Can ‘micro-mentorship’ benefit your P&C employees?

Young Canadian P&C insurance professionals often hear about the importance of finding mentors as they build their careers.

Women interviewed for Canadian Underwriter’s recent International Women’s Day newsletter series indicated the industry needs to have more — and more institutionalized — mentorship programs.

But what about when no formal mentorship programs are in place?

Sometimes ‘micro-mentorship’ can be beneficial, two authors write in a Harvard Business Review blog.

Micro-mentorship is “short, actionable advice that can make a tangible difference,” says the Mar. 17 HBR article, You Don’t Need a Mentor to Get the Career Advice You Need, by Dorie Clark, a marketing strategist who teaches executive education at Columbia Business School and Alex Redding, a developmental psychologist and faculty co-chair of higher education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Strategies were gleaned from their work advising companies on developing emerging leaders.

Here are four ways you can benefit from the micro-mentoring approach.

 

Identify ‘hidden mentors’

Senior leaders with the time and interest to support young P&C professionals can be in short supply. Still, people often have more ‘light connections’ with relevant professional experience than they realize, Clark and Redding write. “Professors, former teaching assistants, family friends, colleagues from past internships, and loose acquaintances can all provide one-time advice that may prove transformative.”

For example, in one case, a colleague of one of the authors assumed he would need to find a job in a large city. But during a conversation with a professor, it was suggested: “Why don’t you go back to your hometown, where you said your passion for this work began, and start your career there?”

Clark and Redding report the colleague followed the advice, “and this approach let him maximize his impact while developing a robust skillset that ultimately helped him get hired for a leadership role in a national organization.”

 

Crowdsource advice

Using your extended network on LinkedIn or your school’s alumni database can help you find a range of people to seek targeted input about career goals. It’s also useful to stay open-minded to spontaneous interactions.

“One colleague of ours received life-changing career advice from a woman he was seated next to on an airplane,” the article says.

Not everyone you reach out to will say yes, but some can provide advice on education, experience (such as ‘What are the best and worst parts of working in M&A?’) or even arrange a coffee meeting.

 

Embrace self-reflection

Micro-mentors can help fill the mentorship gap, but it’s also important to balance out the advice with your own self-reflection.

“When you build a network of micro-mentors, you have to rely on your gut and self-knowledge, rather than simply taking the word of someone more experienced,” write Clark and Redding. “You’re forced to actually listen to yourself and learn to trust your own instincts — important skills to cultivate early in your career.”

Over time, the ability to understand what’s right for you (and discard what’s not) can become a critical competitive advantage when making career decisions, the blog says. For example, you might feel pressure to accept the highest-paying job offer, but understanding where your long-term professional interests lie can help you choose a position that is a better fit over the duration of your career.

 

Seize digital opportunities

Ideas and stories leaders share in their social media feeds may spark useful questions or insights. And if they’re holding an online industry event or Ask Me Anything session, you might have an opportunity to engage with them directly — or view their answers to questions posed to them.

Generative artificial intelligence technology such as ChatGPT can even help you conceptualize how a person you admire might think through or respond to a challenge. When using any GenAI technology, it’s important to double-check its assertions, but it can serve as a useful starting point for brainstorming.

“It may feel challenging if you don’t have a mentor guiding your career development on an ongoing basis,” the blog says. “But micro-mentoring can be just as beneficial as cultivating a single mentor who — despite being able to offer more targeted advice based on your long-term connection — may develop a fixed perspective about you or your career path.”

 

Feature image by iStock.com/fizkes