In a six-part series, Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk of Swim explore the invisible barriers to career success that trip up women in the ad industry – and how they can be overcome. In part three, Janet Kestin explains the virtue of “selfish mentoring.”
In his 2012 TEDx talk, Andy Warton (an Australian police officer who coached his country’s aboriginal team to run the New York Marathon) described mentoring as “one person’s ability to help another’s capability.”
Chances are you’ve heard a boatload about what women gain from having mentors, but it’s less likely that you’ve heard about the big leg up that comes from being one. Mentoring, that thing that “nice people do to help others,” is actually a surprisingly effective career strategy. So much so that we call it selfish mentoring. And it’s a game-changer for women.
Mentoring teaches how to inspire, use judgment, develop talent, give praise, share tough feedback and steer careers. It’s a low-pressure leadership school. Yet many women don’t apply.
Deirdre Woods, interim executive director of Pennsylvania University’s Open Learning Initiative, observes that, in general, women need to feel 80%, even 90% sure in their current jobs before considering a next.1 And when they do step into those elusive, influential senior roles, they’re so consumed with the need to do a stellar job that noses stay firmly pressed to grindstones. So mentoring mostly falls into categories entitled “Don’t Know How” and “Who Has Time?”
But you can add mentorship into your action-packed, overwhelmed life by taking a few simple steps.
Take 10 minutes: What if you could mentor in the time it takes to have a power nap or hunt down one of those little milk thingies for your coffee? Sabrina Geremia, managing director at Google Canada and mom of young twins, does it 10 minutes at a time. When people see her in the elevator, they ask for 10. Sitting in the cafeteria? They hold up 10 fingers. Grabbing a coffee? You get the picture. Sabrina tries to give 600 life-altering seconds to anyone who asks, as often as needed. Their job is simply to know what they want and respect her time. Her accessibility and generosity have made her a power mentor. And you can follow her lead.
Learn as you go: Take the pressure to be perfect off of yourself. You don’t have to know it all; a mentor is guide, not the final word. You know more than you think you do and as long as you ask questions rather than overloading your mentee with your experience, you’ll find your way. It’s a process of guided discovery and people learn best when they uncover their own answers.
Don’t tell yourself you’re too young: Mentoring can be a two-way street. Younger people know a whole lot about a whole lot in this much-changed world, while those more experienced have the inside track on how to navigate the business landscape. Nancy’s and my younger mentors profoundly changed the way we worked. It’s called reverse mentoring, but I prefer to think of it as fair trade.
Still not convinced? Consider this: those who mentor progress faster and get more raises. And Catalyst, the women’s research and advocacy organization, says that mentors earn up to $25,000 more a year than their counterparts.
It’s a virtuous circle — those who are mentored well are more likely themselves to mentor. So do it for someone else. Better still, be selfish and do it for you. Pass it on.
More “Getting from 3% to 50%” from Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk
• Yes We Can
• Retaining Female Leaders
1 Knowledge@Wharton, “Do Women Shy Away From Promotions?”
