Mentors: The Key To Your Success

I have a passion for mentoring.  I have been helped by so many people to move from a small town student from Missouri to leading an international firm with some of the greatest employees in the world.  I have experienced mentors that have moved in and out of my life and I have mentors who have been part of my life since I was 18 and remain touch stones of reality.  These gifts from wisdom from mentors have made small and enormous differences in my life and the life of my teams.  I spend all of my volunteer efforts towards various types of mentoring.

I started hearing about a group called The Levo League and am very impressed. Launched in March 2012 and based in New York, the Levo League is a social network for young professional women. It offers resources including a job opportunities board, mentorship programs and Q&A video sessions. Here is an interesting quote from a Wired article, The League of Extraordinary Women, from Levo League cofounder and CEO, Caroline Ghosn:

“We are not exclusive to women but we offer solutions for career issues commonly faced by young women,” says Ghosn. “For instance, a man will apply for a job if he has about 50 to 60 percent of the requirements. A woman will only apply if she fulfills 90 to 100 per cent. These are behaviors that we have to unlearn.”

I thought this was interesting and realized that I have seen many women that could benefit from reaching out to mentors and learning how they got where they are.  I have seen counterproductive career moves in both genders.  Sometimes hindsight is the way to see the woes of our ways.  The only way to typically get a hindsight view is by talking to somebody who has “been there, done that.