Monique Jewett-Brewster, Esq.
Summer 2008

Financial Women’s Association of San Francisco

Companies and organizations world-wide have recognized the benefits of leveraging diversity among their respective ranks. And why? Leveraging diversity is increasingly seen as a vital strategic resource for competitive advantage. The collaboration of cultures, ideas and different perspectives allows for greater innovation and more creative problem-solving, which in turn helps organizations better achieve their goals. There can be little dispute that the organizations who are most successful in today’s financial world thrive and grow on diversity of thought and diversity of ideas.

The same arguments for leveraging diversity can (and should!) apply to the growth and development of our organic mentoring relationships. Research has proven that people who have mentors and strong professional networks are more successful in their careers. However, studies also indicate that diverse mentoring relationships do not often happen naturally, especially for women and people of color, or for people who are different in any particular environment. Mentoring may come more naturally for those who share obvious similarities, such as the same race or gender.

As with networking, when developing mentoring relationships, it can be beneficial to look beyond your comfort zones, beyond being a mentor or mentee only to those people who share your immutable characteristics. Developing a diverse mentoring relationship increases the opportunity for growth, as both partners can benefit from the wealth of different life experiences each brings to the relationship. Indeed, both mentor and mentee can leverage their respective differences in expertise, perspective, and diversity of thoughts and ideas. By way of example, while a mentor can help a diverse mentee navigate the waters of an unfamiliar corporate culture or develop crucial leadership skills, a mentee from a younger generation or different gender or racial background can also help a mentor improve her knowledge and understanding of the mentee’s perspective and further develop her own cross cultural communication skills.

We work in a melting pot of clients; in today’s multicultural business world, those who have developed their skills at leveraging diversity and fostering intercultural relationships will continue to be the most successful. And those with strong mentoring relationships will continue to advance within their careers and maximize their potential. We all recognize the importance of networking and mentoring to continue building our pool of resources and achieving personal growth. Involvement in a diverse mentoring relationship not only serves to further our goals of networking, but also allows both mentor and mentee to develop their interpersonal communication skills with those who have different backgrounds, communication styles, and life experiences, and thus continue along their respective paths of growth, achievement and success.

Monique is a Financial Solutions and Litigation attorney at Buchalter Nemer, PC, who specializes in loan and debt workouts, and secured and unsecured creditor representation in state, federal and bankruptcy courts nationwide.