I believe that professional development and mentoring is a critical component of a more holistic philosophy on leadership. Too frequently, these two are viewed just as the next step towards a promotion. In fact, a promotion is only one small component to “grow” a person within their profession. Career and promotional goals aside, professional development and mentoring is about making a person better at their job tomorrow, than they are today and, importantly, increasing their job satisfaction. Mentoring is characterized by mutual respect, trust, shared values, and good communication. When we think comprehensively about professional development, it’s crucial to not only place the focus on growing your skill set, but to also grow your perspective on the job that you do and work to better understand how your job impacts the broader organization and, ultimately, the world and in our field, the patients we serve. Mentorship is particularly important in the field of genetic counseling at every point along the career trajectory. The demographics of our profession is disproportionately young, and so finding strong mentors to support professional development can be very helpful for genetic counselors finding themselves taking on management responsibilities early in their career. Alternatively, mentorship can prove valuable for genetic counselors who are considering a career change within or even outside of the field. 

A recent study by global management consulting firm McKinsey provides quantitative insights into some of the reasons why people are quitting their jobs at record levels. Interestingly, their study found that, of the respondents who quit their jobs between April of 2021 and April of 2022, the number one reason was a lack of career development and advancement. Mentoring has long been recognized as a powerful career development tool that can strengthen an employee’s sense of belonging and overall job satisfaction, and it has been shown to be particularly meaningful for women and people of color. My first job as a Genetic Counselor didn’t have a mentor program and I was immediately thrown into my very independent position without a lot of guidance, direction, or even a shoulder to lean on for questions. This is when I realized how much I needed a mentor, a haven to bounce ideas off of and to help steer me in the right direction as my career was taking off. My first dip into this pond was to be a thesis advisor for a genetic counseling training program. I quickly realized I LOVE helping people grow in the direction of their goals! 

Fast forward many years later throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to be a mentee, and a formal and informal mentor to many genetic counselor colleagues, as well as for a few outside of my expertise. Early in my career, I found it challenging to set enough time aside to give the mentee the due diligence I felt that person needed from me. I then took a break as I wasn’t doing either one of us any good. I took this break to really think through the mentee-mentor relationship and how I could be more effective. Here are a few key aspects that I keep in my mind:

1. Choose mentees carefully — effective mentorship takes time. 
2. Mentorship teams can be beneficial — one person can’t fill all the needs of the mentee.
3. Be protective of both your time and theirs — set expectations and stick to it; hold them as well as yourself accountable.
4. Be an adult — head off rifts or resolve them.
5. Know when to transition out of the mentee-mentor relationship.

The last few years I have come back to what I love; helping people grow and prosper in their career and mentoring is a major component of that in my mind. I can pinpoint several individuals who massively impacted how I think about professional development and mentoring. The first person was my father, who demonstrated the strongest work ethic of any individual I know. He also knew when to push and when to sit back. He repeatedly stated, ‘no matter what happens never burn a bridge as you never know when you need to cross that bridge again’. As a kid observing this it didn’t really resonate however upon reflection, I know it made me who I am today. He was a phenomenal leader and one of the people that helped put things into perspective for me. He’s been retired for over 20 years and is still very admired within the community. I subconsciously began to pay his mentorship forward and, in doing so, experienced an overwhelming sense of self-satisfaction and pleasure because helping others truly feels rewarding.

What I’ve observed over the years is that professional development and mentorship tends to be put on the back burner. There is always something more urgent that takes priority in the moment — unless we truly emphasize the importance of professional development and mentoring by hardwiring it into the way you do business, including leadership, discussions, and even meetings. Professional development, mentorship aside for a moment, is perceived to be something you do once a year when most organizations conduct formal year end evaluations, which in my opinion is the opposite of what it should be. That is why, on my team, we started doing quarterly reviews, so everyone has a clear line of sight at a more frequent cadence. I believe talent development and mentoring should be something that we think about every day, in everything that we do — the coaching, the mentoring, and the developing conversations are all part of the big picture. Effective mentoring should focus on improving and empowering the talents that employees naturally harness first and foremost. This allows the natural talents of people and grows, develops, and even enables them to take on a new professional direction, if they wish. I encourage all GCs no matter where they are in their career journey to seek out a mentor and to be a mentor. I guarantee you will grow in unimaginable ways. 

My advice for those looking to provide professional development opportunities within their team would be to focus on having a career development conversation and encourage each member of your team to seek a mentor. One model to consider is the 70-20-10 model. 70% of opportunities come from on-the-job stretch assignments or projects, 20% come from relationships, networking, and mentorship and 10% come from classroom training. It’s like the adage, “people don’t leave organizations, they leave their managers.” When people feel like they have a relationship with their manager, they genuinely feel their managers care about their development day-to-day and that they are given opportunities to improve and be better tomorrow. These two pieces are foundational to the ongoing success in the future of any organization. Mentoring a key component of growing careers, stretching people, and helping our teams be stronger. There is no greater reward as a leader than knowing you are making an impact by sustaining passion and growing people within their profession and contributing in a meaningful way to the workforce and leaders of tomorrow.

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References

1. Zachary, L. J. (9410). The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships. The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. Jossey-Bass, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, Ca 4, Tel: 888-378-, Fax: 800-605-, Web Site: Http://Www.Josseybass.com, ($25.95).
2. DeSmet A, Dowling B, Hancock B. Schaninger B July 12, 2022 McKinsey Quarterly.The Great Attrition is making hiring harder. Are you searching the right talent pools? URL: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-great-attrition-is-making-hiring-harder-are-you-searching-the-right-talent-pools 

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