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359: Building a Culture of Mentoring That Sustains Women Leaders with Tamara Thorpe & Lisa Fain

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Mentoring is one of the most powerful levers for women’s growth and one of the most misunderstood.

In this rich conversation, Giovanna sits down with two women who have dedicated their careers to getting mentoring right: Tamara Thorpe and Lisa Fain. 

Tamara Thorpe  is the Founder of Real Mentors Network while Lisa Fain is the CEO of Center for Mentoring Excellence. They bring a combined 40+ years of mentoring excellence across industries, sectors, and global communities.

Together, they pull back the curtain on why so many workplace mentoring programs quietly fall flat and what it actually takes to build a mentoring culture that helps people thrive, not just perform.  

In this episode, you’ll discover:

  • Why mentoring is “the most promiscuously used word in leadership development” — and what it actually means
  • The three core elements of effective mentoring: reciprocity, learning, and co-creation
  • Why mentoring is a “triple win” for individuals, leaders, and organizations
  • Why mentoring programs fail when treated as a DEI add-on or a technology fix
  • Why great mentors are coaches — but not all great coaches are mentors
  • How top leadership buy-in makes mentoring measurable and how to find your mentoring ROI 

This is a conversation that will make you look at every mentoring relationship — past, present, and future — with fresh eyes. 

✨ Ease in knowing that the best mentoring relationships do not require you to have all the answers. Real mentoring flows from curiosity, not expertise. When you stop trying to give advice and start asking better questions, something opens up for both of you.

✨ Joy in the reciprocity. The mentor gains as much as the mentee. More engaged work, broader perspective, deeper satisfaction — these are not byproducts. They are the point. There is something genuinely joyful in a relationship where both people walk away more whole than they arrived.

✨ Impact in building something that lasts. A single well-supported mentoring culture can change retention rates, career trajectories, and the texture of daily work life for everyone in an organization. That kind of impact is quiet, cumulative, and profound.

✨ Self-trust in knowing when a relationship is truly investing in you and when it only looks like it is. Lisa knew the difference between her lunches and her real mentor, even before she had words for it. You already know the difference too. Trust what you feel in those relationships. That instinct is your compass.

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✨ The Well Woman Show is delighted to partner with the Work and Family Researchers Network and its next conference June 17-20, 2026 in Montreal, Canada. For more information, look to https://wfrn.org/2026-work-and-family-researchers-network-conference/ 

✨ Join other smart, high-achieving women to rewrite the rules for how to love, lead, and succeed so you can live with more joy, ease, and abundance, even when life is tough. 

🔗 Click here to join The Well Woman Academy™ group coaching program now! https://wellwomanlife.com/academy

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Resources Mentioned

Connect with Tamara Thorpe and Lisa Fain

Connect with Giovanna 

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