About our guest author: Melody Starya Mobley’s experiences as the first black woman serving as a forester for the USDA are remarkable: both for the firsts she embodies and for the years of abuse and oppression she experienced within that system.
Now, Melody shares her personal stories to create positive change for groups historically excluded from accessing American natural spaces.
With the few federal protections that exist currently being stripped away, it’s more important than ever for stories like these to be told. Learn more about Melody and watch her documentary The Dark White Forest on her website at starya.org.
Image credit: Kirth Bobb
I’ve previously discussed some of the mentor relationships I’ve built throughout my life, and I’d like to take a closer look at what makes a good mentor—and how both sides of that relationship can benefit from it.
Qualities to look for in a mentor
To be helpful to you, a mentor should be:
- Experienced: is a source of expert knowledge, with a desire to use it to help a less experienced person advance and succeed.
- Empathetic: is able to understand and hopefully relate to the issue(s) and circumstances you’re facing.
- Compassionate: truly cares about you and wants to make your situation better.
- Committed: does what’s promised on time.
- Trustworthy: is a trusted ally that holds interactions in confidence and keeps shared secrets.
- Authoritative: has political clout within your agency or organization.
- Ethical: helps within established laws, rules, and regulations.
- Dedicated: sincerely wants to help and be available whenever you need them.
Most of all, a good mentor can help the mentee develop their vision: a clear picture of what success looks like.
Benefits of a successful mentorship
Each mentorship is unique and serves a specific, measurable purpose—so the vision should fit the scope of the relationship. For example, one mentor may have a lot of political clout within an organization to offer help in navigating assistance with disability issues. Another may have seniority that helps you get promoted in a timely manner.
Depending on your mentorship scope and success, you’ll see these benefits:
- Accelerated achievement of goals, especially promotions and associated higher salaries—which leads to greater job satisfaction.
- Access to greater networks through the mentor’s introductions to individuals and groups in their own networks.
- Opening “doors” to people and resources that otherwise would not have been available.
- Ongoing feedback and recommendations for success.
- Physical and emotional support in both personal and professional life.
Critical mentorships in my life
Mentorships have been critical to my success. I was initially hired into the USDA Forest Service by a district ranger who was impressed with the way that I represented myself and offered me a permanent position. I met him at a meeting of the Society of American Foresters, the premiere professional organization for foresters.
Even before then, I sought mentors when I first arrived at university, starting with a professor of fire management, the late Dr. Stewart Pickford, in what was then called the College of Forest Resources. We immediately became close and he was one of my most important mentors throughout my life until his recent death. In school, I needed a job even though I had two scholarships—not only did he make sure I had employment with one of his graduate students every school year, but he also transported me from college to my USDA Forest Service job location each work season, and then back to school. He took me to buy my first logging boots, a pair of which are now in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture.
And when I relocated to the Washington Office, headquarters of the USDA Forest Service, my staff director Tony Dorrell was one of my primary mentors. My position had an automatic promotion at the end of one year, with successful performance; when I received it, he was so impressed with my performance that he went to agency leadership and secured an additional promotion for me without the typical move to another position.
Mentorships help win battles
I know it was the mentorship and Tony Dorrell’s political clout that helped me secure these promotions because later the USDA Forest Service refused to promote me again even though I had exemplary performance at the GS-15 level. I suspect I was blacklisted because I had successfully resolved several Equal Employment Opportunity complaints.
None of my mentors had the clout to overcome the negative effects of me filing these complaints to combat the discrimination I suffered. In other words, “I won the battle but lost the war.” No mentorship can completely protect an employee from deeply institutionalized discrimination.
Stay tuned for “Mentors for Life: Part 2 – Benefits for the Mentor.”
Read more of Melody’s writings
on the American Green blog.