14 Jan Fresh Insight: Rosina Racioppi

Posted at 05:17h in Executive Woman, Fresh Insight, New Articles, Point of View by

Mentors: The North Star of Career Growth and Development

As president and CEO of WOMEN Unlimited Inc., Dr. Rosina Racioppi leads initiatives to help Fortune 1000 companies cultivate the culture and talent needed to achieve greater growth and profitability. 

A good mentor fully understands that for anyone to achieve success in business, relationships matter.

As president & CEO of WOMEN Unlimited Inc., I run an organization that has been helping corporations develop their female talent for over 30 years. We’ve worked with more than 200 major companies and more than 18,000 women in programs that emphasize the unmistakable value of mentoring relationships. Mentoring is critical to our learning framework and, in fact, is part of our name: the “M” in WOMEN is for mentoring.

One developmental setback that shows up continually, especially for early-career women, is the focus on just doing a good job, without understanding the importance of developing relationships. As we often say: “Doing a good job alone will keep you in that job.”

Additionally, we have found that companies often struggle with creating strategies to support women’s growth and development, and can lean toward a one-size-fits-all approach. In doing so, they fail to capture the value of diversity to corporate growth and profitability.

A good mentor fully understands that for anyone to achieve success in business, relationships matter, and will counsel women to create individualized career strategies accordingly. As a result, mentors have proven to be in an ideal position both to assist women in developing career-advancing relationships and to help companies leverage the diversity that characterizes women in the workforce.

Those are just two notable examples of the power of mentors. There are many more:

  • Mentors point mentees in the direction of successful risk-taking, the kind that positions them in the eyes of corporate leaders as organizational contributors.
  • Mentors guide women in developing relationships that help them gain insights they would not have come to on their own.
  • With their firsthand knowledge of how the organization works, mentors help women forge strategies that mesh career goals with corporate ones.
  • Mentors shine a light on their mentees’ unique talents and encourage them to grow those talents.
  • Mentors lead mentees away from career-stalling attitudes toward behaviors conducive to growth and development.
  • Mentors advise mentees to interact with the diverse populations that make up today’s workplace, widening both their perspectives and their contributions.

Guidelines for forging a successful mentoring relationship

  • Have more than one mentor. Include men and women from diverse populations. Make sure to go beyond those who look like you.
  • In seeking out women mentors, focus on those who have successfully navigated the corporate landscape.
  • Be proactive with both current and potential mentors. As the saying goes, “If you don’t ask, they can’t say yes.”
  • Have an agenda for when you meet with your mentors, so they will view you as well-organized and respectful of their time.
  • Realize your mentoring needs will change as you advance. The right mentors for supervisors are not the right mentors for department heads or VPs.
  • Always be open to suggestions from your mentors. You don’t have to follow them all or agree with them all, but you should listen to them all.

Companies and the environments in which they operate are changing at breakneck speed, with opportunities and challenges happening faster than ever. This unrelenting pace requires women to simultaneously develop competencies for their current roles and for future ones. Mentors, who have successfully weathered changes that impact both careers and organizations, are ideal advisors for guiding women in uncertain and fast-paced times. Ignoring or underutilizing these experienced allies is a career-sabotaging mistake. EW