In our ongoing sequence, “What My Mentor Taught Me,” we discover the transformative energy of mentorship, this time with Egle Beliunaite, the Head of Product Design. Egle’s distinctive journey, formed by her Lithuanian roots, schooling within the UK, and a profession path that led her to Berlin, Germany, reveals the profound influence of mentorship on her function and management fashion.
Egle’s present place is a testomony to her dedication to fostering an enriched setting for product design. Her day by day duties resonate with design operations, nurturing relationships, and cultivating collaborative teamwork. On this installment of “What My Mentor Taught Me,” we unravel Egle’s insights into her mentors’ roles and their contributions to her improvement as a communicator and chief.
Inform us in regards to the mentors you’ve got had and the way they’ve helped you enhance as a communicator and chief.
The mentors who’ve made essentially the most profound influence on my profession weren’t from the product design realm. Whereas this may seem unconventional, it had a major impact on broadening my perspective on how product design is perceived by others over the previous decade.
Being guided by colleaguees from numerous disciplines, fairly than sticking solely to the product design circle, uncovered me to a various vary of tasks and duties {that a} typical designer may by no means encounter.
This unconventional path has offered me with invaluable insights into how design can and will combine into non-design points earlier than crafting an answer. It has been a journey of great studying, difficult conventional boundaries, and embracing the concept that design is not confined to a silo however can permeate each side of our work.
How has your mentor’s supportive perspective helped you overcome work challenges?
Assist at work will be refreshingly simple—communication and belief are the core components. I have been lucky to expertise this simplicity all through my profession journey. Within the early days, self-doubt typically crept in, making each step really feel unsure. However what made an actual distinction was having a supervisor and mentor who not solely listened but additionally inspired me to talk my thoughts.
One of the enlightening classes from my mentor was the concept of taking the initiative—no want to attend for another person to come back to you; go forward and seize the second. Over time, I’ve confronted conditions the place I felt uncertain or dissatisfied and waited for readability. Nonetheless, my mentor’s assist was totally different; they positioned belief in my judgment and actions, whatever the circumstances. Even in moments of failure, they let me be taught from my very own errors, all the time reassuring me of their ongoing assist.
How did your mentor encourage you to go above and past?
Let me take you into the guts of what I name the “go-get-it” mindset. After I noticed my mentor brainstorming revolutionary methods to create new alternatives for his or her groups, I initially seen it as simply one other PowerPoint presentation or a further duty I needed to shoulder. Nonetheless, over time, it dawned on me that each occasion the place I used to be nudged out of my consolation zone was really a possibility to harness my strengths in numerous methods.
Reflecting on numerous moments of frustration in my profession, I now see them in a brand new gentle. It is change into evident that problem-solving is my true ardour, no matter whether or not it pertains to product design, working with product groups, fostering collaboration, or managing basic operations. The flexibility to really feel relaxed whereas embracing new encounters, collaborating with recent groups, crafting environment friendly processes, and unraveling complicated challenges is an exhilarating journey I would not commerce for something.
How a lot of your success would you attribute to the mentorship program you took half in?
My mentorship considerably got here naturally at a really defining second in my profession. Or perhaps I ought to say it the opposite manner round—my mentorship performed a profoundly defining function in shaping the individual I’m immediately.
An enormous thanks to Egle for taking the time to debate mentoring for girls in tech. Their insights on collaboration, nurturing relationships, and communication have broadened our horizons. For those who’re desirous to delve deeper into the experiences of our unimaginable workforce members, make sure you try our careers weblog for extra enriching tales.
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