Common Misconceptions about Mentorship

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking with Soon Mee Kim, Executive Vice President and Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leader at Porter Novelli, in a conversation about mentorship. Since finding and establishing relationships with mentors has a huge impact on your career, I’m sharing some takeaways from the talk, framed as common misconceptions about mentorship.

A mentor will swoop in and take you under their wing as a mentee.
This is a very common belief among young talent—that a boss or someone in the industry will take on the role of mentor without you asking. But this is actually pretty rare. More often that not, we have to be the ones to seek out potential mentors and actively ask for their time and guidance.

A mentor is someone who guides you long-term through your career.
We may think about a mentor in this broad way, but there are actually many different types of mentorship relationships. Sometimes it’s having just one conversation with someone you reached out to in a cold email that helps get you into that company you wanted to work for. Or the everyday support from your boss and teammates. Or the sponsors/champions who bring you up for opportunities or recognition when you’re not in the room.

I need to find one official mentor.
Soon Mee brought up the idea that mentorship should be like assembling a Board of Directors. In other words, we shouldn’t be looking for one person to guide us. Instead, we should be assembling a team of people who can help us in different ways. Whether it’s because they hold a specific title, or they have a shared background, or they’re really good at a skill you’re trying to hone, find an array of people to support you. This may include people who are at the same level as you—lateral mentorship is hugely valuable.

I can ask someone to be my mentor right off the bat.
Being able to call someone your mentor doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a lot like dating—you wouldn’t ask someone to be your significant other on the first date! It takes time for the relationship to develop, and requires both parties to be of value to one another.

Mentorship is purely professional.
Mentors are people too, no matter how senior they are in their careers. To avoid being too transactional and to allow the relationship to grow, bring aspects of who you are outside of work to your conversations so you can connect as humans. This is especially important these days, as everyone is experiencing the global pandemic, the fight for racial justice and equality, natural disasters, and everything else 2020 has thrown at us.

I have to be really senior to be a mentor.
Your lived experience is valuable to somebody. It’s never too early to be a mentor to others! You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much you get out of the relationship too.

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Common Misconceptions about Mentorship

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