Former WICT SoCal board member, 2018 LEA Awards Honoree and featured mentor of the month, Linda Kavanagh, shares her experience and insight from being a lifelong mentor and how the WICT SoCal Mentoring Program is a key to success for so many women in the industry.
Q. What do you look forward to each time you serve as mentor for the WICT SoCal Mentoring Program and how would you say being a mentor has been a source of growth and fulfillment for you?
A. I’m always very excited about the mentee that I’m matched with—just getting to know them and being a source for their career development as well as someone outside their normal network that can help them grow their career, be a sounding board and give insight. I always look forward to it. WICT, in general, is such a great resource to our industry and for women in our industry. It’s something that I really feel compelled to support. I’m always looking forward to it because I know the women in the program are so engaged with their career and are just looking to help grow their career. So, the engagement and the energy is always going to be there for the candidates in the program.
I’ve always been mentoring throughout my career—at any given time, I’ll have five or six mentees for different reasons. I have real formal mentorships set up and then I have lifelong mentees. But I would say the mentees that I have had the experience with in the Southern California mentoring program are so prepared. They have a game plan. They have ideas of where they want to go—you’re just there to help boost them in their direction. They’re engaged in their career.
For people who are not in human resources who might want a better idea of what you do, can you tell me about what your role as Vice President of Human Resources for Cox Communications looks like?
Yes, I’m Vice President of Human Resources for Cox Communications in California. I’m responsible for leading HR in our region even though our corporate office is in Atlanta and we’re part of a larger Cox Enterprises. A lot of the functional leadership really comes out of our corporate office, but I’m part of the senior leadership team that leads the California piece of Cox Communications. So, I support our field in ways in California—anything from employee engagement, coaching, development, leading strategy in the region—all of those things are part of Human Resources in California.
Would you say there are certain fields where it might be even more imperative for people to seek out a mentor, such as in the Human Resources field, because of its inherent complexity?
I think in any field, you would need a coach to help you navigate that field. I can’t think of a field where you wouldn’t. Like if you were going to go into marketing, you would need a coach because there are so many different focuses, there are so many areas of expertise like in HR. I don’t think there is any piece of our industry where you wouldn’t need a coach, especially with the political environment and the culture. We’re so interconnected in our industry, it’s important to see how your style of working might be better suited toward a different employer. Somebody that has had experience in several companies or that has been around in the industry for a while might be able to help you navigate what would be a good fit for you, your personality, and the way you want to develop your career.
How would you say a formal mentoring program differs from informal mentoring, such as forming a mentor-mentee relationship with someone in your field?
I like the formal mentoring programs a lot because there’s an accountability around getting to your goal and there’s actual structure around the mentor-mentee activities. Whereas with informal mentoring, sometimes those relationships can ebb and flow depending on what’s going on in the world or in your life. Those are some of my longer term mentor-mentee relationships, though. The formal ones really help accelerate the goal achievement, in my opinion.
What might be some examples of projects and tools that you and your current mentee are working with now in order to help further her growth and awareness as a human resources professional?
We work on goals and talk about options or ways that might help in getting to a desired goal and just sharing my experiences with her. And then anything I could provide, anything I can refer to her to help her be successful. I think a good tool is my experience and just sharing that with her.
What do you think your mentee might be looking forward to seeing in terms of her growth and success in the field as a result of this program?
She has a diverse team and they’re not local. She has a lot of at-a-distance leadership going on, so she’s looking to be an effective leader for folks that are not all in her local area. She’s looking to really excel in her leadership style and making sure she’s providing consistent leadership.
Can you share some success stories or anecdotes of your past mentees who have participated in this program?
One of my mentees has been promoted, so that was wonderful. I don’t know if it was because of me because she is super excellent. She’s talented. And I’ve had other mentees that have been promoted, over the years, but in this program, I know someone that has been promoted.
Are there some examples you might be able to share about how WICT Mentoring has changed people’s lives, careers or even the industry?
I’m a graduate of the Rising Leaders Program. It’s not necessarily a California or Southern California deal, but it’s all in the same spirit of how we help each other out in WICT. I just know it has expanded my thinking and my network and has helped me grow as a leader at Cox. For me, the ability to network and develop these mentor-mentee relationships is an exceptional opportunity to have available to women in our industry and for WICT Southern California to make that a key priority in the offerings is a key to success of the Southern California chapter. Mentoring is an exceptionally smart, strategic tool that helps women in our industry.
As an experienced mentor, how are you able to determine people’s different learning styles and preferences for being mentored? For example, I know some people like to be gently encouraged while others need to be challenged. How are you able to tell what works best for certain mentees and adapt your style to suit their needs?
When you first begin the relationship with the mentee, it’s looking at their communication style and then asking and probing to find what would be best for them, and over the next 30 days, just seeing how they are motivated and what they’re actually doing. You know, the words they say are nice, but it’s what they’re actually doing attached to their goals that they want to pursue and how they communicate that with you. So, is someone really direct about that or do I have to pry and ask more probing questions? Then I can understand how I can best work with them. It’s their actions, what they say, and how much effort it takes to uncover what they really want to do that helps me better prepare for each next session with them and see how to best support them.
Can you tell me, in your experience, how the WICT Mentoring program has compared or differed in the past and what might be some of the unique features of this current program?
The program was really interesting in the get-togethers that were happening and other opportunities to connect differently. They did a mixology class where we were mixing drinks but it had little elements of the mentoring piece and then opportunities to really socialize virtually which was very unique and very creative of the program. I like the way the program is structured in that it gives you different ways to develop those relationships and socialize. It was kind of cool.
What might you say to mentors or mentees who have considered participating, but may still be on the fence due to time constraints or other reasons?
When I see people struggling is when they don’t put aside some time for themselves and I think this is one of those things where you could easily say work priorities would get in the way. I would put this ahead of other priorities because your career and your development is really important and a mentor-mentee relationship can help you stay on track in your business priorities—not only just for yourself, but to help you excel at work—which is probably why you have other priorities, because you’re probably doing a good job. This can help you be even more successful at what you do, so, the time is well spent.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
If I could be a cheerleader for this, I would say at least to those folks that are in leadership roles—senior leadership roles—this is an opportunity to give back and a much rewarding experience is supporting the WICT Southern California Mentoring Program. I think if we have more women and men (I would say men, too) in senior leader positions, then we can definitely impact more women in our region.
This interview of Linda Kavanagh, Vice President of Human Resources for Cox Communications in California was conducted and condensed by Celine West.
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