“Great leaders develop other leaders,” Noni Thomas López. 

Finding mentorship has been essential for my growth as an educator and as a leader. Similarly, I value the opportunity to be a mentor because it means making meaningful connections, sharing my story with strength and vulnerability. Reverse mentoring, or receiving mentorship from someone earlier in their career as an exchange of knowledge, is, in my mind, what all good mentor pairs do. While I appreciate the importance of naming the reverse mentorship strategy, I also believe that mentoring is inherently a partnership where both the mentor and the mentee learn from each other. In the role of a mentor, I believe it is my responsibility to voice how and why I make certain decisions, but not to imply that my choices are correct. 

My role as a mentor is to create a safe space for my mentee to ask questions, make mistakes, and encourage my mentee to grow. My mentorship comes from the transparent, vulnerable, and reflective conversations I have with my mentee around the decision I made, and my mentee learns from those decisions. They can use that information to make their own choices. I do not want to suggest that I have all the right answers, but to share my learning moments as a way for my mentee to learn from those same moments and thus accelerate their growth. Articulating my values and decision making to a mentee helps affirm my values. I similarly recognize that holding to my values is distinctly different from thrusting my values onto someone else as they begin their own leadership journey. 

I believe that finding mentors is essential for growth and development. As an emerging leader, I often seek mentorship from two different perspectives: mentors who hold similar values and experiences and mentors with distinctly different beliefs and characteristics in their leadership styles. I seek out mentors with differing perspectives because I learn as much, if not more, from perspectives that challenge my thinking. In finding mentors with differing beliefs and experiences from my own, I can grow in unexpected ways, either because that mentor has moved my thinking or affirmed that we simply disagree and that my beliefs still hold true. If I am not challenged in my thinking, then there is little growth happening. 

In contrast, finding mentors with similar values and experiences allows for easy connections that are fulfilling and enjoyable in a more sustainable and comforting way. I am quick to learn from mentors with similar values as we discuss leadership strategies and growth goals. Seeking mentorship from leaders with similar journeys helps me affirm the path that I am on and learn from those that have forged the way so that I, a gay white woman, can look ahead and know that school leadership is possible.