Today’s Thursday Thoughts come from a question I’ve been sitting with lately: What’s the difference between sending the elevator down and building more elevators?

For years, I’ve championed one-on-one mentorship. I’ve had sponsors who changed my trajectory, and I’ve tried to do the same for others. That work is deeply important to me. But I’ve come to realize that individual mentorship has a ceiling. You can only help so many people one at a time, and that work demands your constant presence. When you step back, the work stops.

Building infrastructure works differently. It goes beyond what any one person can do. It serves hundreds at once. And it keeps going without you.

When I look back on my Third Chapter, the initiatives I’m most grateful for share a common quality:

When I founded Women Get On Board Inc. (WGOB) in 2015, my vision was to build a national movement that connects, promotes, and empowers women to serve on corporate boards. That infrastructure outlasts any single conversation.

When I established the Deborah Rosati Women in Leadership Mentorship program at Brock University in 2022, I created an institutional program that I hope to continue mentoring in.

Sending the elevator down means operating it manually, one person at a time. Building elevators means creating permanent infrastructure that runs on its own power. Both matter. But Third Chapter leadership, I’ve learned, requires shifting the emphasis toward building that lasting infrastructure.

The infrastructure we build today will outlast us. That’s the work of this chapter.