Here’s something that doesn’t get said often enough: your career is not just yours. Every opportunity you’ve landed, every door that opened, every moment someone said ‘you should meet so-and-so’, there was almost certainly a woman somewhere in that chain who believed in you before you believed in yourself. Women’s History Month is our annual reminder to honor that legacy and shape it ourselves.
I love positioning mentorship from a support angle: supporting the dreams of the women around you, respecting the journey, listening to the voice that has wisdom to share, whether that voice belongs to someone who’s been in the field for 30 years or someone who just started last fall. Mentorship isn’t a ladder; it’s a net. The stronger you weave it, the more everyone rises.
For the Woman Who is Just Getting Started
Whether you’re fresh out of undergrad or just made a brave career pivot, this section is for you. The early years can feel like a pop quiz you didn’t study for, and that’s completely normal. Here’s what we know for sure: the women who thrive aren’t the ones who know everything. They’re the ones who were willing to learn.
Seek Mentorship and Mean It
Don’t wait for a mentor to appear like a fairy godmother. Go find her. Start by identifying someone whose career you admire and ask for a 20-minute conversation. Not a meeting. Not a formal mentorship program. Just a conversation. Most women who have reached a certain point in their careers are waiting to be asked, and they will say yes more often than you expect. Be specific about what you’re looking for: ‘I’m navigating my first year in economic development and would love your perspective on X.’ Be specific and memorable.
Get Involved Outside Your Industry
If your professional development begins and ends within your own industry, you’re leaving a significant portion of your lens on the table. Join your local chamber of commerce. Volunteer for a committee in an area that has nothing to do with your day job. Attend a community development meeting. Get on the board of a nonprofit that matters to you.
Why? Because the women you meet in those rooms will challenge your assumptions, expand your thinking, and open doors you didn’t know existed. Some of your most valuable mentors will come from a chamber luncheon or a community meeting. Broaden your world, and your world will broaden right back.
Adopt a Growth Mindset, Especially When You Don’t Feel Ready
Here is a truth that will save you years of anxiety: you will never feel 100% ready. Not for the big project. Not for the stretch assignment. Not for the role you’ve been eyeing.
Instead, realize that everything is teachable. Say yes to things that scare you a little. Raise your hand for the task no one else wants. Volunteer to present when your heart is pounding. The confidence doesn’t come before the leap; it comes because of it.
Build Relationships Inside and Outside Your Organization
Networking has a bit of an image problem. Sometimes it feels a little inauthentic and slick. Let’s reframe it: this isn’t about collecting business cards or working a room. It’s about genuine investment in people. The colleague you grab coffee with now might be your biggest advocate in five years. The woman you meet at a conference might be the one who calls you when the perfect opportunity opens up.
Build bridges with people in finance, operations, programs, and communications. And invest equally outside your organization. Relationships don’t follow org charts, and opportunities don’t either.
Start a Kudos File
This is one of the most practical tips I can give you, and it costs nothing but a few minutes of attention. Create a folder in your email or in a notebook, and call it your Kudos File. Every time you receive a compliment from a colleague, a thank you from a stakeholder, a kind email from a supervisor, a positive comment from a peer: save it there.
Why? Because hard times come for everyone. There will be a day when you question your competence, your fit, and your value. On that day, open the file. Let the evidence speak louder than the doubt. Your Kudos File is also helpful at performance review time. Instead of scrambling to remember what you accomplished, you’ll have a living document of your impact.
For the Woman Who Has Been at This a While
You’ve done the work. You’ve navigated the politics, earned the credibility, survived the difficult seasons, and built something real. Mid- and late-career isn’t the finish line; it’s the vantage point. Up here, you have more power to shape the landscape than you might realize.
Surround Yourself with Women You Trust
At this stage, the quality of your inner circle matters more than the size of your network. Cultivate a small, trusted group of women: peers, mentors, and yes, people newer to the field than you, with whom you can be fully honest. Women who will tell you the truth when you need to hear it. Women who will celebrate your wins without jealousy and sit with you in your hard moments.
These relationships don’t build themselves, so tend to them with care. Schedule the calls. Show up for the milestones. Send the check-in text. Your professional tribe is one of the most important investments you can make at this stage of your career.
Be a Woman Whom Others Trust
Trust is currency, full stop. When you are known as someone who follows through, tells the truth with kindness, and advocates for others without an agenda, people bring you their best opportunities, their most honest conversations, and their most vulnerable questions.
Ask yourself regularly: Am I someone other women feel safe around? Do I respond to other women’s success with genuine generosity? Being a woman of trust isn’t just a nice character trait; it’s a leadership strategy that creates ripple effects you may never fully see.
Know When and How to Give Back as a Mentor
If you’ve ever had a mentor or wished you had one, now is your season. Mentoring doesn’t require a formal program or a six-month commitment. It can look like a monthly check-in coffee, an introduction made on someone’s behalf, a candid conversation about navigating an organization, or a simple ‘have you considered this?’
Pay attention to the women around you who are hungry to grow. They may not ask directly, but you’ll notice the ones who show up early, ask thoughtful questions, and take on extra responsibility without being told.
Let Younger Generations Mentor You Right Back
This one surprises people, but it shouldn’t. Reverse mentorship is real, and it’s valuable. The younger women in your organization know things you don’t: how to navigate the newest platforms and technologies, how to communicate across a generational divide, how to establish boundaries without burning bridges, and how to use their voice in ways that weren’t available or encouraged when you were starting out.
Ask them how they approach things. Let them teach you a new tool. Listen when they describe an experience in the workplace that feels foreign to you; it may be telling you something important about how your organization is evolving. The mentorship relationship is richer when it flows in both directions.
The Through Line
At every stage of a career, what women need most isn’t a perfect roadmap; it’s the presence of other women who are paying attention. This month, I challenge you to do one of three things: seek a mentor you’ve been hesitant to approach, be the mentor someone has been waiting for, or simply tell a woman in your circle what she means to you and what you see in her.
Take the Next Step
Whether you’re gearing up to seek a mentor, step into the role of one, or simply reflect on where you are and where you’re headed, I’d love to talk. Connect with me and let’s figure out the next right step together.
