Mentorship for women is one of the most powerful tools for career growth, confidence, and leadership development. Yet, many women struggle to find the right mentor, thinking they need to figure everything out on their own. If that sounds like you, you’re not alone.
In this guide, we’ll cover why mentorship matters, how to find a mentor, and if you’re already a leader, how to become a mentor yourself.
Why Mentorship for Women is Essential
Too often, women believe they must do everything alone to prove their worth. However, having a mentor provides insights, support, and opportunities that can accelerate your career. A great mentor doesn’t just give advice—they help you see strengths in yourself that you may not recognize.
The key benefits of mentorship include:
- Faster career growth and leadership development
- A support system that understands workplace challenges
- Guidance on setting boundaries and work-life balance
- Increased confidence in decision-making
How to Find a Mentor in 3 Steps
1. Identify Your Goals and Gaps
Before seeking a mentor, reflect on what areas you want to grow in. Where do you feel stuck?
For example, if you struggle with work-life balance, look for professionals who have successfully navigated this challenge. Make a list of three to five potential mentors who excel in areas where you need guidance.
2. Tap into Your Existing Network
Your mentor doesn’t need to be a stranger. Start by looking within your own circle—colleagues, leaders in your organization, or members of networking groups.
If no one in your immediate network fits, expand your search. Join professional groups, attend events, and explore mentorship programs. If necessary, consider hiring a paid mentor for specialized guidance.
3. Make the Ask with Confidence
When reaching out to a potential mentor, be clear and specific. Instead of a vague request, say something like:
“I really admire how you’ve built a career while staying true to your values. Would you be open to a 30-minute conversation about how you approach decision-making?”
A direct and thoughtful ask increases the likelihood of a positive response.
How to Become a Mentor for Other Women
If you’re an established leader, mentorship is a great way to give back. Here’s how to start:
1. Reflect on Your Journey
Think about the challenges you’ve overcome. Have you successfully pivoted careers, built a strong team, or mastered work-life balance? These experiences can be invaluable to someone else.
2. Offer Support Proactively
Mentorship doesn’t have to be formal. Simply reaching out to offer guidance can make a difference. A quick message like, “Let me know how I can help,” opens the door to mentorship.
3. Commit to Mutual Growth
Great mentorship is a two-way street. While you share your knowledge, stay open to learning from your mentee. Their perspective can provide fresh insights and new ideas.
Take the Next Step in Your Mentorship Journey
Finding the right mentor can transform your career. Start by identifying one area where you need support and reach out to someone who can help.
If networking and mentorship feel overwhelming, your overwhelm culprit might be a lack of community. Take my free Overwhelm Culprit Quiz below to find out and get weekly tips to grow your network.
Mentorship is one of the most impactful ways to grow. Whether you’re looking for a mentor or ready to become one, taking action today can make all the difference.
Next Step: Next week, we’ll dive into how to overcome self-doubt as a working mom. If you’ve ever questioned your ability to juggle work and family, you won’t want to miss it!
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[00:00:00] As a woman in the workforce, have you ever felt stuck like you’re navigating this career and leadership journey all alone? What if I told you that by having the right mentor that it could completely change the game for you?
Now here’s the problem. All too often we as women feel that we could do it all on our own. We are super women after all, but in the process of doing so, we miss out on so many different insights, support, and opportunities that having a mentor can bring us.
That, or for the many working women who know and value what a mentor can bring them, it’s often difficult to find the right mentor working in leadership roles who fully understand the challenges that modern working women are experiencing in this day and age.
In today’s episode, we’re going to be diving deep into the power of mentorship for working women specifically. We’re going to cover why it matters, how to find a mentor, and if you’re already leading, how to become one yourself.
[ [00:01:00] When I first started my leadership journey, I thought that success meant figuring it out all on my own. And it’s easy to understand why. In my former career, I was always the youngest person in the room, as well as the only woman.
So I was all by myself. When I was successful in the things that I did, I felt that was a result of me doing it all on my own. It wasn’t until I found and started utilizing mentors that I really realized how much faster and easier it could be to gain progress with the right guidance.
Now, here’s the thing. Mentorship isn’t about advice. It’s about having the right people in your corner who see something inside of you you can’t see in [00:02:00] yourself and provide you with the support you need to help you grow into it.
Some common barriers that I’ve observed in both my coaching and speaking practice that many women have when it comes to finding and engaging in mentorship include
the false belief that you have to do everything yourself in order to be able to prove your worth.
Not knowing where to look for a mentor or looking for them and not finding the right one, not finding people who you really resonate with, who understand what it is that you are going through.
