Sixth Annual Mentorship Best Practices
FountainBlue's November 7 When She Speaks online program was on the topic of 'Sixth Annual Mentorship Best Practices.'’ Please join me in thanking our esteemed panelists.
Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue
Mentors:
Roman Medina Perez, NPI Technical Program Manager, Lam Research
Archana Muralidharan, Senior Manager, Governance, Risk & Compliance, Palo Alto Networks
Mentees:
Denise Cable, NPI Program Manager/Project Manager, Lam Research
Soraya St. Claire, Senior InfoSec GRC Analyst, Palo Alto Networks
Our panelists represented a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives, but they had much in common.
They have faith, lean into the mentor-mentee relationship, and ensure that all parties benefit from the relationship.
They are passionate communicators and connectors and are invested in their people's success, projects, and companies.
They lead with humility, grace, and empathy, peppered with wisdom and humor.
Below is a compilation of their best practices for building mentoring relationships.
Mentorship is a choice.
Choose to build a long-term mentor-mentee relationship built on trust and openness.
Whether you're a mentor or a mentee, be courageous and curious, drawing on the resources, information, and people around you to help you get things done right and well.
Be courageous and open enough to even the UGLY truths, for nobody's perfect. Learnings often happen when you're open and vulnerable, and the full data is provided.
Forward-thinking companies embrace mentorship.
Join and grow a corporate culture that supports and rewards mentorship and continuous learning.
Support the ERGs and other groups supporting employee development and growth, for you will realize business benefits.
Embrace opportunities to learn and grow.
Build a broad and deep network so that you can be exposed to a wide range of perspectives.
Continue to learn and evolve while embracing the ever-changing landscape around you.
Connect with people who can expand your perspective about the opportunities and challenges you face now and in the future.
Aim for increasing improvements rather than perfection, which is an illusion.
Embrace opportunities for continuous learning both in the classroom and at work.
Thoughts on mentorship best practices:
Lean on mentors to provide guardrails or a map in order to help manage risks, align to objectives, pivot strategically, fail fast, and learn from mistakes.
Nobody has a panacea for all challenges, but mentors can provide the experience, wisdom, inspiration, and knowledge to help you succeed and increase your impact.
Lean into the mentor-mentee relationship as equals, creating value for both parties.
Mentorship is an ongoing relationship, not a one-and-done interaction.
Use the mentor-mentee relationship to acquire new facts, perspectives, resources, ideas, and goals.
Don't count on mentors to do your work for you or to prescribe how to address specific issues.
Ideas on how mentors can support you:
Mentors can be great partners when figuring out something together.
Mentors can provide you with ongoing feedback that supports your growth and development.
Mentors often make you feel heard as they listen deeply and have sometimes walked a similar path.
Mentors and mentees can work together to better brainstorm and strategize on a future we can't predict.
Mentors help you focus on what you CAN do.
The interactive conversation was far-ranging. Our panelists agreed that there are many ways to embrace the many ways mentorship may manifest: shadow mentoring, phantom mentoring, in-the-moment mentoring, technical mentorship, reverse mentoring, cultural mentoring, and cross-industry mentoring.
They also agreed that life and work are better with the mentees and mentors in our lives and have inspired us to cultivate these relationships in our own work and lives.