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Mentorship plays a crucial role in both personal and professional development. Through the lens of the Dear Future CRO Podcast powered by GrowthQ, we can delve into some thought-provoking aspects of mentorship and coaching.
All insights feature podcast commentary from leading Tech Company Executives:
Lynne Doherty, President of Field Operations at Sonar (Full Podcast Episode)
Allison West Hughes, CVP of Sales at Microsoft (Full Podcast Episode)
Rhonda Henley, VP of Americas Partner Sales at Cisco (Full Podcast Episode)
Sandy Hogan, CRO at LivePerson (Full Podcast Episode)
Marjorie Martin Bauer, EVP of Enterprise Sales at Juniper Networks (Full Podcast Episode)
Mentoring vs Coaching: What's the Difference?
One insight that stands out from these podcasts is the nuanced difference between mentoring and coaching.
Mentorship often involves a long-term relationship where a mentor, drawing from their own experiences and career journey, provides guidance, advice, and support. It's less about correcting specific behaviors and more about fostering the mentee's overall growth and development. For example, Marjorie Martin emphasizes ongoing support from her former manager, who offered strategic and time management advice over a sustained period, impacting her career significantly.
Coaching, on the other hand, is typically more structured and short-term, focusing on specific skills or goals. Coaches are often trained or experienced professionals in a particular area who help individuals develop particular competencies or overcome immediate challenges. As Sandy Hogan highlights, tackling customer challenges and account strategies as a sales leader may require a coach's precision-focused guidance to navigate immediate issues efficiently.
Understanding the roles and benefits of both can help an emerging leader leverage these resources effectively. The structured, skills-focused approach of coaching can be complemented by the trust and sustained support found in mentoring.
Can Someone Be a Mentor Without Knowing It?
Intriguingly, someone can indeed be a mentor without knowing it. As Allison's experience suggests, mentors often come from unexpected places. While navigating her career and overcoming personal challenges with her disability, which she talks more about on the podcast, she encountered people whose wisdom and actions provided her with valuable lessons and inspiration, whether they intended to mentor her or not.
Mentorship can naturally evolve out of genuine interactions and the sharing of experiences. For instance, Sandy Hogan’s creation of visual summaries for her leaders and Rhonda Henley's proactive engagement with senior leadership offered them inadvertent mentorship opportunities. By simply being available, sharing knowledge, and setting examples, individuals can positively influence others without a formal mentoring agreement.
IRL Mentors vs. Unknowing Mentors
Reflecting on the journeys shared in these podcasts, it's clear that both real-life mentors and those who mentor without realizing it play significant roles in shaping one’s career.
IRL Mentors
For instance, Marjorie Martin speaks highly of a person who directly guided her within Cisco, helping her transition into leadership. Similarly, Allison credits senior leaders at ServiceNow like John Donohoe, former CEO of Nike, and Bill McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow, who played influential roles in her development and aspirations towards senior leadership.
Unknowing Mentors
Conversely, countless professionals have provided mentorship through their writings, speeches, or even by setting an example. Rhonda Henley mentions the transformative impact of John Kotter's “Our Iceberg is Melting," demonstrating how thought leaders can mentor through their published work.
Through these shared experiences, it's evident that mentorship can be both a formal, intentional relationship and an unintended one where someone’s actions and words guide others without them even knowing it.
Conclusion
The conversations with these successful leaders illustrate the profound impact mentorship and coaching can have. Whether through sustained, intentional relationships or unintentional influence, the guidance these seasoned executives received has been instrumental to their success.
As emerging leaders seek to navigate their own paths, recognizing and integrating the wisdom from both mentors and coaches, knowingly or unknowingly, will be invaluable.
GrowthQ is so passionate about empowering these mentor and coaching relationships, we have something in store launching the week of December 16th you will not want to miss. Stay tuned...
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