Mentorship Best Practices

FountainBlue’s November 12 When She Speaks online program was on the topic of ‘Mentorship Best Practices’. We were fortunate to have such a dynamic and diverse panel of mentors and mentees to share best practices and advice around mentorship. Their sage advice and inspiring remarks provide great food for thought as well as suggestions and ideas on how we can better support each other through mentorship and the personal and business reasons for doing so. Below is a compilation of best practices from our esteemed panel.

How to Make the Best of Mentorship Opportunities

• Share thoughts on how things can be done and how to better collaborate and innovate.
• Work together to transition to new challenges in different roles, for different products, teams and industries. 
• Get support as you navigate challenging work and life circumstances.
• Brainstorm how to stretch your vision, your goal, your direction.
• Develop clarity on your values and stand strong to those values when times are tough.
• Lean on each other through dark periods and help each other find the light, leveraging the learnings.

Below are some recommended best practices for growing a mentorship program.

• Create broad and inclusive plans to include and connect a diverse range of employees at all levels.
• Start small and make incremental changes as you grow your mentorship program. 
• Always ask for and integrate feedback to help make yourself, your mentor/mentee, the program better.
• Be clear on your goals and measure your progress on those goals. Align all to those goals and empower all to make progress on those goals.
• Leverage your learnings, your scar tissue, to support the other, whether you’re the mentor or the mentee.
• Don’t stop at mentorship. Also provide sponsorship and project/program participation.
• Be open-minded about how to plan and implement a mentorship program.
• Create and nourish a culture where mentorship relationships will flourish.
• Make mentorship bi-directional, with the assumption that both mentors and mentees will benefit.
• Ensure that those who are more reserved or more other-centric don’t get left out of the sponsorship or mentorship opportunities.

The bottom line is that both mentors and mentees can gain a broader perspective on what to do, how to do things, who to meet, and ultimately expand their view of themselves and how they fit into the world, providing personal and business benefits for all.

Please join me in thanking our hosts at Pure Storage and our esteemed panelists for FountainBlue’s November 12 When She Speaks online program on the topic of ‘Mentorship Best Practices’. 

• Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue
• with opening remarks by Niki Armstrong, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer, Pure Storage
• Mentors:
  • Peter Holland, VP of Supply Chain, Lam Research 
  • Milissa Kubal-White, Manager, Global Sales Enablement, Coupa Software, Empower Board Member, Coupa Software
  • Ellen Lail, Regional Sales Director, Pure Storage, co-chair Women @ Pure
  • Umesh Lakshman, Head of Solutions Architecture, West, Lumen Technologies
• Mentees:
  • Misa Crocker, Education and Training Program Manager, Pure Storage 
  • Lilian Hall, Program/Product Manager – Logistics & TMS, Lam Research
  • Andrea Rein, Lead Talent Management Consultant, Lumen Technologies
  • Aimee Stevens, Operations Coordinator, Coupa Software
• with closing remarks by Dena Sikes, Director, National Partners, Pure Storage, co-chair, Women @ Pure

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