Leslie Chapman

Hello DevOps Enterprise Summit. My name is Leslie Chapman, and I'm an engineering fellow at Comcast.

I'm joining you today from sunny downtown Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.

By way of brief introduction, I've been with Comcast for almost 17 years, and I've spent most of them building front ends and back ends for interactive television experiences. From the systems that power the largest screens in your house to the systems that power the television content you can watch in the palm of your hand.

Over the course of my career, I've been honored with two Emmys, one Primetime Emmy and one technical Emmy. And I hold three patents, all in the television space.

But I didn't get here alone. And that's why today we're going to talk about mentorship.

We are going to talk about both the role of mentee and the role of mentor. Then we'll chat a little bit about the difference between mentorship and sponsorship, because both are incredibly important.

Let's start with the role of mentee: how to find a mentor and what to expect with the relationship.

Regardless of where you are in your career, having a mentor is one of the best things you can do to advance yourself.

I'm very passionate about mentorship. As an engineering fellow, being a mentor is an important part of my role. And as a Black woman in tech, being a mentor is an opportunity to help other women and underrepresented minorities have an easier journey than I did.

Early in my career, there were definitely times when I felt alone and frustrated. I recall wishing there was someone that I could talk to who would understand my trials and tribulations.

I talked to family and friends, but they didn't understand the nuances of being an engineer. And while I could talk with my manager, there were times when my manager was actually the person that I needed to discuss. And most of the time through my career, my managers did not understand the nuances of being a Black woman in engineering.

I had heard the term mentor, but I never really understood what a mentor was or how to find one. And as it turns out, I wasn't alone.

Fast forward today: I speak with a lot of people who have never had a mentor, and I'm often asked how to find one and what to expect from the relationship.

Well, first and foremost, what I want to start with is that being a mentee means putting in work. A mentor should help you push past your boundaries and grow, and growth takes work.

Here I'm sharing the work you should expect to do going into the relationship. You can think of these as five steps to becoming a great mentee.

Number one: identify your goals and opportunities for improvement.

So before you start working with a mentor, you should spend some time figuring out your long-term and short-term goals. Think about the roadblocks you face at work, both real and perceived. Reflect on any opportunities for improvement. Think about the gaps that you've self-identified as well as areas other people, such as a manager, might have suggested during your review cycle.

Some examples of goals may be to obtain a promotion, to enter into a new line of work, to get exposure to a new technology, or to get more exposure outside of your immediate team. And examples of areas of development could include public speaking, advocating for yourself, or conflict resolution.

So once you've done that first bit of work, step two is to identify the people you respect and that you would like mentorship from. It's time for you to choose your mentor.

Think about the people who've already attained the goals on your list. Don't be afraid to ask someone that you admire or that you want to emulate to be your mentor. If you're reaching out to somebody that you don't already have a relationship with, be sure to mention why you'd like them to be your mentor and even share some of the goals that you're hoping that they can help you achieve.

Step three: be open and honest with your mentor.

Being in a mentorship relationship is just that: it is a relationship. And it's important to give the relationship enough time to grow.

Come to the first few meetings prepared with some icebreaker questions to get to know your mentor on a personal level. What kind of hobbies do they enjoy outside of work? For example, one of my hobbies is making cat paintings. Ask them where they've traveled to or where they want to travel to. What's their favorite food?

One of the most important requirements in a mentorship relationship is trust. And getting to know them as a person will help to build that trust. Once the trust is established, you'll find it much easier to be an open book with your mentor and vice versa.

Now, all of that said, not all relationships are successful. And that applies to the mentee-mentor relationship as well. So if it doesn't feel right after giving it a chance, don't force it.

Number four: be open to your mentor's feedback.

While your mentor should be in your corner, there are going to be times when they also need to give you feedback or advice that you might not want to hear. Approach their feedback with humility and an open mind. Try not to get defensive, but instead listen.

And recognize that perhaps a different outlook can be the catalyst to growth. And a different outlook is exactly why you approached your mentor in the first place.

Finally, step five: do the homework and follow the suggestions your mentor gives you.

Once you've discussed your goals and/or challenges with your mentor, be prepared to do the homework they assign you. Homework can take many forms. It might be trying a new approach in meetings, taking some time for self-reflection, maybe even applying for a new job.

Whatever it is, be sure to give it a try and report back to your mentor on the outcomes. Not only the outcomes of the specific actions, but how taking those actions made you feel.

Before getting on to my final reflections on being a mentee, I must share with you some of the best advice I received from a mentor of mine. And that is to not just find a single mentor but to build yourself a board of directors.

Especially as you grow in your career, you'll find it imperative to have a community of trusted advisors that you can turn to.

So to close out on being a mentee: regardless of where you are in your career, having a mentor is one of the best things you can do to advance yourself. Your title is never too low or too high to have a mentor. Or to be a mentor, for that matter.

There will come a day when you are on the receiving end of an email requesting your mentorship. So when that day comes, remember to pay it forward.

