Help on the Way: Senior Leaders Can Benefit from Working with a Mentor

by Lois J. Zachary and Lory A. Fischler

As leaders gain seniority, many of them view their days of being a mentee as behind them. They see mentoring as a developmental activity designed primarily to help new or emerging leaders. But mentoring can be a powerful tool for helping leaders at all levels grow and develop. Finding and working successfully with the right mentor requires commitment and following the correct steps.

Most leaders acknowledge the need to mentor others, and they carve out some of their usually scarce time to do so. However, they often don't feel that same sense of urgency when it comes to investing in mentoring for their own growth and development.

Many leaders assume that mentoring is a developmental activity designed primarily to help new or emerging leaders. But mentoring can be a powerful tool for helping leaders at all levels grow and develop in their work. Although most senior leaders realize the value of mentoring to their organizations and are willing to roll up their sleeves and dig into the work of mentoring others, they often don't think of mentoring as something that can satisfy their own learning needs.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, if any time is to be spent on mentoring, leaders usually opt to mentor others first. Second, because leaders are highly aware of time constraints, they are reluctant to ask for help from those who are senior to them and who are likely to be even busier than they are. Third, concerns about confidentiality and safety (feeling safe enough to honestly self-disclose) often deter leaders from exposing their vulnerabilities. Fourth, as leaders gain seniority, many view the “mentee chapter” of their leadership development as over. Finally, there is an assumption among many leaders that if they do need additional mentoring, it will take place informally and collegially in the normal course of their work. Although these kinds of informal interactions are valuable, they cannot replace the learning that can take place in an intentional mentoring relationship.