Have you got a mentor? Chances are you probably know the potential power that mentors and sponsors can wield in propelling your career success. Many high profile successful women openly credit their mentors and sponsors for their achievements.
It’s a topic we cover often at Women’s Agenda because it is so important. Mentors and sponsors can guide you through decisions, help you spot new opportunities and even help create new opportunities. But what if you don’t have a mentor or a sponsor? How can you find one? Or how can you become one?
Have you considered that you might already have a mentor or that you might already be one? Earlier this week, I spoke with a female executive who recalled a recent conversation she’d had on the topic of mentors. A male executive admitted he didn’t think he had a mentor until his wife convinced him otherwise. He had several. He thought they were simply friends with whom he’d previously worked; former colleagues that he caught up with a few times a year and bounced ideas around with. Until he stopped and thought about those relationships in that light he hadn’t really understood that they were mentors or how valuable they were.
I can relate to having a mentor where it seems more like a friendship than a structured program. I can also relate to it being hugely valuable. One of my mentors was my first boss when I became a journalist and he quickly became a sounding board. After a couple of years he stopped being my boss but many years on he is still a sounding board. I don’t seek his guidance all the time but we keep in touch and he happily obliges each time I have asked for an objective perspective or career advice.
Being able to utilise that safety net has provided me with a greater sense of confidence at several moments in my career. He is successful in the industry in which I work so I value his input enormously. I haven’t always followed his advice (there was a job he encouraged me to take that in the end I decided against) but having the chance to talk through different options with someone who is both objective and subjective is something I appreciate enormously. It’s hard to overstate how valuable it is.
If you want to learn more about how to find a mentor or a sponsor or how to make the most of those relationships, we are hosting the first My Agenda event on this topic in Sydney on Wednesday 30th of July and tickets are still available. Megan Dalla-Camina will be hosting a workshop on making the most of mentors. We then have a stellar line up of female executives, Pip Marlow, Cynthia Whelan and Maria Halasz, who will share their insight and experiences about mentorship and sponsorship.