Why Mentoring Matters

“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey

Mentors are great assets for professionals looking to develop their careers. They help you find opportunities to stimulate your personal and professional growth as they draw from their own experiences. It is also beneficial to see how they became successful and understand their perspective on professional development. They become your trusted advisor and help guide and give you insights on instances you may not see yourself.

WEST partnered with Everwise and hosted a panel on the importance of mentorship on Tuesday, Sep 25th, 2018. Presented by Heidi Williams, Liz Kosinski , Kim Vappie. The panelists were engineering leaders from different tech backgrounds, Kesha Williams, Sumathi Swaminathan, Tim Krajcar, and Demetrius Comes.

Over the past few webinars and events hosted by WEST, discussions were more around the value of mentorship for the mentee, hence we curated this webinar to focus on the value to the mentor as well. Watch the full webinar here.

Our experienced panel shared their journeys and best practices and what they have learnt from the mentoring relationship.

Encourage women to find their own tribe and forge ahead — Kesha Williams.

Mentorship makes a notable difference and builds a better, more knowledgeable workforce, it advances careers. When experienced professionals choose to mentor someone newer to the workforce, they can boost people who may not otherwise have those opportunities and help level the playing field. Share your story, even if it’s an informal setting, you will be surprised how that could inspire others and perhaps trigger a relationship that could potentially turn into something empowering and powerful. Even if it doesn’t, you would have shared your perspective and that could have influenced someone and helped them accelerate their growth and perspective in some way or fashion.

Speaking to people in other organizations, can help with understanding their point of view and absorbing best practices. It only helps you become a better problem solver — Tim Krajcar.

On choosing a mentor internally or externally, there could be an unconscious power dynamic internally, but don’t let this stop you from making an effort to reach out to the person you look up to and begin a conversation and explore a potential opportunity. However, externally, you can have a really honest and candid discussion. WEST is one such platform that connects mentees and mentors across different organizations. When it comes to how to choose a right mentor, don’t hesitate to ask your immediate circle. You should have clarity on what you are looking for and what you plan to accomplish by getting a mentor. The importance of being able to see things from different people’s points of view based on their life experience, their culture, their ethnicity, their gender, becomes even more important.

As a mentor, Sumathi Swaminathan stated that she learnt how to be more transparent and be open about problems from her mentees.

Mentoring is a two way street. Mentees should set expectations on contributing to the relationship in a meaningful way, not just expecting to receive professional advice. It’s very much reciprocal. It affords mentors an opportunity to listen and understand challenges and help provide guidance and advice while helping develop talent and pay back for the amazing extension of mentorship that they were granted at some point in their career.

Look at every encounter through the mentorship lens — Demetrius Comes

Approach every conversation as a coach rather than a boss or a manager. Listening is an important skills every mentor should have. Listen and understand what others are saying, then share your best practices, what worked for you, what did not work for you pertinent to that situation. When you are doing so, even unconsciously you may have sparked someone’s interest and would have helped them in some way or the other.

Here are some key reasons on why mentoring matters:

• Improves Skills: Mentoring is a two way street, the partnership should flow both ways. Not only can it help the mentee to learn and develop and grow from the guidance and advice given by their mentor, in turn a mentor could also learn many aspects from their mentee’s experiences and hone their mentorship skills.
• Develops Leaders: A successful mentorship helps create leaders. It helps mentees learn and pick up different perspectives and allows them to experiment with their problem solving. As they gain experience, they in turn can return the favour and help coach another person who looks up to them. Now that is a leader in the making. This is how you also create a better workplace environment where you are looking out for other people and fostering a healthy community. As a mentor you get to reflect on and articulate your own leadership style and best practices, which can make you more thoughtful and intentional about your leadership. Also, mentoring women in tech in particular can give you ideas for how you can become a more inclusive leader.
• Creates Satisfaction: The mentoring relationship can be rewarding in many ways. It creates job satisfaction for the mentee when they have someone to share their thoughts with and help problem solve. With a mentor, they have someone who they can rely on professionally for guidance on growth. For the mentor, it is rewarding to see that they are having a direct impact on their mentee’s growth.
• Improves Retention: Be the biggest cheerleader you can be to your mentee. The best mentors are not just cheerleaders but also coaches/guides. When a mentee feels heard and understood it strengthens the mentoring relationship, in turn creating a sense of satisfaction and belonging as they seek guidance and see themselves improve. As a mentor, you gain leadership skills and have an impact on the mentee’s career. When organizations invest in career development programs, like mentorship, for its employees, they are more likely to feel like they have growth opportunities at their company and are therefore more likely to stay.

Leadership is a behavior not a position. You don’t have to be a people manager to be a mentor. Lead by influence, lead by example. Give the gift of mentorship to people who look up to you or share your story, talk about your experiences. Give back to others what you have learnt in your career and what lead you to your success while combatting failures.

Be a mentor, Lead on! Join WEST and help more women build rewarding careers in tech.