Leaders with lasting impact understand the importance of developing the next generation of leaders. Young leaders know the value of finding an experienced someone to show them the ropes. Here's a hands-on guide to mentoring and being mentored.

The Trouble With Mentors

Our correspondent seeks out the counsel of great men (and women) and learns a valuable lesson: The best advice to follow is your own. Harriet Rubin

``It`s Cool to Be Smart``

Freeman Hrabowski is nurturing a new generation of African-American scientists and mathematicians. His lesson plan: high standards, hand-on help, and some killer chess. Chuck Salter

Great Harvest`s Recipe for Growth

How has Great Harvest Bread Co. opened 130 bakeries in 34 states? Freedom, community, and ideas: "We`re a brand company, but we`re also a university. We`re creating a community of learning. Heath Row

A Leader`s Journey

Paul Wieand went on a quest for power and became one of the banking industry`s youngest-ever CEOs. Then his world collapsed, and he went on a painful search for the real meaning of leadership. Now he helps other leaders on their journeys. Pamela Kruger

Leader on the Edge

World-renowned explorer Robert Swan is the first person ever to walk to both the North and South Poles. Now he`s teaching businesspeople about leadership under life-and-death conditions. Curtis Sittenfeld

Hope and Dreams

University of North Carolina professor Jim Johnson teaches business-school students, but his real mission is to build bridges. Chuck Salter

The Most Creative Man in Silicon Valley

Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Michael Ray has taught some of the best-known innovators in Silicon Valley how to be more creative. It`s no wonder that both students and executives are clamoring for his lessons. Curtis Sittenfeld

Inside Intel`s Mentoring Movement

Forget everything that you`ve ever learned about mentoring, especially the idea of hitching your wagon to a rising star. Here`s how Intel is reinventing the old approach to mentoring to teach, inspire, and reconnect its employees. Fara Warner

An Unorthodox Guide to Mentoring

Forget what you`ve always been told about how mentoring arrangements should work. Here`s one woman`s unsparing look at the pleasures and perils of the workplace`s most complicated relationship. Harriet Rubin

Want to Grow as a Leader? Get a Mentor!

Even top executives need mentors -- and sometimes the best mentors work elsewhere. Jennifer Reingold