Book Review: How to use emotional, cultural, and spiritual intelligence to mentor doctoral learners: Best practices and tools to help mentors and doctoral learners navigate the dissertation process by McCollum, W. R.

Abstract

McCollum, W. R. (2014). How to use emotional, cultural, and spiritual intelligence to mentor doctoral learners: Best practices and tools to help mentors and doctoral learners navigate the dissertation process. Fort Washington, MD: McCollum Enterprises. 439 pp. ISBN: 978-0-9791406-5-5 (paperback, large print) Graduate school attrition rates of 40% to 50% raise concern for mentors and mentees struggling to beat these odds. Poor self-esteem, inadequate preparation, limited finances, and dysfunctional social supports are common barriers, especially for underserved, nontraditional graduate students. In How to Use Emotional, Cultural, and Spiritual Intelligence, Walter McCollum (2014) contends that emotional, cultural, and spiritual intelligence facilitates the successful navigation through the dissertation process. Combining theory, practice, and experience, McCollum defines successful mentoring as the ability to create opportunities and environments that provide clear expectations, tools, and support for graduate students. Relying on his experience with underserved, nontraditional online doctoral students, he offers mentors and mentees best practices for reducing the attrition rates. The first chapter, Emotional Intelligence is the Heart of Mentoring Doctoral Learners, briefly summarizes the literature on emotional intelligence. Preferring Goleman's (2000) emotional intelligence model because it measures the personal competence, empathy, and social skills of the mentor and mentee, McCollum (2014) uses his personal assessment scores to illustrate the development of his mentoring practices. He suggests that mentors with high emotional intelligence possess competencies to create the opportunities mentees need to succeed. In the second chapter, Using Cultural Intelligence as a Critical Success Factor to Mentor Doctoral Learners, McCollum (2014) defines cultural intelligence as the ability to grasp what makes all people human and different at the same time. Acknowledging the changing global demographic in traditional and nontraditional doctoral programs, he asserts that cultural intelligence is a vital component for a successful mentoring relationship. He views mentoring as the bridge between interpersonal differences and cultural intelligence as the key to avoiding misunderstanding and conflict within a mentoring relationship. In Chapter 3, Aligning Spiritual Intelligence Principles With the Dissertation Process, McCollum (2014) admits that research is sparse and finding a definition for spiritual intelligence is difficult. Settling on Sisk and Torrance's (2001) definition of spiritual intelligence as a sensory approach to problem-solving and learning that listens to one's inner voice, McCollum presents qualities evident in those with spiritual intelligence. …