Bridge the Learning Gap

By Bobbie Albrecht and Mary Hammon

For the first time in history, there are five generations in the workforce, creating a fertile atmosphere for sharing skills and collaboration. Learning on the job is one of the driving factors for furthering career development, but it can get a bit tricky when it comes to soft skills and navigating office dynamics. For any planner who wants to develop professionally or take the next step in their career but isn't sure how to get there, mentoring can be the perfect bridge.

Mentoring can take many forms, but all share the same goal: to provide support for career and personal development and the acquisition of broader skills and experiences. At its best, mentoring is a relationship at the intersection of work and life, and a learning process for everyone involved — not just recent graduates.

Ready to get started? Here are several strategies to help you make the most of a mentoring relationship.

Illustration from Imagezoo/Alamy.

Do the Groundwork

A productive mentorship process starts with you and will determine the quality of your experience. Before you begin to look for a mentor, you first need to look inward.

GET CLEAR ON YOUR GOALS

Self-awareness is the starting point for goal setting. Taking time to reflect on your interests, values, habits, and dreams will take you farther down the path of determining your career goals and position you to be open to advice.

Mentoring can be based around advice on education, career paths, problem solving, certifications like AICP, or reflection on larger issues that drive decision making. Knowing what you want from a mentor is the best way to ensure the relationship is satisfying and productive for both of you.

IDENTIFY YOUR NEEDS

Are you looking to gain perspective on a challenging situation, contemplating a career change, or needing to learn how to navigate interdepartmental politics? Then mentoring will be a good fit for you. Are you facing a performance challenge at work or looking to achieve a very specific goal, like a promotion? Consider a coach instead.

Gisla Augustin — "Gigi the Planner" — is a coach for emerging planners. She suggests that coaching is best as a short-term engagement and is most beneficial when you have a defined goal. Most of her clients come to her for help in getting a job. "A coach is problem solver, and with a clear goal, the coach can help create a strategy to reach the goal."

While mentoring relationships can be short- or long-term, unlike a coach, a mentor will not tell you what to do. Instead, as Rick Willson, FAICP, explains in his book Guide for the Idealist, mentors provide "perspectives and tools to figure out things for yourself. [They] should help you define goals, think clearly, and solve problems — in short, think better about your planning career."

Build the Relationship

Though mentoring can be transactional, it's ultimately a relationship. And like all relationships, it requires care, attentiveness, and trust. Here are some guidelines to help you get your mentoring relationship off to a productive start.

MAKE SURE IT'S A GOOD FIT

Finding a good mentor is a bit like investing in a good pair of shoes. You want someone you can be comfortable with and who will support you on your journey without pinching or slowing you down along the way.

That's why many planners we've spoken to recommend conducting an "informational interview" with anyone you've identified as a potential match — to make sure it's a good fit before you put a lot of time into building a relationship.

"Don't jump in feet first with the first person to say yes, but do some informational interviews with a few people that appeal to you and inquire of their interest," says Bernice Gonzalez, AICP, cofounder and CEO of BIG Strategic Planning and Change Management Consulting, who mentors planners studying for the AICP exam.

This is where your prework comes in especially handy. When you are clear on your purpose and goal for seeking a mentor, it's easier to identify whether someone is the right person to walk with you on your journey.

ESTABLISH EXPECTATIONS

The mentoring relationship is grounded in professionalism and good manners, and as such, focus and commitment are much needed for its success.

Yeneka Mills, principal planner for the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission, was matched with her mentor, Matthew Armstrong, through the Florida Sun Coast Section's mentoring program. At the outset, they set guidelines based on Mills's goals and how often they wanted to meet. She says the program management skills he taught her ultimately helped her achieve a promotion from senior planner to principal planner.

"It's very important at the outset to lay out expectations and what you to get from the relationship so you can get the most out of it so you're able to carry away what you're seeking and be able to use that in everyday life at your job," she says.

We recommend setting a schedule of check-ins. Mills and Armstrong met weekly for six months, which she says allowed them to build a close relationship, but others meet monthly or bimonthly. In your initial contact with a mentor, be specific about what you would like to talk about. Ask them if any topics are off-limits and honor those boundaries. Be up front on how much you will be available to communicate outside scheduled check-ins and how willing you are to share personal challenges as well as successes.

BUILD TRUST

As a mentee be mindful of professional boundaries. Remember: trust is earned. Honor each other's time by keeping to your agreed-upon schedule as much as possible and responding to your mentor in a timely manner. Discuss confidentiality; a mentor can be a sounding board for office politics, but remember to keep it professional. Take time to get to know one another, communicate clearly, and be a careful and respectful listener.

As in any relationship, honesty is the foundation for trust. In a professional relationship where common goals are the uniting principle, reflect on the desire to unload your feelings and resentments to a trusted advisor. Take time to understand the emotions behind your feelings, is it in your best interest or the interest of others to bring up an interpersonal issue or share your opinions on management? That type of truth telling might end up reflecting poorly on you as being difficult or untrustworthy.

STAY IN TOUCH

While the mentoring relationship is a two-way street, they often work best if the mentee drives the relationship. Coleen Gentles, GIS analyst in the City of Austin Public Works Department, has come to that conclusion and feels she's greatly benefited from her mentor relationships. Gentles regularly reaches out to her mentor to request specific advice for something she's dealing with or struggling with presently. The benefit is two-fold: she gets what she most needs, when she needs it, and her mentor isn't burdened trying to guess and sending information that might not be useful or relevant to her at the time. Being proactive allows you to take responsibility for your growth and be open to learning new perspectives, skills, and habits.

