I am saddened at the number of organisations that are still obviously male dominated and operate with an underlying patriarchal undertone, even with the enormous effort that has been put into creating equality in the workplace and publicity around the very positive impacts of having gender balance in senior leadership.
At the end of 2014, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) wanted to launch a pilot mentoring programme with a view to supporting their career development offering. The programme’s objectives were to support CIPD members in:
Formal and informal mentoring relationships exist in many organisations. Within these mentoring relationships the mentor may take many roles: being a role model, a sounding board, helping build networks and career support, sometimes simply being there to listen and challenge. However, linked to mentoring, but with clear differences is the role of a sponsor. Is it actually more beneficial for a woman who is seeking to break through the ‘glass ceiling’ to have a sponsor rather than an organisational mentor? Or perhaps she should be greedy and have both!
Coach Mentoring Ltd now offers all David Clutterbuck’s CMI services across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It also provides the central resource to CMI for managing large global corporate projects.
