In Conversation: From Peer Mentors to Lasting Friends

“Would you be open to mentoring me?”

“Only if you’ll mentor me too!”

And so began the CPHR peer to peer mentoring relationship between Helen Lugosi and Maria Zavala. Listen in on a conversation about their experience.

Maria Zavala : You and I were working together on a high impact project, and I wanted to know more about how you approached your work as a project consultant.

Helen Lugosi : After working with you for several months, I knew I could learn from how you solved complex issues as a senior business partner. Our individual paths to CPHR were very different. Way way back when I was an operations manager, I was passionate about building great teams and that led me to lean into HR practices to round out my project consulting approach.

MZ : And mine was a more traditional path through different companies, starting in recruitment and stepping up to senior HR roles. So when we initially wrote up our goals in our Mentoring Agreement, it was interesting to see how we both wanted to grow by exploring each other’s complementary strengths.

HL : Those written goals gave us a solid plan but I’m glad we kept it flexible and didn’t firmly schedule in our goal topics for each month. I found so much value in getting your thoughts on an issue in real time, so that I could put those learnings into practice right away.

MZ : I agree! Every time we met, one of us had something at hand that tied right in to those goals. Every single time, I came away with new insights from our conversations, and you’d often follow-up with articles, websites, contacts.

HL : There was that time I was getting ready to facilitate an important workshop. We happened to have a mentoring meeting scheduled – you asked just the right questions and said just what I needed to feel readied and steadied going into it.

MZ : I remember that. And there was that time you gave me suggestions on ways to build out my network, and we ended up combining our next mentoring meeting with a CPHR Mingle event.

HL : It felt natural to be both mentor and mentee depending on what was going on for each of us that day. I think this worked because we were respectful of balancing mentor/mentee time and we regularly checked back on our goals. I hope I didn’t hog our time….

MZ : Ha ha, no way. I feel like I did!

HL : We’ve both been committed to holding a safe space for mentorship so that the conversation and growth flowed easily. I feel like our mentorship approach reflects how we both approach our work – set out a structure as a guide and leave space for the magic to unfold.

MZ : For me, the magic of our formal mentorship goes beyond achieving our Mentoring Agreement goals. Career growth was the objective but above and beyond that, our meetings have nurtured an amazing friendship and lifelong connection.

HL : I’m ever grateful for that. Do you think the peer to peer mentorship approach could turn out this well for anyone?

MZ : I think it’s available to anyone. I was clear about my career growth goals and saw that you could be the right mentor for me. To our CPHR audience, I’d say that if you see someone whose mentorship might further your career growth, just ask. My experience has been that people are open to mentor me when I’m specific about how their experience lines up with my growth goals. You may even discover that your mentorship is of interest to them. It’s been so worth it for us!

The CPHR Alberta Mentorship Program has benefited hundreds of our members. A mentorship allows members to learn about the challenges our HR community faces and the unique solutions individuals are finding. These relationships support professional development and career growth and, as a result, raise the standard for human resources.

Our upcoming intake opens on November 14, 2024 and closes January 13, 2025! 

Learn more about the program here.