PART III

LEVERAGE DIFFERENCES

Meet Martin and Darren

Martin and Darren work at the US headquarters of ABC Company, a global manufacturer of medical devices. Darren, an African American male engineer, spent most of the past thirty years at ABC. Early in his career, he led the manufacturing function and now sits at the corporate headquarters along with the other members of the senior leadership team.

Darren sees mentoring as part of his responsibility as a leader. He has had many informal mentees in the past and, although he hadn’t participated in any formal training, he considered himself “pretty successful” as a mentor. When the formal mentoring program for Young Professionals of Color (the YPC Mentoring Program) was released, Darren was totally on board. “I am excited by the energy and resources we are putting into it, and I definitely want to be part of it,” he told the program coordinator.

Martin moved from Mexico to the United States with his family when he was five years old. Now, at age twenty-six, he has been at ABC for three years and is a line lead in the manufacturing department. His coworkers seek his advice and enjoy working with him. Martin was excited to be paired with someone as influential and respected as Darren. Martin thought that this mentoring relationship might be just the ticket he’d been waiting for to get his voice heard. Manufacturing had been great for Martin as he worked his way through school, and now he was eager to move out of manufacturing and be noticed by senior leadership. Martin believed he could accomplish big things but was not sure what they might be.