Leaders in a group, a enterprise, or an trade are chargeable for extra than simply making efficient choices and guiding a group towards a set purpose or imaginative and prescient. The most effective leaders acknowledge their accountability to shepherd the subsequent era and empower their future successes, and thus take up mentorship. By passing down their experience, experiences, and classes, leaders and specialists elevate the bar for the subsequent era.
Sean Edwards, Philadelphia resident and President of the Rittenhouse Communications Group, has a protracted historical past of contributing concepts, connections, and assets to his group within the identify of progress and improvement. By means of his companies and his involvement with a number of group organizations and boards, Sean Edwards has demonstrated his dedication to supporting establishments that protect and advance the historical past, tradition, enterprise, and high quality of life in his dwelling metropolis. These actions embrace serving as a board member of the SS United States Conservancy, which raises over $30,000 yearly for the preservation of America’s flagship; presidency of the Grand Cru Society wine membership; and collaboration with a number of organizations devoted to native security and help for first responders.
Within the present state of his profession, Sean Edwards appears to the mentors who guided and influenced him on his skilled journey for inspiration as he assumes the function of a mentor himself. With a long time of his personal expertise filled with classes prepared for a prepared pupil, Edwards is taking the subsequent era of innovators underneath his wing and serving to develop the long run leaders of Philadelphia.
“After I began, I used to be centered on studying all the pieces I might. Over time, that shifted to constructing programs and other people,” Sean Edwards says. “Now, I actively mentor rising leaders inside Rittenhouse and within the broader tech and enterprise group.”
A Philosophy of Management
Mentorship allows leaders and professionals to share their information and expertise with their college students, together with their philosophies of management. Sean Edwards’ mentors have handed down a constant philosophy of management that’s now enshrined within the management tradition of Rittenhouse Communication Group. By modeling integrity, humility, and long-term pondering, these mentors demonstrated the sturdy ethical character that Edwards instills in his college students.
“One mentor specifically all the time emphasised the significance of service management—being current, listening first, and investing in your group’s progress,” explains Edwards. “That method has deeply formed how I function: lead with empathy, keep accountable, and all the time transfer ahead with integrity.”
Mentors can have a defining influence on a rising chief’s philosophy of management {and professional} values, instilling beliefs and convictions with easy knowledge. One in every of Sean Edwards’ mentors modified his perspective with a easy assertion: “The most effective leaders create security for others.” That lesson has formed Edwards’ working philosophy ever since; studying to suppose past simply the enterprise technique and take into account the emotional {and professional} surroundings he created for others was a essential step in his skilled improvement.
“At Rittenhouse, I’ve constructed a tradition the place persons are empowered to talk up, problem assumptions, and take initiative with out concern of failure,” Edwards says. “It’s not nearly fixing issues—it’s about serving to folks develop into roles they by no means imagined for themselves.”
Lasting, Productive Relationships
The mentor-mentee relationship is usually one of the crucial fulfilling, productive, and long-lasting relationships an expert can develop, and one cause for that’s that it’s a two-way road. The most effective mentorships aren’t dictatorial or purely didactic—they’re conversations, sources of accountability, and collaborative problem-solving groups that encourage progress in each events. For Sean Edwards, staying accessible and clear together with his group, whereas in search of trustworthy suggestions from friends and mentors, has been a constant supply of helpful progress.
“Common check-ins, shared wins, and even collaborative problem-solving periods maintain the connection grounded,” he says. “That sort of openness fosters belief, which is the inspiration of any profitable group dynamic.”
When evaluating a brand new mentor, advisor, or peer, Sean Edwards all the time prioritizes character, emphasizing integrity, expertise, and a willingness to convey brutal truths, and works diligently to embody these values in his educating. Mentorship is meaningless if both celebration is tired of progress. Thus, the perfect beneficiaries are those that maintain themselves to excessive requirements, overcome challenges, and apply a gentle moral perspective to management. Edwards identifies college students with potential by their curiosity, possession, and collaborative mindset.
“After I see that, I give folks entry—whether or not that’s becoming a member of consumer conferences, main an initiative, or representing us at an trade occasion,” explains Edwards. “I consider in giving folks the room to develop by way of expertise, not simply instruction.”
Mentorship within the hybrid technical surroundings the place Sean Edwards’ Philadelphia enterprise operates could be uniquely difficult, because it requires him to tackle a number of roles concurrently: coach, strategist, and advocate. Edwards makes it a precedence to carry readability and consistency to each his engineering and buyer success groups, whereas additionally creating house for cross-functional studying, real-time drawback fixing, and proactive communication. This surroundings and inner transparency foster belief, develop relationships, and assist the group kind a united entrance.
Instructing Is Its Personal Reward
It’s widespread for leaders who’ve mentored many college students to report that mentorship is without doubt one of the most rewarding experiences they’ve had as professionals. Sean Edwards isn’t any totally different in that regard; not solely have these relationships essentially modified and formed his skilled values and management philosophy, however they’re a constant supply of pleasure and achievement. In his expertise, seeing a peer or pupil step into their full potential and obtain their targets is a uniquely rewarding expertise.
“It’s highly effective to see folks understand they’ll lead, innovate, and affect outcomes—particularly once they didn’t see it in themselves at first,” he says. “That transformation fuels all the pieces we do right here at Rittenhouse.”
It’s no stretch to say that Sean Edwards’ Philadelphia enterprise success is because of the worth of those long-term relationships, and he needs to proceed passing these advantages on to his college students for a very long time. Simply as he retains in common contact with a handful of his former mentors—now shut friends—he hopes to proceed working together with his mentees for years to come back.
“We alternate concepts, provide perspective, and problem one another when wanted,” he explains. “
“These conversations remind me to remain humble, all the time be studying, and deal with constructing one thing that lasts, not only for the enterprise, however for the folks we influence.”
