Managing champions

by Joanne Cummings

January 29, 2001 —

Invisible to upper management. Ignored when it came to advancement. Dene Bettmeng learned the hard way what can happen when you don't have a mentor within the upper echelons of your IT organization. "I didn't have anybody going to bat for me, and when it came time for promotions, I wasn't considered because they basically forgot I was there," Bettmeng says.

At the time, Bettmeng was reporting directly to the president of the division. "Unfortunately, the vice presidents were making the decisions, and they only considered their own staff people. I wasn't even on the list," she says.

After assessing the situation, Bettmeng came to the conclusion that she would have been high on the list if someone had thought to include her.

"I absolutely would have been considered," she says. "I just wish I'd been in regular contact with someone on the staff making these decisions."

Bettmeng, who most recently was director of worldwide operations at Denver-based J.D. Edwards & Co., but has also been an IT manager at United Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines Inc.'s Sabre system, says she realized that she needed to seek out a mentor. "It really underscored the importance," she says.

IT professionals seek mentors who display qualities they wish to hone in themselves.

"A mentor is someone you admire -

Computer World