“A good mentor will be able to help and support their mentee, but also not make that environment too comfortable for them. They will have a balance between being safe and provocative at the same time.”
Marinela Tanase
When it comes to HR, Marinela Tanase has seen it all. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics in her home country of Romania in 1997, Marinela knew early on in her career that she enjoyed working with people. This realization led Marinela to her first role as a human resources officer at BAT — a company where she would remain throughout the course of her career. It was this role where Marinela first fell in love with HR. Over the past 25+ years, Marinela has climbed the corporate ladder by working in various HR-related roles at BAT, including titles such as HR Manager, European Ops HR Project Manager, Organizational Effectiveness Project Manager, and Regional Head of HR Shared Services, HR Transformation and Head of HR. Today, Marinela works as the Global HR Director for BAT’s Global Business Services (GBS) function, a position where she acts as a guide in helping shape other individual’s careers.
We sat down with Marinela to gather her thoughts on the role of mentorship in the modern workplace. Here are some highlights:
Q: What made you interested in becoming a LevelNext mentor?
“To help individuals shape their careers and, ultimately, their lives is quite a privileged position. I didn’t have answers when I started my career and didn’t have the opportunity to work with a coach and a mentor, and I realized later in my career what a difference having a mentor can make on your life and your career.”
Q: How would you describe your approach to mentorship?
“I find that things that are difficult for people, I can see very clearly. This is because I practice something called “intentionally disconnecting,” which is where in order to see things clearer, you need to completely disconnect so you have a refreshed perspective of things. This is what I do with people, I open up their perspectives and challenge their views.”
Q: What role do you think mentorship plays in helping to solve some of the pressing issues in the workplace today (i.e. inequality, underserved minority groups, etc.)?
“I think not only mentors have a role to play, but also role models in general. Mentors have the power to impact the lives of other people, and those people will, in turn, impact other people’s lives. But I also believe that even if they’re not called mentors, they can still share some of a mentor’s responsibilities. You can facilitate a lot of important conversations by having good mentors.”
If you want to get mentored by Marinela, click here to apply and sign up with LevelNext today.