Once again in 2019, we’ve been supporting International Women’s Day with a variety of new blogs on women’s development and mentoring. However, there are some previous very relevant women’s mentoring articles that you might have missed. So here’s a summary of some of our favourites. Enjoy! Continue reading
Watching an episode of ‘Working Moms’ with my daughter recently, reminded me just how difficult it can be for working women, particularly with a new baby, to go back into work and thrive. Yes, we giggled together at the automated breast pumps and the comedy in the script. However, through the humour it brought back memories of being admonished for having baby sick on my suit jacket and being interrogated about my commitment to my career at every juncture.
Sadly in some organisations, I don’t believe much has improved in the last twenty years. So in my last blog for #iwd2019, I want to explore some very simple steps that most organisations can implement straightaway to move gender equality and equity forward. Continue reading
This week for #iwd2019 I have been extolling the benefits of how useful mentoring and sponsorship are for women’s careers. But actually is it always helpful? Mentors and sponsors can sometimes cause harm in supporting women and also negatively impact gender equity and equality. So what can go wrong? Continue reading
The economic gap between men and women is forecast to disappear by 2186. So financial gender inequality will be with us for an awfully long time yet! As part of our blog series for #iwd2019, Lis Merrick considers the current gender pay gap situation and gives two top tips for using sponsorship mentoring to remedy this situation.
She will recommend some fundamental changes that need to be made in the workplace and society to expedite more equality. But also offer a couple of suggestions that any organisation, which is serious about tackling gender inequality and the gender pay gap, can implement straight away. Continue reading
In the first of our series of blogs for International Women’s Day 2019, here are some ideas to use in briefing male mentors to mentor in a female mentoring programme. Research shows there are pros and cons to using female and male mentors when mentoring your female talent. Some male mentors are just naturally brilliant when mentoring a woman. Others need a little more support to really blossom. Here are some ideas to support them: Continue reading
Once you have established your rapport, begin to agree how to work together. There are two critical aspects you must cover in your Agreement Setting conversation – expectations and confidentiality. This fast-paced 60 second briefing video gives you the basics you need to consider when agreement setting in mentoring.
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There are a number of factors to consider when matching mentors and mentees in a programme. Matching can get complicated at times when stakeholders in the scheme have very clear views of who the mentoring pairs should be. Matching criteria need to be in alignment with the purpose/business objective for the programme. If a senior leader wants to choose their own protégée to mentor, you may need to be tough and reinforce your matching criteria. So make sure you are clear what they are! Continue reading
The most comprehensive literature review of the benefits of mentoring that I have ever read was by Dr Bob Garvey and Ruth Garrett in 2005. They used over 100 studies of mentoring evaluations, case studies and research projects to produce their report for the East Mentor’s Forum supported by The East of England Development Agency.
In brief, this is what they found:
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Don’t choose the Ego Strokers!So how should you organise mentor selection for your mentoring programme and actually what makes a really great and effective mentor?
These are two critical questions I get asked frequently. Here is the wisdom of over twenty years supporting mentoring programmes. It cuts through some of the mystique and confusion around mentor selection and gives my view of what makes a really great mentor. Continue reading
I’ve always been a goal-setter in life, generally successfully or I tend to give up quickly and relegate the goals to the bin of ‘bad ideas’. However, in 2019 I decided to take a different approach to my life in favour of emerging principles and a more mindful route through the year, noticing what is important to me and creating some principles I want to live by instead of setting goals. We are now 10% through 2019 and already I am feeling good about my new approach. Continue reading
