| Summary: | <p> This study addressed the lived experience of corporate executive women who have had a trusted advisor. The relayed impact and significance of trusted advisors for their career development was portrayed. Traditionally, women lagged behind men in numbers in key corporate positions. Due to increased international efforts to level the playing field over the last decade, more women were present at the executive level in corporations. Understanding the experience of these women is crucial for psychology practitioners in the workplace to strategically support and enhance working conditions in the corporate environment. In this study, the phenomenon of what it is like for corporate executive women to have had a trusted advisor was explored through the descriptions of their perceptions and experiences. A qualitative, phenomenological research design was utilized to collect, analyze, and describe data and synthesize the description of the experience and process of having or having had a trusted advisor. The experience of nine executive women was recorded and transcribed through open-ended, conversational, face-to face interviews. Over 400 meaning units were scrutinized to arrive at individual, and eventually, composite textural and structural descriptions of the phenomenon. The essence of the experience of the executive women was portrayed and the findings presented. This portrayal of the “what and the how” of the trusted advisor experience revealed a complex process of human connectedness, sense of self, and the importance of trust for these nine women. Seven themes were common to all the participants; unconditional support, communication/interaction, trust, feelings associated with the trusted advisor relationship, personal and professional integrity, pathway to career and growth, and advice and decision making. The essence of the experience of having a trusted advisor was clearly set in the relational world of human experience and was best represented as the give and take of a shared dyadic relationship.</p><p>
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