How To Find The Missing Mentor
Last week, I had the privilege to speak on the Women in (R)eTail Leadership Panel at the eTail™ Conference in Palm Desert, CA. It was a magical conversation! I felt humbled to sit on a panel with other executives and founders who are leaders at the eCommerce brands I admire and love to shop.
One of the most powerful moments during the conversation was each woman sharing her personal experience with mentorship. Without a doubt, having a good mentor was a powerful boost for each of us and helped to guide our careers. During the Q&A, someone in the audience said she struggles with finding a mentor and asked us for suggestions to find one.
Here's the hard reality: there are more people who want to be mentored than there are leaders who want to be a mentor to others.
I did some research and found that 84% of Fortune 500 companies say they have a formal mentorship program, but only 37% of employees say they have a formal mentor. And over 60% of women say they have never had a mentor in their career. What does this data tell me?
Mentorship is a broken process.
The problem is that we don't have the right perspective of what it takes to be a good mentor, and also there aren't enough leaders to go around to meet all the demand. When we search for mentors, we look for someone who has the biggest title in the room, or someone in a role that we want to have in 5 or 10 years. We're not giving enough credibility to the person 1-2 years ahead of us. And this puts more demand on the few people at the very top.
For example, if a Vice President leads an organization of 50 people in a company, it's not reasonable to expect that VP to be able to mentor more than 3 - 5 people while also balancing their own work and personal responsibilities. So where does that leave the other 45 people in this hypothetical example? Out of luck, unfortunately.
If you can't find a mentor in your company, mentorship IS still available to you - if you think differently.
At the panel, I gave the audience three actionable tips to find a mentor in their current career. I want to share these same powerful tips with you:
1. Review the last feedback someone gave you about your current work performance. Then go find a book, a webinar, or an online course to help you improve in that area.
Being able to teach yourself is a powerful skill for growth. While you wait for the right mentor relationship to come, get started working on areas where you know you can be stronger.
2. Give away what you have right now. Become a mentor for someone else.
There is absolutely someone in your orbit right now who would love to learn from you. Mentorship, when done right, is a flow of both giving and receiving. If you want to receive mentorship, begin the flow by giving it away.
3. Look for a mentor outside of your company who is 1-2 steps ahead of where you're at today.
A good mentor doesn't have to be someone inside of your company. A good mentor also doesn't have to be an executive with the biggest title in the room.
A good mentor does need to have knowledge of your particular industry and functional area to help guide your decision making process as you navigate your own career. This person can be inside or outside of your company. They can be a founder who launched 1-2 years before you, or just hit the revenue milestone you are currently striving for.
When you're at industry events and conferences, spark new relationships with everyone who has similar interests. You never know if the next person you meet can be the mentor you've been hoping for.
How did you find your mentor? Or, if you're looking for a mentor, what skill or area are you most hoping for guidance?
Comment below!
Cheers,
Amber
