1961 hit musical How to succeed in business without really trying In the film, an ambitious window cleaner is promoted to CEO and sings the praises of his future in front of the executive bathroom mirror. The play featured Frank Loesser's satirical ballad “I Believe in You,” which mocked simplistic career recipes and self-help manuals.
Despite this ridicule, confidence is as essential to career success as trust from others. Recognizing your career potential by a skilled mentor is important in a new book by U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick and his wife, prominent financial executive and former National Security Director Dina Powell. Who believed you? Mentorship with purpose changes the world.
critical impact
Their book reveals how people's lives were transformed by mentors who provided four key pillars of support: mutual trust, shared values, meaningful engagement, and instilling the confidence to dream and challenge the status quo. Mr. Powell, an Egyptian immigrant to the United States, rose to the top of government agencies and Goldman Sachs, while Mr. McCormick, a former Army Ranger, became CEO of Bridgewater, the world's largest hedge fund. Their journeys reveal the importance of others who believe in and inspire them in key moments, from coaches for McCormick to senators for Powell. They illustrate the critical influence of mentors in the often-unspoken and lost moments of leaders' lives, including high-profile CEOs from the worlds of finance and pharmaceuticals to the worlds of fashion and entertainment, as well as government leaders across party lines.
The word “mentor” comes from the name of the mentor in Homer's Odyssey. When Odysseus set out on his journey, he entrusted his son Telemachus with a trusted mentor who guided his son's intellectual, physical, and moral development. The mentor's good intentions were the key to successful tutoring.
failure of mentor
But even well-intentioned coaching can go awry, as a study by researchers Terry Scandura and Lillian Irby shows. Research has identified issues such as work styles and personality inconsistencies. Insufficient attention. Relationship abuse, such as coercion, idea theft, harassment, or limited expertise. Powell and McCormick say Profiles in Mentoring sheds light on what makes mentoring successful, and to gain further insight, they asked our team at Yale University to survey 2,200 people, including top executives and Americans at large.
We found that C-suite executives were much more likely to have key mentors. Mentors who helped executives rise to the C-suite spent more time choosing a career path and less time with their subordinates on personal, political, health, or emotional guidance. Mentors tend to be a generation older than their protégés, approximately 17 to 18 years apart. 36% have benefited from at least one mentor, and 65% have had more than one mentor during their career. Surprisingly, it did not seem to matter whether the protégé or the mentor initiated the relationship, as long as there was a shared willingness to engage in a mentoring relationship and a commitment to building and developing that relationship. It was also found that men were more likely to cite “power” and “excellence” as qualities that attracted them to a mentor, while women were more likely to cite “trustworthiness” and “good listening skills.”
Success also means that both mentor and disciple benefit from the relationship, but what was most powerful in our research and in the Powell/McCormick Profile of Highly Effective Leaders was their determination to repay those who invested in them by investing in others.
