January is National Mentorship Month, highlighting the power of mentorship and its benefits.

Mentoring fosters trust and understanding between a more experienced person (mentor) and someone with less experience (mentee). Ideally, mentoring is mutually beneficial, provides routine exchange of perspectives, and builds on knowledge and trust.

Mentorship between students and educators and between industry experts and people new to their industry are two examples of how mentorship typically play out. Being mentored by someone who has experienced what you’re going through helps to avoid pitfalls.

There are many people I can name who have served as mentors for me, both academically and professionally. As someone who seeks advice and has provided advice, I’m growing more curious about 1) whether mentorship is truly beneficial and 2) whether mentorship promotes equity.

The phrase “send the elevator back down” is credited to French actress and singer-songwriter Édith Piaf. I don’t remember where I first heard this phrase, but it’s stayed with me. When someone sends the elevator back down for others, several things can happen. It creates opportunities for visibility, creating space for mentees to join mentors on the elevator. It also encourages mentors to not only make space, but to let go. For others to have these leadership experiences and become more visible, leaders have to be ok with making space and letting go.

But what happens when mentors are better at one and not the other?

January is National Mentoring Month, a month dedicated to encouraging more adults to become mentors to young people. While I have been fortunate enough to have been mentored by some wonderful women throughout my life, I’ve noticed that many young women of color cannot say the same.

For lower-income communities and communities of color, it’s especially important that younger people are able to have tangible proof that what they want to be in life is actually possible.

And mentoring isn’t just for younger people. Women and young women of color are often entering new territory in which we’ve been told that we don’t have the knowledge and tools to succeed. We look around and notice that there aren’t many of us around, and we’re bombarded daily with stereotypical images that don’t show us in a positive light.

Why is mentoring important?

According to the Young Women of Color Advocates and Leadership, a tool developed by the Women of Color Network, mentoring is a relationship of mutual understanding and trust between someone with more experience (the mentor) and someone with less experience (the mentee). Mentoring relationships allows for the building of new relationships and also an exchange of ideas and advice. Mentoring, when done right, allows for the mentee and the mentor to have a constant exchange of various perspectives and knowledge building that are beneficial to both.

With mentors serving in a variety of roles, such coach, teacher, and advisor, mentees benefit from mentoring relationships because they increase their knowledge of a particular subject (a career field, sport, or passion), they build their skills and self awareness, and are introduced to new ways of thinking about themselves and about life. Being mentored by someone who has “been there and done that”, allows for mentees to avoid many pitfalls on their way to becoming who they envision themselves to be. (more…)