Admirable Mentors

I want to talk about mentorship as well. Do you currently have a mentor? And if so, how do you go about selecting the mentor, and are there specific traits that you look for?

Yeah, I do have several mentors. I have worked for some amazing women in my career. I’ve worked with many amazing women in my career. And so, the mentors I’ve had in my career have been very informal, but super helpful, very, very helpful. I guess there wasn’t really a selection process I went through in terms of a mentor. I sought them out myself, I tried to establish relationships with them, and I constantly asked for their advice. And again, it’s a form of feedback, right?
So, people I trusted, people whose leadership styles that I admire, that’s the other thing for a mentor. If there’s a leader that I have been working with, where I see them engaging with the team, or giving a talk to the team, I really try to pick up on their style, because if it’s something that I would like to see from my own leader, how could I learn from them? How could I learn to emulate their style? Because their style for me resonated so much.

What would you say are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned from some of these mentors? And it sounds like they’ve come primarily from your workplace, leaders that you admired?

Absolutely, yeah. Some of the key characteristics I’ve seen from the leaders I admire, it’s just some of those things we just talked about, Thuy, empathy, authenticity, awareness, relatability, you know? I think again, leadership styles have changed so much. And I didn’t see as much of it earlier on in my career, I didn’t see the empathy piece as much, I didn’t see the authenticity piece as much. But in today’s world, I think you interviewed my CEO, and he’s just a leader that I have really respected in terms of his really authentic leadership style.

Chris Toth?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you consider him a mentor?

Absolutely, absolutely. But I love the fresh perspective he brings to the table, and the new leadership style he is embracing, again, around this empathy, compassionate leadership, leading with his heart. I know it sounds a little bit corny, but I do think there’s something really, really amazing about it that I really respect.