Mentorship is undeniably a powerful tool for career development, offering the opportunity to gain guidance and support from more experienced professionals.
For women, mentorship is particularly vital due to the challenges they often face, including gender and racial biases, work-life balance issues, and underrepresentation in leadership roles. However, many don’t know where and how to start developing these relationships.
To provide a platform for women, Insurance Business is set to host its first Women in Insurance Mentorship Network webinar tomorrow (July 17).
Titled “Setting Up for Success – How to Build a Great Mentor Relationship” the webinar will feature a panel of senior insurance professionals and cover topics such as defining your goals and needs in a mentorship, finding your ideal mentor/mentee, developing authentic connections, and creating a defined roadmap for the relationship.
One of the panel speakers, Pamela M. Wheeler (pictured directly below), chief diversity & inclusion officer at NFP, an Aon company, highlighted the power of a good mentor in bolstering her confidence early in her career.
“My mentor was the most senior Black official within the company,” said Wheeler. “He guided me with advice informed by years of successfully navigating the corporate world. He created personal development opportunities that advanced my readiness for the next level and eagerly shared his industry knowledge, playing an active role in my progression within the organization.
“It has become the benchmark for how I approach mentorship opportunities as a senior executive.”
Wheeler didn’t know it at the time, but she said her mentor was serving as her sponsor. He invested in her career development by encouraging her to share her ideas and instilling accountability early, which was critical to her progress.
“Most of all, he brought his commitment to equity to life by using his influence within the company to ensure I had every opportunity to succeed,” Wheeler continued.
“To this day, I am grateful I was able to see what true mentorship really looks like at such an early stage of my career.”
Another panel speaker, Lisa Klein Radford (pictured directly below), senior vice president and senior customer relationship manager at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, didn’t have a formal mentor assignment. But she looked up to a male colleague who was “always happy to provide guidance.”
“Being coached to go outside of my comfort zone was by far a career changer for me,” Radford shared.
Radford recalled when she was asked to take on a role that she felt wouldn’t be fulfilling in the short term. She said her mentor helped her see the valuable work experience and connections in the role and encouraged her to accept it.
“Ultimately, I took the job and executed it successfully for two years, after which the opportunity I wanted came up,” said Radford. “Because of the experience and the network I gained from the new role, I had exposure to and worked with many stakeholders who supported me in my next opportunity.”
The experience taught Radford about the importance of planning for long-term goals, something she now speaks about with her mentees.
Honesty and trustworthiness are two of the most significant traits a mentor can possess, according to Wheeler and Radford.
“The best mentors show their mentees the benefits of honest feedback, even when it’s not what they want to hear. This includes guidance on how to process it and build action plans around addressing it,” Wheeler said.
Embracing the truth is critical to personal and professional development, according to the NFP leader. But she admitted it’s not always easy.
“There are the realities of the dynamics within a business or industry. There may be shortcomings – skills, expertise, soft skills – that the mentee needs to address. If we leave these out of our mentoring conversations, we do our mentees a disservice and set them up for the disappointment that can impede progress,” said Wheeler.
Radford, meanwhile, stressed the importance of building trust in the mentor/mentee relationship.
“I always tell my mentees that whatever we discuss is 100% confidential,” she said. “I want them to give me an honest picture without being guarded.
“I once had a mentee who was struggling in their current role but wasn’t being completely honest. After a couple of discussions, I felt like we were not making progress. I reminded her that our conversations were confidential and asked if there was more behind her dissatisfaction. Once she opened up and became completely transparent, it was clear she was in the wrong role.”
Radford said she worked with the mentee to resolve this dissatisfaction and transfer to a new role that brought her more fulfilment.
Ultimately, mentors have a responsibility to engage with mentees honestly and transparently.
“Someone along the way will make people aware of where to improve. This may be direct, such as through a performance review, or indirect, such as when someone gets passed over for a promotion,” said Wheeler. “We owe it to our mentees to engage in these conversations in the moment and then work together to address them.”
Register now for the inaugural Insurance Business Women in Insurance Mentorship Network webinar on July 17, 2024, and learn how to get the most out of a mentor/mentee relationship.
