Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

BE MENTORSHIP DRIVEN

Mentorship, when done correctly, is magical. A great mentor has no expectations of what she is going to get out of the mentor-mentee relationship when she embarks on it. Rather, the mentor is focused on a “give before you get” dynamic, with a willingness to let the relationship go wherever it takes her.

The best leaders can be incredible mentors. They recognize that being a mentor is a key part of the role of a leader and allocate their energy accordingly. Occasionally I’ll hear people who declare themselves to be leaders say nonsensical things like “I don’t have time to be a mentor.” They fundamentally miss the point of what a leader does.

Leaders should be focused on mentorship at several levels. They should be mentoring other leaders, working with anyone who wants to be a leader in the startup community to help them become a leader. They should be mentoring other entrepreneurs, especially those early in their careers who are searching for new mentors. And they should be mentoring each other, because the best mentor-mentee relationships come when the relationship turns into a peer relationship.

Although there isn’t a clear amount of time someone should play a mentor role, I love Google’s concept of 20 percent time, by which every employee gets to spend 20 percent of their work time on whatever project they want. As a leader, I try to spend 20 percent of my time mentoring entrepreneurs and other leaders—roughly split 50–50 between the two categories. It’s ...