Also, not knowing exactly how to ask for guidance.
Sometimes it is so difficult to admit that you’re looking for help.
And lastly, assuming that mentorship is only for established leaders, we benefit from having mentors at every stage in our career.
Okay, so let’s talk about how exactly do you go about finding a mentor.
It’s really nowhere near as complicated as it seems. It’s actually only three simple steps.
First, you need to identify your goals as well as [00:03:00] your gaps.
Start by asking yourself, what areas do I want to grow in? Where am I currently stuck?
For example, if where you’re currently stuck is in regards to work life balance, you’re not exactly sure how to set those boundaries, you’re going to want to start keeping an eye out for anywhere between 3 to 5 people who seem to have really mastered that in a way that you have been unable to do yourself.
Next you’re going to want to look within your existing network.
Mentors, in general, don’t need to be far removed from your network. They can be folks that you know every single day and don’t necessarily have to be within your work and career environments. They can be people that you know personally or professionally. They could be colleagues, leaders within your own organization, or even professionals within networking groups that you might attend.
So, make a list of three to five people that you admire who have overcome the goals and gaps challenges that you’re currently looking at and make it a point to reach out to them within the next week. Now, [00:04:00] million dollar question. What do you do when you don’t know somebody within your immediate network?
Well, then that means that you need to start networking to meet people. And there are multiple different ways that you can do this, right? A lot of times mentorship can be free. It could be somebody who is donating their time. A lot of times you could find mentorship from paid engagements as well. This is something that I’ve done in my own experience.
Where I’ve proactively went out and sought things like an author mentor or speaking mentor, different things that I was looking to achieve professionally, where I found somebody and I reimbursed them for their time to learn what they know. There’s no right or wrong way to go about it.
So first, you’re going to want to make sure that you reach out to your warm network, the folks you already know. If you don’t know people, proactively go out there and search for people, whether it be professional groups, within your organization, so on and so forth.
If you have completely tapped out all opportunities and you do have the [00:05:00] financial resources to do so, again, finding a paid mentor is a great option. Especially if you’re looking for something very niche or very specific.
Step three is to get out there and make the ask.
And when you do so, you’re going to want to be very clear and specific. You’re going to want to be able to tell them exactly why you’re asking them to mentor you. So, as an example, you could say, I really admire how you’ve built a career while remaining true to your values. Would you be open to a 30 minute conversation to talk about how you approach these decisions?
So it’s really as simple as that. Now, let’s dive into if you are already a leader and are interested in potentially becoming a mentor for others.
This is a simple three step process as well.
First, you want to reflect on your journey.
Think about all the lessons that you’ve learned and the challenges that you’ve overcome that could potentially be valuable for other people.
So for example, if you’ve successfully built a team or navigated a career pivot, these are situations that can be [00:06:00] tremendously valuable for other women to learn how to do from you.
The second step is to proactively offer your support.
Remember, mentorship doesn’t have to be such a formal thing. It could be as simple as saying, let me know how I can help.
So as an actionable tip, reach out to somebody who could benefit from your guidance. And offer them a quick chat or an opportunity for you to provide feedback if they need it.
Step number three is committing to mutual growth.
Great mentorship is a two way street, so be open to learning from your mentor’s experience as much as they’re going to be learning from you.
As an example, you might gain insights on emerging trends and fresh ideas from somebody at a completely different stage in their career than you.
of So to recap everything we talked about today we explored the power of mentorship for working women.
We talked about why it’s essential, how to go about finding a mentor as well as how to become a mentor yourself.
So your next step is to identify one area that you think you can use support in and [00:07:00] identify somebody that can help. Then, reach out and start a conversation.
Now, if the thought of reaching out to people in your network and networking in general and finding a mentor makes you completely overwhelmed and stressed out, then I’ve got news for you. Lack of community might be your overwhelm culprit. You can find out for sure by taking my free overwhelm culprit quiz at www.
coreyloh. com backslash overwhelm culprits. When you do, you’ll be added to the next step newsletter and learn every single week ways that you could help cure your lack of community culprit, including things like finding a mentor and expanding your network.
Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of The Next Step with Corrie Lo.
As you know, mentorship is one of the most impactful ways to grow, and I’m so excited to see how you’ll use it to elevate your journey.
Next week, we’re going to be talking all about how to overcome self doubt as a working mom. So mama’s out there, if you’ve ever doubted your abilities [00:08:00] in showing up both at work and at home, then you’re not going to want to miss it. I’ll see you there.