In my career I've been lucky enough to have had some amazing mentors.
When I felt like I was stalling or at a crossroad, these people were able to help me move past a hurdle or jump up to the next stage. And the best ones were equipped with the professional knowledge and experience that I needed to progress my own career.
A standout for me was when I working as a project officer for the Heart Foundation. There I met the incredible Susan Anderson who was my manager and also became my mentor.
She not only gave me guidance and advice but opportunities.
And under her mentorship I felt my career take off quicker that I would have expected as I moved up from policy officer to manager.
Susan gave me the chance to manage a team for the first time and helped me to develop a toolkit to do so successfully.
Perhaps, most importantly she knew how to get the best out of me – Susan was definitely the gold standard!
And now as a mentor myself, she's someone I've sought to emulate.
My first experience of being a mentor was also while working at the Heart Foundation where I took on nutrition students from Monash University.
Then, later after completing my Masters of Public Policy, I mentored policy students at the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association.
My experience mentoring both these groups of students was a two-way street. They came out of university with the most current and up-to-date knowledge, and I was able to support them to apply it for the first time in a practical setting with real world challenges.
It was beneficial for all of us and the organisation itself wins as expertise is shared and developed across all levels.
Now at Bridgeway Global, I have started providing a mentoring and coaching service aimed at people early or mid-career in policy and advocacy.
One person I have been mentoring from The Arthritis Movement was in the same position I was early on in my career at the Heart Foundation.
The first six months of the arrangement was focused on empowering her to lead the development of a robust policy and advocacy strategy and accompanying action plan.
This can be a daunting prospect for someone taking on their first policy role, but with tailored guidance and support through the mentoring program she's hit and surpassed her performance goals.
Together, we regularly met with the senior leadership team to ensure alignment on strategic direction and developed high quality policy and advocacy materials including pre-budget submissions, literature reviews and stakeholder consultation documents.
There were many strong outcomes as a result of this mentorship.
But a standout was the comprehensive and stakeholder supported strategy developed within six months. And the action plan will provide clear direction for the new policy officer role and scope.
Having a mentor when you need an experienced and approachable person as a sounding board or for advice can make a real difference to both the individual person and outcomes for the organisation as a whole.
The Arthritis Movement former CEO Alex Green said when it came to building the government engagement, policy and advocacy function; a mentoring relationship with Bridgeway suited them well.
He shared his experiences working with us:
"I am firm believer in the power of mentoring, having been the mentee and mentor in many wonderful relationships."
"Our very talented but relatively inexperienced staff member has grown hugely in confidence, she has visibility and engagement with the rest of the organisation (so this work isn't in a silo), and she's helping share her increasing expertise across the business."
"So unlike outsourcing policy and advocacy work, a mentoring approach means team members learn (and grow and build engagement), our organisation's capacity develops, and this work becomes embedded into our BAU."
"Invest in growth and you become a team of giants!"