And with that, let's talk about being a mentor for when that day does come.

Many people feel really uncomfortable thinking about themselves as mentors. It flies in the face of being humble, and it certainly clashes with the imposter syndrome a lot of us feel. It's hard to imagine sometimes that you're good enough to help others when you don't feel like you're good enough yourself. But the irony is that helping others can help put that imposter syndrome at bay.

A lot of my people might feel like it's too early in their career to become a mentor. One of the most important messages that I want to share with you today is that everyone should be getting mentored, but everyone should also be mentoring. Yes, everyone. Junior and mid-level engineers and managers included.

They often think that they lack the experience. But it's never too early to start to learn how to give back as a mentor.

To that end, most companies participate in internship or co-op programs, and I've always believed that having our newer engineers lead the interns is a win-win situation. Junior engineers have more recent relevant experience of being new to a company, new to a technology, or new to a library of code.

But if hosting an intern through your corporation isn't an option, there are endless volunteering opportunities to enrich the life of a high school or university-age student. They'd learn a lot from speaking with someone who recently went through the same transition. Because that's what being a mentor is truly about: sharing your experiences. What worked well for you? What would have, what you would have done differently?

All right. So what does mentoring someone look like?

Well, you probably already know the answer to this because most of us have been mentors without even realizing it. If you ever tutored someone, even when you were in high school or college; if you ever gave someone tips on how to play an instrument, play a sport, even a video game, you were mentoring.

Sometimes you're mentoring at work without even realizing it.

As a matter of fact, just last week I ran into a co-worker. I first met her when she joined Comcast over three years ago. Her manager had suggested at the time that she meet with me and a few others in order to grow her network and learn about Comcast as she was onboarding.

To be completely honest with you, I had a vague recollection of this one-hour meeting. We mostly talked about life at Comcast and my thoughts on the projects we were working on at the time and my suggestions on how best to fit in with the team.

When I saw her last week, she paid me the most amazing compliment. She said that the one hour that I spent with her over three years ago had had a huge impact on her success over the following years. She even said that she wouldn't be where she was today if I hadn't spent that time with her and been so open to answer her questions.

Mentoring can take many forms. Sometimes it's a single meeting like the one I just mentioned. Sometimes it's more aligned with a specific milestone, such as getting a promotion or finishing a technical project. Sometimes it's a lifetime relationship.

The form that mentoring takes can be discussed in the initial meetings. But as with all things in life, plans can change and that's okay.

One more item to explore is that many, many companies offer mentorship programs that help to make a match between people seeking mentorship and those seeking to mentor. So please go check with your HR department or immediate manager to see if there are any mentorship programs available in your corporation or company.

So what makes a great mentor?

Well, contrary to popular opinion, being a great mentor doesn't mean that you're an expert at all things all the time, nor does it mean that you have all of the answers. But if you can listen, and you can listen with empathy, and that you can speak with honesty and create a safe space where anything that is shared is done so in confidence, then you can be a great mentor.

Another thing that a mentor needs to do is share their network. So you won't have all the answers all of the time, but you have a network that you can share with your mentee. And when your mentee does come to you with questions that you might not have an immediate answer for, you can offer up your network in order to help them get the answers that they need. You can be a bridge builder.

That's really all there is to it. Often the most important thing you can do is listen to someone. Tell them that they're not alone.

Many of my mentees struggle with imposter syndrome, and as someone who has also had bouts of imposter syndrome, I don't have a solution for them. But I can tell them that they're not alone. And they are not broken for feeling that way. I can remind them that they're awesome and that tomorrow is going to be a better day.

One of the things that I also encourage all of my mentees to do is to keep a folder full of kudos to look through when they're feeling like they're not good enough. This could be emails that you've received telling you that you did a great job, Slack messages, or whatever type of messaging system that you use.

I encourage all of you to do the same. Every time you think you're not experienced or knowledgeable enough to be a mentor, take a look at all those kudos. Take a look at all the times that people have told you that you're amazing, and know that you're amazing, too.

So to recap: being a mentor is very fulfilling and enriching. It helps me organize and articulate a lot of ideas that I'd never had to have organized otherwise. We learn as much from our mentees as they do from us.

As we close out today, I would like to briefly touch on what sponsorship is and how it differs from mentorship.

As we covered, being in a mentorship relationship is a trusted space between two people to share advice and work on career and development goals. But a sponsor is a person who may or may not be your mentor that can and does promote you to other people to help advance your careers and goals.

I look at it this way: the mentorship relationship happens behind closed doors with just the mentee and mentor present. Sponsorship happens when the person being sponsored isn't in the room. They are getting promoted by the sponsor when they're not there to promote themselves.

Everyone here can be a sponsor. Promote others that you believe deserve that promotion.

Well, with that, I hope I've helped to dispel some of the questions any of you might have had about entering a mentorship relationship. And I encourage all of you to be sponsors.

Let's keep the conversation going in Slack.

Thank you to DevOps Enterprise Summit, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the conference.