The Rocket Fuel for Your Career – Mentoring

Most know mentoring is important to career success, yet there are few organizations that have built effective programs. This is largely due the time intensive nature required in one-to-one mentorship, but also because mentoring is not built INTO company culture. At Share, we expect all leaders to mentor not as an additional responsibility, but as part of their core leadership function. This results in a culture by which team members receive consistent, constant mentoring throughout their career.

To be effective, mentoring should not only occur regularly, but be thought of as part of building a performance culture. For Share new hires, mentoring opportunities begin on Day 1, and each associate has at least one, if not two mentors by the end of their first month. Twenty-five percent of each leaders’ week is dedicated to mentoring team members.

Recently we interviewed two new Share On Purpose associates to understand first-hand how mentoring has rocketed their careers forward.

Taylor Jackson was interested in working with us specifically for mentoring. She was looking for insights, advice and best practices to create a roadmap to success. In Taylor’s prior position, she did not receive any mentoring, and was deeply aware of the importance it would bring to her career.

“The leadership at my last job was critical and not supportive. If we asked for help, they told us to go to workshops,” said Taylor. “It was my first position out of college, and I had to teach myself the ins and outs of my position. My hope was to find someone who would mentor me on how to be successful.”

Immediately after starting at Share, Taylor noticed the commitment to mentoring.

“Honestly I was surprised to find a company like this even existed. Although we work remotely, the leadership team is consistently involved in my success and the environment is very positive,” she said. “On the occasions where a mistake was, the leadership team simply helped me course correct to improve results. The focus was on improving results, rather than doing something wrong. The leaders even shared their best practices to assist me in accelerating progress.”

The encouragement Taylor received helped her advance quickly into new positions. She began as an apprentice, and is now working with the CEO to develop a new department that will serve multiple brands.

“I receive one-on-one mentoring from senior leadership, in particular R’ymonda Davis, on how to gain new skill sets, how to excel and how to quickly overcome any challenges,” said Taylor. “It’s a true team environment, with everyone working toward a common goal.”

Mentorship Surpasses Experience

For Jamen Sisk, the experience is similar, even though he is in a completely different role (business development) and comes from a totally different background.

Jamen admitted that prior to coming to Share he rarely received effective mentoring. With more business experience, the lack of professional mentoring is even more pronounced.

“In the past, the mentoring I received was very limited. I always felt like I was taking up someone else’s time, or that others did not want to take the time to ensure I was successful,” said Jamen.

Jamen believes that the reason the mentoring is so successful at Share is the culture.

“Even though I have a business development background, when I got to Share we had several accounts in an industry I was less familiar with. Thanks to the support of the team, and in particular Dharmini Patel, I came up to speed quickly,” said Jamen. “I received detailed, thorough explanations that equipped me to better serve our clients, and set me up for success.”

Jamen notes that he has been encouraged to step outside his comfort zone and to challenge himself to be progressive, and proactive.

“The team environment coupled with the supportive, on-going mentorship has improved my problem-solving skills, as well as my ability to think critically,” said Jamen. “As a result, I am better prepared to mentor new team members.”

Mentor to More

When asked about what she would tell others the importance of quality mentoring, Taylor had this to say:

“In general, the environment should be motivational. The executives should truly want you to succeed. I’ve never heard of a company whose executives meet with you so frequently to provide personal and professional development. It’s genuine, and the leaders take the time to develop each person. I think that’s amazing.”

Jamen added, “To fast track your career, there is no other place to come. The support and transparency is phenomenal. The culture lends itself to promoting success.”

Both Taylor and Jamen, while having different backgrounds, experiences and career paths, received the same quality mentoring, by different executives. That is intentional, because the culture is designed to develop leaders who want to grow, excel and achieve more.

Share On Purpose has several positions open for motivated people who desire rapid growth. To apply for one of our positions, simply visit our careers page of the website.