The Career Playbook - Making the Relationship Work

October 06, 2026

The Career Playbook
Episode 4: Making the Relationship Work

In this episode of The Career Playbook, host Suzanne Wilson Heckenberg is joined by Christy Wilder for a candid conversation about what it takes to build and sustain strong mentoring relationships. Christy discusses why professionals should build a bench of mentors, how mentoring relationships can change as careers and priorities shift, and why trust, consistency, and open communication matter. She also shares why the best mentoring relationships are a two-way exchange, the importance of challenging advice rather than simply accepting it, and how paying mentorship forward can strengthen the next generation of leaders.

Thank you to our series sponsor, The Schar School for Government and Policy, GMU! 

Now Streaming on YouTube!

The Career Playbook, Making the Relationship Work with Christy Wilder, CSO, Peraton