The Way Up

CHAPTER 6Make the Most of Your Mentor: The Right Mentor Makes All the Difference in the World

A mentor is someone who allows you to see the higher part of yourself when sometimes it becomes hidden to your own view.

—Oprah Winfrey

In corporate America, when you can connect a positive, hardworking attitude with the right mentors in your life, success will come. However, in my experience, many people of color do one without the other. For those who have a modicum of success in corporate America, their focus is usually on the degrees (and student loan debt) they have earned and their work ethic. This is their formula for success. After a host of failures and multiple attempts to seek higher employment and promotional opportunities, they become despondent and unsure of themselves. Soon, they retreat into doing the bare minimum just to get by.

The dejection you may feel from being in the same role for years is palpable and frustrating. It feels like you are running in place. New hires join your company with bigger titles and higher salaries, and you end up training them! I see this struggle in many of the people I mentor. This is pervasive in the workplace. However, in my humble opinion, these employees have not pursued the full career equation: hard work + education + networks = advancement (Figure 6.1).

One day, I began to mentor a Black employee named Edwin, who had a job at another health insurance company in its operations department. Edwin had been with the company for ...