Mentorship powers the technology community, but networks in the IT community are often closed circles filled with white men. Cathryn Posey‘s panel “Tech Superwomen: Mentors and Mentees, FTW” provided women (and men) with superb insight into the way networks are built and the strategies women need to adopt to move their careers forward.
“The inspiration for the panel comes from my blog Tech by Superwomen. As a woman transitioning my career to the next level [I asked myself] how do I connect women who inspire and motivate me, share the wealth, and expose that to a greater audience,†said Posey, a leader in interactive communications, marketing and brand management.  “Tech by Superwomen is about organizing women for mentors, allies, and inspiration. I want to attract community-minded people.â€
Posey uses her blog and Twitter account to promote the importance of establishing a supportive community. Her own professional community includes a powerful group of movers and shakers: Margot Bloomstein, a content strategy consultant with Appropriate Inc.; Ekatrina Walter, a TEDx speaker and social media strategist at Intel; Â Leslie Bradshaw, co-founder and chief operating officer for JESS3, and Nilofer Merchant, corporate board advisor for a NASDAQ-traded company, a Harvard Business Review writer and author of The New How.
Here are 13 tidbits of wisdom from the conversation:
- Before entering into the mentorship process with someone, Bradshaw instructed the audience to draw a lifeline, noting both their successes and failures. Then reflecting and seeing who was important in their life during that time.
- Once you reach a point in your career where you are the most senior person in your company, consider seeking paid professional mentorship, advises Bradshaw.
- Don’t get yourself a hero, get yourself a champion, says Merchant. “Someone who will put their foot down and step up for you.â€
- Remember that a mentor is someone who contributes to your knowledge base, has faith in you, and is willing to connect you to their network,†says Walter. “Someone you can call up and they tell you, ‘You can do it. Put on your superwoman cape.’â€
- “Don’t let geography separate you from an opportunity to be mentored,†says Bloomstein. Use Skype and other technology-based tools to get face time.
- Be ready to receive tough love. You can be friends with a lot of smart people. But they won’t tell you what you need to do, says Walter. Posey agrees. Good mentors will tell you when to ttep up.
- Ask yourself: “What would it look like if you were a leader?†says Merchant. “Who is going to be the one in your life to help you see yourself in the bigger framework of who you want to be?â€
- Be disciplined and build a relationship with structure. Find a mentor that will assign you homework, identify touch points, and set goals, recommends Bradshaw. Put in the time or else you’ve wasted the relationship. “If I’m going to plug you into my network you better do your homework,†says Merchant.
- “I’ve always found when being mentored that I’m also giving something back,†says Posey. Make sure you have a mutual benefit. Add incentives. Think why would they want to give a significant amount of their time and energy towards me. Consider a reverse mentorship, says Bradshaw.  “[With my mentors] I bring to the table insights about technoloty that is second nature to me and they teach me about scalability and business.â€
- Trick about mentoring: It’s all about the question you have in your head. What is it you want? Once you self-identify what it is you want, you can find countless people to help you solve that problem.
- “A good mentor like a good therapist won’t impose their goals and values on you,†notes Bloomstein.
- Research shows women network with people they already like. Men do strategic networking; they ask themselves who they should  know, and then move to meet those individuals and mention why it is they show know them. Be intentional about your networking. Unfortunately, research shows most women are not.
- If they aren’t taking you seriously, it’s their loss. Their network will be depleted; they will truncate their abilities and their own networking power.