Our last survey for 2007 was all about mentoring. Was it
important for women's careers? Do our members have mentors? How did
they find them? What, if anything, should (or could!)
Professionelle so to support mentoring of professional women?
As always, we prepared a report to let our members know what the
survey had revealed on this important topic. The report appeared in
the members' only area in our last update and is now available for
public view.
First, the numbers!
- A staggering 100% of respondents believed that mentors play, or
can play, an important role in woman's careers. Clearly, the kind
of work arrangement our members were in made no difference to
theirview of the importance of mentors.
- 83% said mentors now played, or could play, an important role
in their own careers.
- Exactly two thirds currently have a mentor. Those who did not
were as likely to be in full time "traditional" employment as in
alternative arrangements.
- Lastly, an overwhelming 93% of respondents believed that
Professionelle should play a role in facilitating mentoring across
our members. The two respondents who didn't say "yes, you should"
instead said "yes, you could".
Value of Mentors
Two quotations will suffice to support the exceptionally strong
positive response on this question:
From a member with her own
businesses:
If not for a mentor to sound ideas with, I would
not be in the position I am today with currently owning three
companies and in the process of setting up another two. I cannot
recommend enough finding someone you feel comfortable with who can
also inspire you to reach great heights.
From another member in full time
employment:
I am currently in a senior position and had not
used a mentor before. However, after attending a resilience
workshop facilitated by my organisation I realised what I had been
missing out on. I chose someone in the organisation, pretty high
up, that I respected and who was also outside the specific area I
work in, to get a different perspective. My mentor's input is
already changing my life!
Finding Mentors
Relatively few respondents seem to have found your mentors
through the active facilitation of their companies. There were
exceptions, of course, like the member who found hers through a
company-promoted relationship with the NZ Institute of Management.
However, the general theme was that women found their mentors by
themselves.
Owner operators reported that they rely on referrals from
friends, or contacts made before they branched out into being their
own bosses.
Repeatedly, the theme was that mentoring works when people
"click", when values align and when the mentor for some reason
takes a personal interest in the mentee's success.
Mentors came through professional qualification bodies and
academic institutions as well as in the form of supervisors,
ex-bosses and colleagues. One member reported her mentor offered
her services after hearing the member speak on the local government
election trail!
Mentor Services
In addition, useful existing sources for people seeking mentors
came to us through this survey:
- www.mentorcentre.co.nz
According to its website, "The New Zealand Mentoring Centre
provides the highest quality individual, peer, team and
organisational mentoring & coaching services."
- www.rwr.co.nz/mentoring.php
Retailworld Resourcing is a local recruitment agency that
specialises in the retail sector and offers a retail-specific
mentoring match-up service
- www.businessmentor.org.nz/about/index.php
"Business Mentors New Zealand is a fully funded service of Business
In The Community. This organisation, operating with over 1,400
volunteer mentors… provides a national mentor network to help any
New Zealand company which has been in business for at least 12
months and has less than 25 employees."
- www.mentornet.net
Based in the USA. "MentorNet is the award-winning nonprofit
e-mentoring network that positively affects the retention and
success of those in engineering, science and mathematics,
particularly but not exclusively women and others underrepresented
in these fields."
Ideas for Professionelle's Role
There were three main themes to the suggestions on this
question.
1. Provide an online or offline place for women to meet
informally and make the necessary first connections
- This appealed to women who were looking for opportunities to
make an informal, yet personal, connection and then drive any
resulting relationship forward between themselves.
- Offline ideas: an "expo" or networking event; also some
industry-specific gatherings.
- Online ideas: a forum or email loop for women to connect.
2. Provide an online listing of both women
willing to act as mentors and those seeking mentors (with some
level of confidentiality)
- This appealed to women who struggle to ask another to be their
mentor. "Having a base with people who have already agreed is a
great step".
- Running this via Professionelle's message board or similar
would give individuals control over the information and contact
details they provid
3. Offer an active matching service in which
Professionelle gathers information on mentees and mentors to make a
preliminary match and facilitate a first meeting
- Several respondents noted the risk that developing and running
an mentor system could create a heavy admin workload.
A secondary theme from several of you was to provide
"ground rules" in order to set expectations about
respective roles, and to clarify the difference between mentors and
coaches.
© Professionelle Ltd 2007