A senior Bank of America exec says she wouldn't have gone to university if it wasn't for a mentor

• Katy Ingle is head of diversity and inclusion, EMEA, at Bank of America.
• She told Insider that having the right mentors and managers was one of the "biggest things" for her.
• She said she wouldn't have gone to university had a former manager not encouraged her to do so.

To climb the corporate career ladder, find mentors and "have an open mind."

That's the advice of Katy Ingle, Bank of America's head of diversity and inclusion for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Ingle told Insider that having the right mentors and managers was one of the "biggest things" for her, and that anyone aspiring to progress their career should look for their own mentors.

Having a "can do attitude" was also important, she said.

She said she was the first in her family to go to university but wouldn't have done so had a mentor not encouraged her.

A manager at work "basically mentored me and said: 'you're bright, you need to go and do A-levels, you need to go to university,'" Ingle said. She graduated from the University of Chester with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 2004.

Ingle said that having someone who "championed" her helped open her eyes to different opportunities.

"This person wasn't particularly well connected," she said. "It was just someone who got to know me and gave me advice, and who I could ask questions at any given time."

Ingle said she'd been fortunate throughout her career to have been exposed to lots of different mentors who she could turn to for advice.

Many senior executives and entrepreneurs credit their mentors as a crucial part of their career progression. Some say that having someone to act as a sounding board for ideas has helped them make better decisions.

Mentorship can be a particularly effective tool for helping employees from underrepresented backgrounds advance within organizations. There's also evidence that when people have access to role models and experience, it can make for more effective teams.

Ingle said that people without direct access to mentors could turn to networking organizations and tools like LinkedIn to seek them out. She said it was important to be proactive about finding a mentor and open to learning from them.

She said that most people were open to approaches from prospective mentees, adding: "The worst someone can say is no."