FIND WAYS TO OFFER YOUR MENTOR VALUE

There are mutual rewards to mentoring. "It's important for mentees to know their own value and what they can contribute to the relationship," says Melissa Dickens, AICP, an active mentor and the strategic planning and policy manager in the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission. She appreciates it when her mentees clue her in to what's being taught in planning schools and new types of technology in the field.

To that end, she says, think about what kind of value you can offer your mentor, things they might be interested in, articles they might enjoy, or information you can bring to the table to make the relationship beneficial to you both. Ultimately, Dickens says, this value exchange ultimately makes the relationship longer lasting. "You'll be able to call this person up a couple years from now to bounce an idea off them or ask for a job recommendation and they'll happily do it."

Illustration from Imagezoo/Alamy.

Collect the Dividends

You've sown the seeds and nurtured the growing relationship. Now it's time to reap the benefits of a strong mentoring relationship and leverage it to enhance your career and professional skills.

LISTEN AND BE OPEN TO NEW PERSPECTIVES

Mentoring offers opportunities to learn from someone who has been there before, explore your options, understand various roles, and get a better grasp of the differences between the public and private sectors, as well as management and nonmanagement functions. Mentors can be particularly helpful as sounding boards, particularly when you're facing a decision or uncertainty.

Joe Lampe, AICP, an aviation planning analyst at Kimley-Horn who graduated from planning school in 2017, says it can be very helpful for students and planners early in their careers to get input from someone who has been where they are. "Mentors kind of normalize it. They'll say 'it's okay to just take that risk or to do that, or to move across the country, or you're going through a quarter-life crisis and that's completely fine.' They help put you at ease, [so you know] that what you're doing in your career and life is completely normal." Mentors, he says, help people put things into perspective and think longer term, too. Goals and growth don't always happen on the timeline one expects, and mentors can help remind their mentees to be patient and flexible.

Mentors can also introduce you to different points of view: One of the most significant mentors to Marco Hinojosa, AICP, was his geography professor in planning school, Dr. Nazgol Bagheri. He took the class as an elective to hone his GIS skills and was surprised to learn his professor was a planner. She introduced him to the idea that plans usually account for men's perception of the built environment, but that there are other perspectives, such as those of women, that need to be planned for as well.

"I thought it was an interesting way of seeing things. Being a Latino male, I do see the world differently than most people, but there are some aspects you don't really think about until someone shows you the experiences that someone else might have." He's applied that principle in his current role as senior transportation planner with the San Antonio Department of Public Works, and he says it's been especially helpful around current conversations around the importance of planning equitably.

Sometimes it is also important to work with a mentor who shares your experiences, both professionally and in the wider world. That is the case for Gentles, a planner of color whose mentor, Melanie Wilson, helped inspire her and expand her view of what's possible for her career. Wilson is a successful Black woman who has held several top-level positions, including her current job as executive director of the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission in Georgia. She was also the first African American planning director in North Carolina.

"Sometimes it is really hard to find strong leaders in the planning field who are people of color. It can feel very male dominated and very white dominated, so having her as an inspiration was really cool, and I appreciated the care she took to mentor people as well," Gentles says.

BUILD YOUR NETWORK

Mentees and mentors strengthen their connections and establish new ones by making introductions to grow their professional contacts. Dickens says that she has found many of her mentoring relationships develop into friendships that continue to grow. On the other hand, as a relationship progresses and may eventually end, acknowledge your mentor and thank them — being courteous is part of developing a successful professional network.

Hinojosa, who was mentored by his geography professor, continues to meet people through her. Dr. Bagheri often directs her geography students who are interested in planning his way. His advice to them and other early career planners? "When you're young, you get really intimidated by people who are higher up than you, but the more people you talk to, the easier it gets and the more doors that open for you. And I think nowadays, especially during COVID, it's not only about what you know, but it's also about who you know."

ENHANCE A JOB SEARCH

While mentoring relationships don't always lead directly to job opportunities, you can still leverage what you've learned to help you find your next position. The goal-setting and inner work you did prior to seeking a mentor will serve you well in your job search.

Have you identified an opportunity but aren't sure if it's a good move? A mentor can help you judge based on what they know about you, your goals, and your skills.

Sean Scoopmire turned his mentoring experience into a job opportunity. After starting his career as an attorney, he went back to graduate school for planning. He met Tyson Smith, AICP, a planner-attorney, through a class. "It made sense to connect with him over our shared experiences." Their conversation led to giving a presentation together at a state APA conference. Smith became Scoopmire's mentor, and eventually, colleague. "I have recently started to work with Tyson at his law firm specializing in plan implementation, strategies, and tools for public and private sector," Scoopmire says.

BECOME A MENTOR YOURSELF

Mentoring someone can also be good for you and your company or organization. It can be used in combination with other approaches to train new hires, build up your management bench, or even for succession planning. As an advocate and leader, a mentor provides knowledgeable and strategic advice, as well as perspectives that come only from experience.

Finally, by serving in a mentoring role, you are not only furthering someone else's professional development, you are also helping shape the future of the profession and, perhaps, building your own legacy, says Gonzalez. "Mentoring is an opportunity to pass on your experiences and personal and professional skills — your legacy of knowledge."

Bobbie A. Albrecht is APA's career services manager. Mary Hammon is Planning's associate editor.