| My first job after law school moved me from Chicago to Silicon Valley for the tax research team at Coopers & Lybrand.
The firm’s managing partner, Glen Rossman, had personally called to offer me the job and encourage me to join his practice. I confess, Glen had me at “hello!” I was excited about my adventure. Finally, after seven years of schooling, I was ready to wear a suit, enter the workforce, and earn a paycheck! But when I arrived at the sea of cubicles on Floor 5, I quickly discovered a malaise lingering like San Francisco fog. My colleagues were unhappy – they didn’t love their adult jobs like I thought they would. And I was certain that Glen was unaware of this discontent. Unfortunately, Glen’s title intimidated people into promoting the façade of a happy workforce instead of revealing the reality. Perhaps it was my naivete, but I felt a responsibility to inform Glen – how could he address it if he was nescient regarding the situation? Concurrently, I was reading The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz and discovering the importance of including solutions to any problem presented to the boss. So, I prepared several ideas. I then typed an interoffice memo to Glen (yes, there was a time before email…) with my observations and ideas and sent it via interoffice mail. Admittedly, it was a bit brazen, but it was well-intentioned. A week later, Glen’s assistant phoned – Glen was ready to discuss my memo. I was incredibly nervous – I was meeting with the managing partner, and I wasn’t sure if I was in trouble. Quite the opposite. Glen was curious and eager to learn from me! Over the next six months, we met regularly to explore my observations and my proposed solutions. He then implemented a few of my ideas and noticeably improved the culture of the office! I’ve always been grateful to Glen for his mentoring – he encouraged my enthusiasm, my initiative, and my leadership. And I credit Glen for kindling my passion around our collective quest for #joblove. But Glen also modeled a valuable leadership quality: the commitment to discover, learn, and grow regardless of tenure and title. Glen wasn’t placating me during our six months of meetings – he was inviting me to mentor him! Bottom line: mentoring can strengthen leadership muscles, but only if leaders intentionally engage in a variety of mentoring conversations. © 2022. Ann Tardy and MentorLead. www.mentorlead.com. All Rights Reserved. |