Why I’m even more committed to mentoring women

For the second year in a row, SurveyMonkey has teamed up with LeanIn.Org to release research on how women and men are interacting in the workplace in the wake of #MeToo. And, for the second year in a row, men appear to be pulling back from actively supporting women at work. Sixty percent of men who are managers say they are uncomfortable performing common workplace activities such as mentoring, working alone, or socializing with a woman. That’s up 14 percentage points from last year’s survey.  

Last year, in light of our research, LeanIn.Org called on men to provide mentorship opportunities critical to women’s professional success. I was proud to take the pledge to #MentorHer.

This year, I want to share how it’s going.

For the past 12 months, I’ve had the privilege of mentoring four amazing women leaders on our team: Shayani (product management), Caitlin (sales engineering and alliances), Sabrina (sales), and Jessica (machine learning engineering). Shayani was a researcher at NASA before getting her MBA at Stanford. Caitlin helped transform our enterprise selling motion and culture of customer centricity. Sabrina built a new team in a new market and consistently delivers on her sales targets. Jessica? Well, she moved here from Nigeria with no resources and is now a software engineering manager in our machine learning group. This is a talented group of leaders who bring positive energy and a growth mindset to every interaction.

We meet monthly for coffee or lunch to discuss the challenges they face and their growth aspirations. It’s a rewarding experience to invest in these exceptional leaders, and I often find I benefit equally from the insights they share with me. Mentoring is a two-way street. I try to spend as much time actively listening as advising; feedback from my mentees provides me visibility into how other leaders in engineering, product, and sales are feeling about our strategy, culture, and challenges. We discuss everything from managing team performance, navigating complex orgs, and commanding a room to Game of Thrones storylines and balancing family and professional demands. Every time we meet, I leave with a fresh perspective on the problems we’re solving as a company—and what actions I can take as CEO to better serve the entire team.

Recently, Caitlin and Shayani shared their thoughts on having mentors with our team. “Mentorship can have a substantial impact on professional and individual growth,” says Caitlin. “The time spent meeting with my mentors strengthens my confidence as a young female leader, helps me think about leadership more strategically, and guides my approach to hard conversations.” Shayani also sees significant value in mentorship: "Being a female leader of color is often a path filled with self-doubt, and having someone who can provide candid feedback around perception and reality has helped my confidence as well as my effectiveness.”

SurveyMonkey’s mission is to power the curious. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment and to enable genuine growth and belonging for all employees —which makes me keenly interested in how women and under-represented minorities are feeling about their growth path at SurveyMonkey. In a survey last year we learned that only 39 percent of black women and Latina employees felt they had an equal opportunity for growth as their peers at SurveyMonkey, nearly 20 percentage points lower than what white men saw for themselves (57 percent). When you have the title of CEO, that’s a real wake up call. And I’m going to do everything in my power to bring those numbers to parity.

Our survey with LeanIn.Org found that senior-level men in organizations across the U.S. are 12 times more likely to hesitate to have one-on-one meetings with junior-level women versus junior-level men. That’s a problem for the women in your organization. But it’s also a problem for your customers (assuming you sell products/services to women), your market share (assuming you compete with companies who mentor female leaders), and your shareholders (because your performance will lag). It’s also a problem for the men in your organization—many among them will see the inequitable investment of mentorship and question the values of your organization. Avoiding women means you’re missing out on their valuable expertise and perspective about how your business is operating. Guys, what are you afraid of? (Rhetorical question...I’ve heard the answers). If you want to build a higher-performing organization, get over it and start treating all employees equitably, regardless of gender.

We often hear about the “pipeline problem” when filling board seats and C-suite roles. I don’t buy it. The talent is in your organization today—and ready for more opportunities. Give these leaders an opportunity to have an impact, and they will do just that. I’ve gained so much from mentoring Shayani, Caitlin, Sabrina, and Jessica, and our business is stronger as a result of their contributions. I hope more men in business will commit to mentoring and supporting women, too.