\n\t\t Entrepreneur \t<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a quiet myth in leadership circles that once you reach a certain level of accomplishment, the need for mentorship fades. By the time you\u2019re leading major initiatives or running large organizations, people assume you\u2019ve accumulated enough wisdom to rely solely on your own experience. You become the mentor\u2014surely not the mentee.<\/p>\n
Years ago, by most measures, I had already \u201carrived.\u201d I had run a business school. I understood strategy, operations, culture-building, and fundraising. From the outside, I looked like someone who didn\u2019t need guidance.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the truth most people don\u2019t talk about: the higher you rise, the more dangerous it becomes to believe you have nothing left to learn.<\/p>\n
Experience brings confidence, but it can also quietly narrow your field of vision. It can trap you in what has worked before, causing you to mistake familiarity for mastery. If you\u2019re not careful, the very success that brought you here becomes the thing that limits what\u2019s possible next.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly when the right mentor can change everything. And when mentorship truly works, both people benefit.<\/p>\n
During my time as dean at the University of Arizona, a colleague suggested I begin meeting regularly with Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University. Our meetings weren\u2019t in boardrooms or over coffee\u2014they were walking meetings. For an hour at a time, often in the sweltering Tempe heat, we would circle the campus as he talked me through ASU\u2019s transformation.<\/p>\n
We were, quite literally, walking through strategy.<\/p>\n
As we moved from building to building, he explained the purpose behind each interdisciplinary research center: why it was designed the way it was, what problems it aimed to solve, and how it fit into a broader institutional vision. He narrated the strategy while we stood inside the results.<\/p>\n
Those conversations opened my mind to an entirely different level of thinking. I was confident I knew how to run a college. Michael was teaching me how to think like a university president\u2014how to scale a vision for an institution; how to learn from what it had been while building what it could become. He was showing me how to see around corners.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t realize it at the time, but he was preparing me for a role I hadn\u2019t even considered\u2014one I would step into years later.<\/p>\n
And that wasn\u2019t the first time mentorship quietly shifted my path.<\/p>\n
Early in my career, my MBA advisor, Bernie, nudged me toward pursuing a PhD\u2014a path I hadn\u2019t known to consider. He saw potential long before I did. His guidance expanded my sense of what was possible at a moment when I couldn\u2019t yet imagine the trajectory my career might take.<\/p>\n
Whether at 25 or 55, the mentors we need often appear before we understand why we need them.<\/p>\n
Even \u2014 and especially \u2014 in later career stages, mentorship matters. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
You can have decades of experience and still encounter someone who operates at a different altitude. Mentors like Michael recalibrate your mental model. They widen your aperture, helping you see systems, consequences, and opportunities from a new vantage point.<\/p>\n
Later-career growth often comes from lateral mentorship\u2014peers, innovators, and leaders in adjacent fields whose thinking expands your own.<\/p>\n
Success can quietly create rigidity. Patterns become grooves; grooves become ruts. A mentor challenges assumptions you\u2019ve stopped questioning.<\/p>\n
I learned this early in my faculty career when I realized I needed to understand fundraising to support the ideas that mattered most to me. I knew nothing about philanthropy. The people who taught me were major gift officers, deans, and donors\u2014experts far outside my own discipline. They became informal mentors who accelerated my learning and opened doors I didn\u2019t even know existed.<\/p>\n
Mentorship often comes from those who help you see what you\u2019ve been missing.<\/p>\n
Leading today is fundamentally different from leading decades ago. Technology, expectations, and cultural norms evolve rapidly. A strong mentor helps you remain responsive rather than reactive\u2014adapting instead of clinging to what once worked.<\/p>\n
Just as Michael prepared me for a presidency I hadn\u2019t envisioned, mentors often plant seeds long before you know you\u2019ll need them. The right mentor expands your capabilities ahead of the moment that calls for them.<\/p>\n
One of the most important lessons I\u2019ve learned is that the mentor you need at 60 may be decades younger than you.<\/p>\n
Some of my most valuable insights now come from:<\/p>\n
Their perspectives are creative, direct, and unburdened by institutional inertia. They push me to stay curious and connected to what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n
Reverse mentorship isn\u2019t a novelty\u2014it\u2019s a necessity. When you genuinely listen to younger voices, you gain a clearer window into the future.<\/p>\n
At its core, mentorship is about replacing hierarchy with teachability.<\/p>\n
Ask yourself:<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t name those people, you may be missing one of the greatest advantages seasoned leaders have: the ability to learn from anyone, at any age, at any stage.<\/p>\n
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