as the \u201cparadox of promise\u201d that complicates mentees\u2019 building meaningful career narratives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking at mentorship in a creative context, and all of us were able to draw from our experiences as well, but our research findings apply to any place where there is a strong mentor figure where you learn by doing and being around somebody who is experienced and renowned in their field,\u201d Rouse said. \u201cThis paradox of promise can happen\u2014we know that working with very prominent people in the field is useful; it can help you get connections, and you learn a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis person is well-known, because they are very skilled at what they do, and so you can see that happening, where you\u2019re learning very easily from this person, because they have a lot of knowledge to give you, but at the same time, you have the shadow over you when you go out and try to make a name for yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ll often be referred to in context with your mentor, and so it’s very hard to break out and establish your own identity, because people assume\u2014maybe rightly, maybe wrongly\u2014that basically you are just the output of this other person and haven\u2019t really established a voice on your own.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so that can be very challenging for people, especially if you are driven, as some of our informants were, to really make a name for themselves and separate themselves from their mentor.\u201d<\/p>\n

It can be difficult to craft your own career narrative in the way that you\u2019d like if most people know you based on the work that you\u2019ve done in the shadow of a successful, celebrated mentor. That said, some mentees embrace their association with such a figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are other people in our study that were much more comfortable to build on the legacy of that mentor and feel that they were the next stage of that\u2014helping that legacy to live on, contributing to that legacy was really important to them, and they were able to find meaning from that,\u201d Rouse said. \u201cThis is really about what you are trying to get out of your own creative career as a protege and thinking about the different ways to find career success.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn interesting thing about our study is we found that all people found a way to craft a career narrative and find meaningfulness,\u201d she said. \u201cThey just took different paths for doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Students and young professionals who get well-respected, or even famous, mentors gain can gain skills that help put their careers on promising trajectories. But mentees\u2019 identities and reputations becoming connected with prominent mentors can provide both benefits and challenges. Academy of Management Scholar Bess Rouse of Boston College said that, on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,71,19,76],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-communicating","category-leadership","category-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFamous Mentors Can Be a Blessing and a Curse - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Famous Mentors Can Be a Blessing and a Curse\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-14T21:12:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:25:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":535,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/sidewalk-star.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"CAREERS\",\"COMMUNICATING\",\"LEADERSHIP\",\"PERFORMANCE\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/famous-mentors-can-be-a-blessing-and-a-curse\\\/\",\"name\":\"Famous Mentors Can Be a Blessing and a Curse - 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You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star.webp",1080,720,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star.webp",1080,720,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star.webp",1080,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star-300x200.webp",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star-1024x683.webp",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star.webp",1080,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star.webp",1080,720,false],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star-600x400.webp",600,400,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star-350x450.webp",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sidewalk-star-100x100.webp",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":3,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/careers\/\" rel=\"category tag\">CAREERS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/communicating\/\" rel=\"category tag\">COMMUNICATING<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/leadership\/\" rel=\"category tag\">LEADERSHIP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/performance\/\" rel=\"category tag\">PERFORMANCE<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher Students and young professionals who get well-respected, or even famous, mentors gain can gain skills that help put their careers on promising trajectories. But mentees\u2019 identities and reputations becoming connected with prominent mentors can provide both benefits and challenges. Academy of Management Scholar Bess Rouse of Boston College said that, on the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}