The Future of Mentoring
When we ask individuals to name one person who has had an impact on their life they usually name a teacher, family member, or mentor. For me personally, the story is no different. Mentors have always played a big role in my life and career and as I think back on the many mentors I had, the best mentorship I participated in was a cross mentorship.
Cross-mentorship is often thought of as pairing a person from one generation with a person from a different generation, however, the main goal of a cross mentorship is mutual learning and growth. In a cross mentorship, the mentor becomes the mentee and the mentee becomes the mentor.
Given the state of our current workplace where over 42% of people work remotely, and technology is continually changing how we do business, it is more important than ever that we embrace the cross mentorship model to learn from all generations and perspectives.
Mentorship has always offered the participants key benefits to their career and life such as expanding your network, getting a new perspective, and having someone to encourage you and keep them accountable. With the cross mentorship model, these impacts are doubled. By being both the mentor and the mentee, the network expansion is doubled, you have an opportunity to learn from people who have more experience than you and get a fresh perspective, one of the best ways to learn is through teaching.
I personally have seen the benefits of participating in a cross-mentorship and couldn’t be more excited to offer this to our members. The Women in Data mentorship program is a 6-month program where each participant will be a mentee and mentor. If you are interested in this program, feel free to become a member and sign up here.
The future of mentorship is giving back what you get. Together we will all sharpen each other take our career and life to the next level #letselevate
About Women in Data:
Women in Data is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to increase diversity in data careers. We host quarterly regional symposiums and provide mentorship, education programs, and job referrals. Come connect, grow, and lead with the Women in Data Sisterhood.
About the Author:
Sadie St. Lawrence is the Founder and Executive Director of Women in Data. She has taught over 250,000 people in data science and is passionate about helping everyone become data literate and docomctrizing data.