Mentorship as a Two-Way Street

I think it’s super important to always be bringing the outside voice in and to really make sure that you’re opening the growth mindset. And a lot of it is about coaching others, right? I think one of the best ways to learn is to coach others. I like to bake cookies, if I made my cookies…

You do?

I love to bake cookies. So, if I made my cookies, that’s one thing. But if I have to write it down, because I want you to be able to make the cookies, well, now I’m going to say, “Oh, no, sorry, I put an extra pinch of salt at the very end,” or whatever it is, right? You get more when you start talking to others about it and hearing their challenges. So, some of that, by the way, is in that CEO group that gets together quarterly with other CEOs. It's a chance for me to express, “Here’s how I would deal with that,” and see if it resonates. But you learned in that process.

A lot of that is just supporting the executives that report to me now, or report to the executives that report to you now, just making yourself available, coaching people to that. But the other thing that I’ve been really enjoying is I mentioned the ABLE program, the Accelerating Black Leadership and Entrepreneurship. We have 16 African American business leaders that are starting companies and I’m doing some mentorship there. And it’s just it’s just a lot of fun to give back. But it’s also a lot of learning to be asked a question and to then start sharing your thoughts on it. It helps kind of reaffirm what has worked for you and what hasn’t. And I think that’s also healthy. So, I think the more learning that can happen, the better for anybody.