Leadership is about more than individual success. Were proud to join conversations that highlight the power of mentorship and creating opportunities for others to grow.
Thank you to the Boston Business Journal team for convening such a thoughtful conversation, to Hannah Green for moderating, and to my fellow panelists Vanessa Barth of Eli Lilly and Company and Philina Lee from AdvanCell for such an honest, generous discussion. And to my #Takeda colleagues who came out to support — thank you, it meant a lot to look out and see your faces in the room. A good part of our conversation centered on mentorship and sponsorship, and two things I kept coming back to: First, as leaders, we must listen before we lead. The most useful thing we can do for someone we are mentoring is not to hand them our own playbook. It is to discern what they need from us, which is often different from what we assume. Second, we need to bring people with us. Sponsorship is not just encouragement from the sidelines. It is using our own ascent to pull someone else up alongside us. Grateful for the chance to be in the room with so many women doing exactly that.
