Expert Insights: Partner Stephanie George on Mentoring the Next Leaders

Watch our recent video interview as Partner Stephanie George discusses Moore Colson’s mentorship program and how it allows us to grow our next group of leaders.

Read the Transcript

[Stephanie George]

00:00:04
Mentorship is especially important for young professionals in the accounting industry because it’s a really tough career path. It’s a great and stable career, but it’s also really tough. So mentorship provides that person to be a sounding board that’s been in your position before and also has made it to the next level.

00:00:18
A good mentor not only listens, but takes the time to collect feedback from peers and managers, and then is able to effectively communicate that feedback to the mentee. A mentor also knows when to push that person for a stretch project to be seen as more of a leader among their peer group.

00:00:32
The mentorship program at Moore Colson pairs two people. They can meet as frequently as they want to. Typically this is every couple months, maybe over coffee or lunch, and then there’s also just the check-ins at work, maybe in someone’s office or by their cube to make sure they’re handling their workload okay, just as a casual check-in.

00:00:49
At the end of each year, the mentee is given the opportunity to list out their top three choices for mentor for the upcoming year. Sometimes it’s nice to switch it up just because you may communicate with someone differently and it’s also nice to hear someone else’s perspective.

00:01:00
The goal of the mentorship program at Moore Colson for the mentee is to have someone specifically invested in their career path to help guide them in their goals and where they want that career path to lead them. For the mentor, the goal is to help grow that next generation of Moore Colson leaders.

00:01:14
Over the years at Moore Colson, I’ve been blessed with multiple mentors that have helped me, both official mentors and non-official mentors. These people have not only just checked in on me and made sure I was doing alright and progressing in my career, but also asked me what industries I wanted to work in, how Moore Colson could support me, what changes may need to be made and how others could support me and see me as a leader.

00:01:34
At Moore Colson, I had the opportunity to mentor another working mom, which was really special to me because juggling young children at home and family life and work life can be very challenging, so having the opportunity to guide her in those decisions was very rewarding.

00:01:47
Mentorship aligns with the overall culture and values at Moore Colson because at the heart of those values is a teamwork environment. Investing time and resources into mentorship allows us to grow that next group of leaders at Moore Colson.