The Question That Stunned the Room: A Lesson in Leadership and Mentorship

How do I become a great leader?

The question came from a middle school girl who had recently been elected class president. She was surrounded by executives, community leaders, mentors, and professionals at Play Like a Girl’s 3rd Annual Social Impact Summit, and when she had the opportunity to ask them anything, she chose to ask about leadership.

The room shifted.

On Friday, September 25, Nashville leaders gathered for an afternoon focused on workplace culture, employee engagement, community impact, and what it means to put purpose into practice. The agenda included a keynote and Q&A with Dr. Julia Wiener, author of Pizza Parties Don’t Build Culture, our State of the Movement, conversations with corporate and community leaders, and Put Me On: Meet + Mentor, our signature connection experience.

Yet one of the most powerful moments of the afternoon was one we could never have planned.

The Question That Changed the Room

A student from our school partner, B.E. Academy, had been elected class president shortly before she and her peers joined us at the Summit. She had earned the title, but like many new leaders, she was still figuring out what leadership would require of her.

So she asked a room full of people who had been there before.

“How do I become a great leader?”

Almost immediately, hands went up. One person offered advice, then another. Executives, community leaders, and professionals began pouring into one girl, sharing lessons shaped by their own experiences with leadership.

They told her to use her voice, not only for herself but also for the classmates who may not yet feel comfortable using theirs. They reminded her to be authentic, because leadership should not require becoming someone she is not. And they were honest about one of the harder lessons of leadership: you will not please everyone. Making a decision that someone disagrees with does not automatically mean you have made the wrong one.

What began as one girl’s question became something the entire room could feel.

Her peers were listening, too. They watched someone their own age confidently ask accomplished adults for guidance, and they heard every word of encouragement offered in return. They saw her question taken seriously and her ambition affirmed.

The adults were affected, too. As person after person raised a hand to share what they had learned, there was a growing sense that this was more than a conversation about leadership. It was a real-time example of what can happen when young people have access to adults who are willing to show up, listen, and share what they know.

Every Moment Is Mentorship

A girl asked a question, and a room full of adults answered.

That moment captured something we believe deeply at Play Like a Girl: mentorship does not only happen during a scheduled session or through a formal one-to-one relationship. A mentoring moment can happen whenever a young person asks a real question and someone chooses to answer it with honesty, care, and experience.

For this student, the room became a network of mentors for a few powerful minutes. She did not have to rely on one person to give her the perfect answer. Instead, she heard different perspectives from people who had led teams, made difficult decisions, found their voices, learned from mistakes, and developed their own approaches to leadership.

That is the power of group-based mentoring. Girls gain access not just to one person’s experience, but to a community of perspectives they can learn from.

Research on social capital reinforces why those connections matter. A large Harvard-led study published in Nature found that connections across socioeconomic lines were strongly associated with upward economic mobility in the communities researchers studied. Who you can reach, who you can ask, and who is willing to respond can influence the opportunities and possibilities available to you.

At the Summit, we could see that idea come to life. One girl was receiving advice, her peers were learning alongside her, and the adults in the room were being reminded that their own experiences could become valuable knowledge for someone coming behind them.

Access Is More Than Being in the Room

We often talk about the importance of representation. Girls need to see women leading organizations, building technology, solving problems, making decisions, and shaping their communities. But representation becomes even more powerful when girls have the opportunity to engage with the people they see.

There is a difference between seeing a leader from across the room and being able to ask her, “Were you ever afraid to speak up?” There is a difference between hearing someone’s job title and being able to ask how she chose her career, what she struggled with along the way, or what she wishes she had known at 12 years old.

That kind of access makes leadership and careers more tangible.

It is why girls in Play Like a Girl’s free programs engage with professionals through flash, episodic, and group-based mentoring experiences. It is why we create Corporate Field Trips that bring girls inside real workplaces. These experiences give girls opportunities to ask questions, hear different stories, build relationships, and begin developing networks of their own.

No single mentor needs to have every answer. What matters is that girls grow up knowing there is a community of people they can learn from and turn to.

What This Moment Means for Employers

Our Social Impact Summit was built around an important question: How does purpose move beyond a one-time initiative and become part of how organizations engage their people and invest in community?

That afternoon, a middle school girl gave us one answer.

When employees share their experiences, answer questions, make introductions, or welcome girls into their workplaces, they are offering something incredibly valuable: access to knowledge and networks that took years to build.

For an employee, sharing a lesson about leadership may feel like a few minutes of conversation. For a girl hearing that lesson at exactly the right moment, it can mean much more. She may leave with a new question to ask, a career she wants to explore, a person she knows she can reach out to, or simply more confidence that she belongs in spaces like that one.

This is what meaningful employee engagement can look like. It does not always require creating something new. Sometimes it begins by giving your people the opportunity to share what they already have: their stories, skills, experiences, relationships, and time.

When a Girl Asks, Answer

You do not need to attend a Summit to create a meaningful mentoring moment. A daughter, student, mentee, neighbor, or colleague’s child may ask you a question tomorrow that gives you the same opportunity.

When she does, start by listening. Ask her what kind of leader she wants to become or what she is most unsure about. Share a real experience rather than trying to give her a perfect answer. Tell her about a time you spoke up, made an unpopular decision, got something wrong, or had to find the confidence to try again.

Be honest about the difficult parts, too. Girls deserve to know that leadership can include uncertainty, disagreement, and mistakes. Then help her think about what comes next. Introduce her to someone who can answer a question you cannot. Invite her to follow up. Point her toward an experience that could help her grow.

Mentorship is not about knowing everything. It is about being willing to share what you know and helping someone find the next person, experience, or opportunity that can take her further.

A Room Full of Possibility

We planned every detail of our 3rd Annual Social Impact Summit, but we could not have planned the moment that stayed with us most.

One newly elected class president had the courage to ask a room full of leaders how she could become a great one herself. The room responded by pouring into her, one lesson and one story at a time. Her peers got to witness what it looks like when a girl asks for guidance and is met with support. The adults got to see, in real time, how much their presence and experience can matter.

For a few minutes, the titles in the room mattered less than the willingness to share what each person had learned.

And one girl walked away knowing she did not have to figure out leadership alone.

That is the kind of access, connection, and community we want every girl to have.

If your organization wants to help create more moments like this, explore corporate partnership opportunities with Play Like a Girl, engage your employees as mentors, or welcome girls into your workplace through a Corporate Field Trip at iplaylikeagirl.org/partner.