Mentoring is one lever we can activate to advance more women in their work, to help them gain access to capital and economic opportunities they might otherwise miss, and to be better prepared for opportunities when they come. I believe that one of the responsibilities of being a woman who is committed to working toward a more just world is being willing to be a mentor when and where needed. All of us — mentees and mentors — are dangerous women in the making or already boldly declared to be in the sisterhood. We need the support of each other at a fundamental level that goes beyond mentoring and even beyond sponsorship.
Sponsors are our representatives, our agents, our committed advocates. Harris has been using her sphere of influence and her powerful woman’s voice to call for sponsors as well as mentors. “Mentoring,” she says, “won’t be enough to ensure that you’ll get the promotion or the raise you deserve. We need sponsors.” I recommend Harris’s TED Talk (watch it here) for more instructions on how to be a sponsor and how to get one.
How can you be a great mentor? Let me share with you some straightforward, how-to advice from my personal experiences as both.
Being a mentor means matching your skills and interests:
Check in with yourself before accepting a mentee. Do you have the right skills to help this person, or will you be running yourself ragged trying to find the answers to her questions? Are you genuinely interested in what your mentee is trying to achieve? If someone looks good on paper but the face-to-face meeting leaves you cold, you’re allowed to say, “I don’t think I’m the right person to help you.” Why waste the mentee’s time with a half-hearted, less connected, or less informed mentorship? Find someone who makes the experience mutually rewarding.