Published 12th Oct 2026
Speakers Fabia Kehren and Laura Moss
Reported on by Empower Mentee Alena Kirchenbauer
In fast-moving corporate and agency environments, mentoring is at its most powerful when it helps translate reflection into action. The Empower Alumni Masterclass 2026 explored exactly this, examining how mentees can leverage mentoring to gain perspective and make tangible progress in their careers, leadership and personal development.
Two alumnae, Fabia Kehren, Head of General Counsel Area Excellence and Chief of Staff to Grünenthal’s General Counsel and Member of the Executive Board, as well as a member of the first EMPOWER cohort, and Laura Moss, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of the London-based strategic communications agency Parisi Consulting, and a member of the EMPOWER cohort 2024, shared how mentoring had shaped pivotal moments in their professional journeys. Despite their different contexts, their experiences revealed strikingly similar patterns: clarity emerges when mentees present real challenges, test assumptions with their mentors, and transform insights into concrete actions.
Shared Learnings: What Turns Mentoring into Action
Six insights emerged from both stories to form a practical roadmap for mentees who want to make the most of their mentoring year.
- Understand your Stakeholders: Both alumnae emphasised the importance of knowing who influences your work, both formally and informally. Fabia’s mentor, Cristina Risciotti, encouraged her to use structured stakeholder mapping to assess power, interests, and hidden networks. Similarly, Laura anticipated reactions and built alliances when preparing organisational change, thereby securing management buy-in.
- Challenge Assumptions Before Acting: Mentoring provides a safe space to take a step back and ask, ‘Am I solving the right problem?’ Laura used her sessions to test ideas, refine proposals, and challenge her own assumptions. Similarly, Fabia adopted a reflective approach to her career, exploring her strengths, values and motivations as part of her career planning process.
- Bring Real Challenges to Each Session: Mentoring becomes actionable when mentees arrive prepared. Laura recommended bringing two to three specific topics to each session and extracting at least one practical takeaway. Fabia found that having a clear topic made conversations more productive.
- Turn Insight into Organisational Action: The true value of mentoring lies in what happens afterwards. Laura transformed mentoring insights into a new client feedback system. Fabia used her newfound clarity to take on a new governance role in 2026, moving beyond communications.
- Build Alliances and Seek Support: Both alumnae emphasised the importance of identifying supporters, both within and outside the organisation. Fabia learned to recognise those who support her, while Laura prepared for organisational reactions by discussing potential scenarios with her mentor.
- Integrate Life and Leadership: Both alumnae stressed that mentoring is not only about career strategy. For Fabia, 70 per cent of her mentoring conversations were about life, such as energy management, work-life balance and finding environments where part-time work is not judged. Laura agreed, saying that confidence and clarity often come from addressing personal challenges alongside professional ones.
Discussions with both of them demonstrated that mentoring becomes transformative when mentees actively apply what they learn, whether by reframing problems, building alliances or integrating life and leadership challenges.
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This piece is drawn from the third masterclass in the Global Women in PR 2026 Mentorship Series, delivered by Fabia Kehren, Head of General Counsel Area Excellence and Chief of Staff to Grünenthal’s General Counsel and Member of the Executive Board, as well as a member of the first EMPOWER cohort, and Laura Moss, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of the London-based strategic communications agency Parisi Consulting, and a member of the EMPOWER cohort 2024.
