I’ve had two mentors, both of whom still work for Enterprise, and one of whom is my current boss. But I met the first one when I joined the company. Three or four months in, I moved into an HR role.
My direct supervisor, Pam Nicholson, was then our regional vice-president, and became my mentor. We worked together for several years until she got promoted. Another three or four years later we worked together again. She’s our president now, and is the type of person who always really challenges people to be their best, giving them opportunities to stretch.
To give you an example, I was working in California, and I moved to New York to work with her again, primarily in a recruitment role. When I got there, the first thing she said was ‘I’ve been thinking, in the three weeks since I offered you the job, and I want you to take on the training and resources too’.
I just looked at her, but she insisted I’d be fine – she always pushes people to the next level. She stills mentors me. I talk to her every couple of weeks, about both business and personal things. I really trust her opinion and value her judgement. She’s particularly good in a position.
Not every employee is perfect – I’ve made my fair share of mistakes – and once she was really upset with me, for good reason. Yet once we’d had that conversation, she said ‘What are you doing later? Do you want to have a glass of wine?’ And that was it. I really respect that – it’s a great quality, and quite unusual.
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