“People leave these mentorship programmes with a lot more compassion than when they first came in.”
Benjamin Beckhart is Chief Engender Officer at Beckhart Engendra, and also the Golden Thread Facilitator on Moving Ahead’s US 30% Club Mission Gender Equity cross-company mentoring programme. Last year he was also the Golden Thread Facilitator of our 30% Club Mexico programme.
I'm an author, an investor, and a passionate speaker about leadership matters. And frankly, leadership does matter. Prior to this I was the CEO and president of several multinationals in Mexico and Latin America for Fortune 500. I was a specialist in starting these units in different countries. I loved putting the team together and aligning them behind our vision and goals. I’m passionate about working with people and how they collaborate.
As a child, I’d been shocked by my father's reaction to President Kennedy’s assassination. I’d seen my father as a strong person. But after the murder, I saw him really distressed and sad. And I think that event mentored me to a certain extent. My father taught me to honour and respect people, regardless of race, creed, gender. He also taught me the value of hard work and effort – that you had to put the work in, even if you had talent. He was a great mentor: he stood up against things that were not right.
Later, I became fascinated about the way people work together to get something accomplished. By the way, that's what makes us human: what makes us different from other species is the fact that we can collaborate – we can definitely create wonderful things from buildings to vaccines, to putting a man on the Moon.
What drew me to Moving Ahead’s 30% Clubs cross-company mentoring programmes is my strong belief about mentorship being a fantastic mechanism or a dynamic – a living experience, where you can start growing as a person and becoming a lot more leveraged as an individual as well. So I thought, ‘Wow, I can contribute to that. Let me be part of it.’ Because it's so important to give back. And it does give me a personal satisfaction to be able to make a difference to others, and to ignite another's desire to make a difference.
As a Golden Thread Facilitator, I encourage participants to reach out to each other; inspiring them to maintain the momentum and increase it over time. And not only that, when the program's done, that they continue to see each other and continue to foster and promote the 30% Club, and the techniques or the learnings from Moving Ahead.
A wonderful gift
Mentorship is a fantastic, wonderful gift. It provides a safe environment of trust with someone who has really faced those roadblocks, and can say, ‘I've had those same fears, and here’s how I dealt with them and handled them.’ Unlike a coach, where a coach is asking questions and attempting to get that person to the answer, the mentor is more proactive in the sense that [metaphorically] you will hold hands a little bit more. As a mentor, you’re able to polish an individual's strengths and talents on the one hand, and on the other, motivate them to becoming a better human being or a better leader or a better contributor.
I’d recommend this programme to a fellow CEO by showing it has proven results. Moving Ahead has more than 10 years’ of experience of ensuring that diversity, equity, inclusion isn’t just the fashionable item on the agenda. You make inclusion a living cell, which you start to weave into your organisation.
I should mention the guest speakers on the cross-company programmes and Moving Ahead’s Summit Series. They are extraordinarily important to the cross-company programmes because you get such different perspectives. You’re hearing from people that had either the same fears, or the same aspirations, or the same ups and downs and inspired moments that you did. And they're talking about very specific issues that you're going through: the challenges they had and how they faced them; how they got around obstacles and moved forward to become leaders. So these speakers truly are great moments of inspiration. They make people feel they’re being spoken to directly, and it resonates.
Advice to mentors and mentees
The advice I’d give a mentor in this programme is: make sure you embrace the difference of your mentee. Remember they do not have as much experience as you do. And the first thing you want to do is create a safe space and build the trust. And you build the trust by accepting your mentee. Also, by showing your vulnerability: by not having all the answers.
Vulnerability in mentoring is definitely crucial and critical, because the only way you can establish trust and credibility is showing that you're human. And all of us are imperfect. It's also about inclusion: about embracing the differences that each and every individual brings to the table. And making sure you can actually take those differences to the next level. One of the main trends I see as the programme develops is a lot more openness. People leave these mentorship programmes with a lot more compassion than when they first came in.
The advice I’d give to a mentee is, first and foremost, make sure to reach out to your mentor. You’re a mentee because somebody saw great potential in you. Once you meet with your mentor, make sure you have two or three things that you want to work on, but don't have a solution to. And that you believe will truly offer you a quantum leap to your personal and professional growth. Also, think about where you want to grow, think about those things you're scared about, that you see as your roadblocks or your biggest challenge. Remember, somebody cared enough about you to recommend you as a mentee. You're important to them: make the best of it.
For more information click here or contact Maria.May@moving-ahead.org