When I moved in an HR position over three years ago, I signed up for a mentoring program through the local HR group. As a department of one, even then, with no HR experience, I knew I needed some counsel and connection to learn about the field.
My mentor, Diane, a VP of HR for a local company and also a department of one at the time, was wonderful. It was short term mentoring program but we continued with each other for two formal sessions and now occasionally meet up for coffee or catch up at HR events. We met up on Friday for breakfast — at the same coffee shop we always do, I love having a place — and talked people changes and performance reviews and diversity and inclusion. It’s a give and take and gets me out of my bubble.
Looking back I’m impressed with myself for deciding to reach outside myself and connect with HR pros in the Austin area. I am the false kind of extroverted — most of the time I feel very shy and networking sounds like slow torture. Plus, my first meeting with my mentor was the same month as my divorce in 2016. I was a wreck of human who got by on bursts of adrenaline to prove to everybody that I was okay.
It’s so important to find mentors though. HR mentors, sure, but life mentors too. Having a larger connected network is something I can work on. I want to find leadership opportunities and make an impact in whatever I’m doing in my life. I want to have role models who I can learn from. I want to have a broader contact book when I have a question. And for all I hate getting to know new people, I sure love knowing people and being known in return.
I found that at my HR conference a few weeks ago. I knew so many people and they knew me. I had built this network around me for the last three years without realizing it. Thank you, past self, for showing up when it was hard.
Mentorship has a host of the textbook benefits that you can google — benefits that I help communicate and advertise as a long-time member of the Mentoring Committee for my HR local org — but for me, it comes down to a reminder that I’m not alone. Others have been where I’ve been. Are going through what I go through. Have found a way. Are finding a way.
Formal or informal, I’m grateful to my mentors who extend outside of the program to many of my peers at work, my parents, and friends. I have so much to learn.
With Love,
Natalie