Mentors: Kate Bishop, Director of Human Resources, Dell

by Elizabeth Harrin

Kate Bishop has been supporting people in her role as Human Resources professional for years, working in the UK, Japan, Thailand and Canada. But it’s her most recent role as Director of HR at Dell that earned her this year’s BlackBerry Women and Technology Award for Best Mentor.

Kate left school at 16 because she didn’t know what she wanted to do. “I started work in a bank in the back office,” she says, “folding bits of paper and putting them in envelopes all day, but quickly realized that perhaps I could do more.” After going back to school to study secretarial skills, Kate found a role with a UK brewery just about the time that computers were starting to be used for word processing.

It looked like she was set for a career in IT, but after helping others learn how to use computers, she realized she had a natural aptitude for training.

“I decided as I’d enjoyed the training aspects within IT that perhaps Human Resources would be a career path for me,” she says. “I could learn to teach people other skills. I had to figure out how to move from IT to HR and had a friend who told me about a role in her department of HR that involved managing their HR systems. I landed the job and that’s where I first realized that I enjoyed being in HR.”

Kate has been in Human Resources ever since, and her career has taken her all over the world. “I’ve been lucky to work in some diverse cultures and I think it really helped me a great deal,” she says. “Working in Japan taught me patience and listening skills. Working in Thailand taught me the importance of feeling happy and at peace with things.” The international experience has also shaped the way she mentors women. Kate believes that at a fundamental level people are more similar than you might think. Essentially, everyone wants the same basic things from their life and career. “The outside may look different, some of the behaviors may be different, but the inner self wants happiness, fulfilment and an opportunity to be part of something important. If you can tap into that part of someone through mentoring, you can help that person achieve his or her goals,” she adds.

It is the mentoring program she introduced at Dell that led to one of Kate’s colleagues putting her name forward for the Best Mentor award. Kate had been involved in mentoring in her previous company, while she was working in Asia. “I had seen how much it had helped other women both at senior levels and for people who may be earlier in their careers or who felt they had hit a ceiling,” she says. Dell enabled her to introduce the mentoring program across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “Winning the award is a great honor as the competition was stiff and I was thrilled to even be short listed, let alone win,” she adds. “I’m proud to be a role model to other women and to be able to show that with a little tenacity, confidence and inspiration we can help each other.”

So what makes a good mentor? Kate believes that a passion for helping others is absolutely key. She lists some other top traits to look for in a mentor: “the ability to challenge the status quo with honesty and sometimes diplomacy. Knowing when to listen, when to coach, when to provide information and when to push with a little direction is important as well as knowing when to disengage the relationship when it has done what it needed to do.” That sounds like a pretty tall order for those in a mentoring role.

Being a good mentor takes time and brings with it a great responsibility. However, the rewards make it worth it. “I really enjoy mentoring others and the payback is immense when they move to that new job or you see the light bulb go on because they’ve realized something about themselves or their environment that they didn’t understand before,” Kate says.

If you don’t have a mentor you can still make the most of the career opportunities presented to you. Kate thinks that one of the keys to progressing in your role is taking calculated risks. “I am always willing to look at an opportunity whether it’s a role change, a project, a presentation to someone senior,” she says, “even if I am not sure if I can do it. The fact that someone has asked me means that they believe in me and my philosophy then is always that I should give it a shot but not be afraid to ask for help and support.” Kate also recommends doing a bit of self-promotion at work. “Don’t be scared to put yourself forward, even if the little voice inside your head is telling you otherwise,” she says. “And don’t be afraid to fail because most of the time this is where the biggest learning comes from and you grow as a person and in confidence.”