Mentorship as a Leadership Practice, Not a Lucky Break
How Five Leadership Practices Transform Mentorship Into Intentional Relationships That Build Leaders
Mentorship as a Leadership Practice, Not a Lucky Break
The best career advice I have ever received is to actively seek mentors at every stage of your journey and to remain open to guidance, feedback, and learning. My career has been built on the shoulders of extraordinary women who modeled possibility, excellence, and generosity in different ways.
For a long time, I thought mentorship was something that happened by chance. You met the right person. You got lucky. Someone took you under their wing.
What I have learned instead is that mentorship is not accidental. It is a leadership practice.
When I reflect on the relationships that shaped me most, I see them clearly through the lens of the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership from The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. My mentors did not just give advice. They lived these practices in ways that quietly changed how I see myself and what I believe is possible.
Model the Way
The most powerful mentors I have known did not lead with speeches. They led by example. They showed me what preparation looks like. What integrity looks like. What it means to follow through when no one is watching.
As a first-generation professional navigating higher education and leadership spaces, I often did not have a blueprint. Watching other women carry themselves with clarity and confidence gave me one. They demonstrated that credibility is built through small, consistent actions.
Show up. Do the work. Keep your word.
Their modeling gave me permission to do the same.
Inspire a Shared Vision
Great mentors see something in you before you see it in yourself.
Several people in my life have said some version of, “You could lead this,” “You should apply,” or “Your voice belongs in that room.” Those words matter more than we realize. They expand the boundaries of what feels attainable. Instead of focusing only on the next task, they helped me imagine a bigger trajectory.
They asked questions that stretched my thinking: Where do you want to have impact? What problems do you want to solve? What kind of leader do you want to be?
Their vision became a bridge to my own.
Challenge the Process
Mentorship is not only encouragement. It is also gentle disruption.
The mentors who helped me grow the most did not let me stay comfortable. They pushed me to try new roles, propose bold ideas, and redesign programs that were “the way we have always done it.” They reframed risk as learning and treated mistakes as data.
That mindset has shaped how I now lead learning and development work. Innovation requires someone who believes you are capable of more than you currently see. Often, that someone is a mentor who nudges you forward when you hesitate.
Enable Others to Act
At its core, mentorship is about access.
Access to rooms. To knowledge. To networks. To confidence.
The women who shaped my path shared resources freely. They introduced me to colleagues. They recommended me for opportunities. They demystified systems that can otherwise feel opaque.
They did not hoard information. They multiplied it.
This practice taught me that leadership is not about being the expert at the center. It is about creating conditions where others can succeed.
Now, whether I am coaching students, training emerging leaders, or consulting with organizations, I try to pay that forward. I ask myself, “How can I make this path clearer for someone else?”
Encourage the Heart
Finally, mentorship is deeply human. It shows up in the quick note after a presentation. The text before a big interview. The simple “I am proud of you.”
Those moments sustain us more than we admit.
In seasons when I questioned my direction or doubted my readiness, my mentors reminded me of my strengths and my progress. They celebrated milestones I might have minimized. They helped me see that growth is not always dramatic. Sometimes it is steady and quiet.
Encouragement builds resilience. Resilience builds leaders.
Mentorship as Responsibility
Over time, something shifts. You realize you are no longer only receiving mentorship. You are being called to offer it.
That realization feels less like a title and more like a responsibility.
If my career has been built on the shoulders of extraordinary women, then my job is to become steady ground for someone else. To model the way. To share vision. To challenge, enable, and encourage.
Mentorship is not a side activity. It is leadership in action.
And when we treat it that way, we stop waiting for lucky breaks and start building intentional relationships that shape not only individual careers, but entire communities of leaders.
If there is one lesson I carry forward, it is simple: Seek mentors. Listen closely. Stay teachable. Then turn around and do the same for someone coming up behind you.
That is how leadership lasts.
