Women in Insurance – The Importance of Mentorship

Featuring Veronica Medina, Regional President; Rashundra Gamble, Account Manager; and Malea Mitchell, Underwriting Manager from Meritain Health. Hosted by Bridgette Cassety from the Broker Engagement department at Meritain Health. 

Why does mentoring matter? Female leaders share their insights:

·         Create your vision and spend some time on your career path. Dedicate time to determine your objectives.

·         Grab opportunities when offered. 

·         As a mentor or a mentee, be willing to change.

·         Have diversity of thought. Surround yourself with people with unique or different perspectives.

Transcript

Welcome. My name is Bridget Cassidy and I'm in the broker engagement department here at Meritain health. I am pleased to be with you for another edition of in the booth. Today is part of our continuing series of by women for women in the insurance industry. I am so pleased to have three guests with me today. We have Veronica Medina who is one of our regional presidents at our West region over client management. We have Rashundra Gamble, who is an account manager, also in our West region for client management. And we have Malea Mitchell, who is one of our underwriters and is a manager of that department. Thank you all so much for taking a few minutes of your time to be with us today for this very special series that we are running for women in our business. To kick this off Veronica, I am going to look to you first and maybe start our discussion off and just talk a little bit about what mentorship really means to you. So you want to kick us off Veronica? 

Yeah, absolutely. I believe that mentorship is just a valuable and a necessary thing for us as women in the industry, no matter what industry you're in to really ensure that you're growing and a mentor provides a way to increase your confidence, you can improve your skills, your leadership competencies are directly impacted by that. I think that when women have mentors, they are able to really develop their career paths. It really pushes them outside of just their comfort zone of checking the box every day, doing your job, being productive, and really allows women to look up and out beyond their current role and have the opportunity to climb the corporate ladder or any ladder in general, so that they're constantly improving themselves and really being challenged.

I think that is an excellent point and sort of taking that time to say, where am I trying to go? Because it is so easy to get caught up in the everyday mechanics of what we need to do. I think that that is an important point. Rashundra, I'm going to look to you next to maybe bring you into our conversation and just see from your perspective, what advice would you have for a new mentee and women that might be seeking mentorship from someone, from your position that you've had? What advice would you share with them? 

I would just say do not be afraid to seek those opportunities. I feel like for me coming into this company, our leadership team was just so amazing. It was just willing to pour into me and I never experienced that before, and I did not know how to respond. If there is any advice that I could give, I would say, take advantage of those opportunities, run at them in full force because just as Veronica said, that's the best way to help develop yourself and really catapult you to the next level.

I think, that is an important piece to it is to take advantage of what is in front of you and Malea. I know that you're part of mentorship as well. What advice would you have for folks that are sort of seeking that opportunity? 

Building on what Rashonda just said. As you are seeking out these opportunities. I would say to seek out different perspectives as well. I have been fortunate enough to have three different mentors that I'm currently working with. Every single one of them brings their own unique perspectives to the table. As a, newer leader, one of the things that I have been working on is finding my own voice and my style. My boss, he had a very good point, if I am only talking to him then my growth and leadership skills are going to be a bit one sided. But if you are able to diversify the people that you're talking to and bouncing things off of you're going to be that much more well-rounded. We know that as women not only are our perspectives different, but the challenges that we face on a daily basis are different as well. 

Yeah, absolutely Malea, I think you are spot on about that. It's great to hear that you're working for somebody that is encouraging that and to seek out those opportunities. Rashundra, one thing that people will talk about when a mentorship comes up is sort of, what is the difference in relationship between a mentor and a sponsor. I was wondering if you could maybe shed a little bit of light on what that means from your perspective?

To me, a sponsor is somebody that is a senior person who believes in you and your potential. They are willing to kind of take a chance on you. They are advocates for your next position. They are in a position to help open those doors of opportunity for you. Whereas a mentor is someone who they have the experience and the knowledge of maybe your industry, and they help and support you. They kind of help build the confidence, but they are not looking for much in return. I find that extremely important to have a mixture of both, have multiple sponsors have multiple mentors in some time your mentors can serve as your sponsors and vice versa. So it's all good. 

From your perspective or Rashundra, there is value in having both?

Yes. And multiple, multiple sponsors and multiple mentors. Yes.

Excellent. Well, I think that's good perspective because I'm not sure everybody thinks about it in those terms. I think people think I've had one and that's good enough. I think that's a good point for people to consider. When I think about as women, as we think about this opportunity in front of us to be mentors and mentees and sponsors, as Rashundra brought up. I always think that what resonates most with folks is having a story about how that is related to them individually. Veronica, I was just curious if there's a story that when you think about mentorship, from whatever perspective you'd want to share it, is there a story that sort of sticks out in your mind that you think would be helpful to share with our listeners?

Yes. I've had an array of relationships. I've been on the mentee side, I've been on the mentor side and the one that sticks out to me, the one that I think is applicable to people, because I think there may be a misconception that, all mentorships are just successful. I think that whenever we get either you're assigned a mentor or you happen to find someone and it just clicked and you organically become a part of the relationship and mentorship, I think it's important to know that they don't always work out right.  My story is just that, I was assigned to a mentor, at first, we were just very opposite people. I remember questioning, why did I get assigned this person? We are just not the same person. We do not talk the same. We do not look the same. We do not act the same. I did not understand why I was assigned this person. Then of course, my leader at that time knew exactly what she was doing and what she was doing was, she was challenging me in a way that I had not been challenged. I think that is one of the things that are important to remember in those relationships, whether it's an assigned mentor or a one you just happened to stumble upon, it doesn't quite work out, is to push through those challenges and communicate with them. Just because it may not be someone that you are just clicking with immediately, there is something there. You are probably uncomfortable because it isn't normal. If you are not uncomfortable, you are not growing. So having someone that may not be like you is probably a good thing. Over time, her and I became really, really close. We're actually good friends. We send pictures of our children to each other. We use the moments in time to grow. But I would just say that if it doesn't work, don't give up, keep the relationship going. There is something more to learn there and to tap into them and really pay attention to it.

That is something that probably a lot of people do not think about. You think about having a mentor and, or sponsors Rashundra talked about and you think, Oh, you are going to go into it and its perfect fit. And it's not always, so it's good to keep that in mind that just because it's not doesn't mean that you shouldn't continue on the journey. I always like to sort of summarize what we have talked about, what we have heard today for our listeners to take away and I've written down several things. I just wanted to share. One is to create sort of that vision and spend some time on your career path. Dedicating time to what your objectives are so that where you're going is valuable. I think something that Rashunda, you said is grab onto those opportunities when you are given those opportunities. Even if you are busy, take the time, embrace it, because it really is a growth opportunity. Another theme I heard in the discussion was really around having diversity of thought. That comes in a few different ways of grabbing onto relationships. Like you just talked about Veronica that might be have unique perspectives or different perspectives, but those are still opportunities to grow. You have a sense of sponsor as well as a mentor because there's advantages to both and also be willing to change, you don't have to go into it with a forever mindset in either of those relationships. I think for Rashundra, you said having multiples is, is a huge advantage. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts and ideas on mentorship, on being a mentee on having sponsorships and just some different things to consider that help all of us grow and advance in our industry and in our careers. I just want to thank Veronica and Rashundra, and Malea for taking some time out of their day and for joining us for another edition of, in the booth. You can look forward to our next component of our series in the future date. Thanks and have a great day.