I started with the firm in 1991 in San Francisco. The summer before that,
while I was still in school, I interned in our San Jose office. Eleven
years later, in 2002, I was admitted as a Partner, and I work on one of the
firm’s largest engagements.
I can attribute part of my success to sheer hard work and the willingness
to take on challenges, such as working in Beijing for two years, which
enabled me to grow professionally in ways I never would have had if I had
just stayed in San Francisco.
Another significant reason I was able to make partner is the Mentoring
Partnership Program. This is a program that identifies high-performing
senior manager level women and minorities with high potential. A mentor is
identified for each person, and the mentor is accountable for giving the
senior manager the right opportunities and contacts that will enable them
to build their career. There have been over 250 formal mentor
relationships through the Mentoring Partnership Program to date.
I was fortunate enough to be paired with an excellent mentor, Donna,
someone I worked for directly for a number of years. But this is not
necessarily why she was chosen as my mentor. Some senior managers do not
directly report to their mentors.
Working with Donna on a day-to-day basis served me well. Although the
program provides for two formal mentoring meetings a year, I felt the daily
and continuous feedback from her helped me the most.
I remember a particular issue we began working on early in our
relationship: how to raise my presence in meetings. Developing the
confidence to speak up in meetings and knowing how to express oneself
effectively are skills everyone needs to develop. I was no different.
Donna gave me consistent feedback after internal and external meetings.
She would say, “Here are the things that went well.” And that would
reinforce the positive behavior. When things didn’t go well, the feedback
was also very immediate and direct. Interestingly, she didn’t tell me
exactly what to do. Once she gave me the feedback, it was up to me to find
my own course, to find a way to implement the needed improvements. And
eventually, I developed my own style.
Another positive thing Donna did for me is help open doors. In our
organization, one may be assigned to jobs through word-of-mouth or informal
networks. She made sure I was introduced to the right people and that I
had the opportunity to participate in high visibility projects. I
participated in the implementation of several new firm initiatives, such as
a program to improve the audit process and an analysis of the annual
evaluation process. I also worked on one of the largest mergers involving
a Fortune 10 client.
One of the things I appreciate most about Donna to this day is her honesty.
Honesty is critical in a mentoring relationship. Donna gave me frank and
direct feedback, such as how I was perceived by others, including messages
that were hard to digest. I did not always like the messages at the time,
but in the long run, her constructive feedback helped me get to where I am
today.
The other thing that is really important in mentoring relationships, and
what’s really different about our program, is the built-in accountability.
Donna was asked as part of her performance objectives, “How’s Chuck
progressing? And if he’s not progressing, Well, why isn’t he?” The answer
to those questions should be due to the fact that I tried something, or I
was given the opportunity, but I didn’t do well –not because I was not
given the opportunity. I was clearly given the opportunities and seized
them. But often, I think, in a large corporation, people just aren’t given
the opportunities. They sort of get lost. Forcing accountability really
prevents people from getting lost.
best practices
pre-fab meetings:
In response to feedback from our Women's Networking Circles, PwC has developed four "Meetings in a Box" to facilitate discussions about diversity. These include a business case for diversity, discussion guides, case studies, suggested readings and other tools that present diversity issues in a no-nonsense, non-confrontational manner. These pre-fabricated meetings can be used to stimulate conversation within the firm and with clients, as appropriate, to illustrate the cultural importance and benefits of inclusion.
