WOMENtoring
‘Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life, it’s about what you inspire others to do!’
Why mentoring women of all ages is important and supporting such programs are a versatile solution that can help any individual with their career development. When we support the growth and empowerment of women and young girls, we raise the quality of life for everyone.
Too often, women or young girls lack the confidence to ask for mentoring or worry that it will make them look weak.
When given the opportunity to participate in a mentoring program, woman are better able to move forward in their careers or their businesses. Mentoring can change the perception many women develop when their leaders do not recognise their talent.
Mentoring helps many women overcome their own self-limiting beliefs and mindsets, which can hinder them in aspiring to reach senior and leadership roles. It helps them build trust in themselves, who they are, what they do and how they do it – which, in turn, provides them with the confidence to move out of their comfort zone and strive to achieve their true potential.
Mentoring provides a safe space for women to openly discuss their ambitions. Occasionally, women will set career development goals and not hold themselves accountable. Being part of a mentoring relationship can help to hold a woman accountable to their personal goals. A mentor can help you set goals and track their progress. When feedback and recognition is given from a mentor, it generally will boost confidence and help women be consistent with goal achievement and it makes career or business development easier, it leads to higher performance and advancement throughout your organisation.
Cultivating early mentoring habits builds a woman’s belief in her capabilities and willingness to mentor others. Women in leadership positions need to make a point of mentoring other women because more often than not, nobody else is going to. Let’s be mindful of supporting one another and make sure we’re lifting up those around us.
We should be advocating teamwork, not only does it help the person you’re mentoring grow, excel and advance more effectively, but done right, it can form the foundation of the kind of valuable professional network that will ultimately benefit all women within an organisation.
Women are more likely to attain fulfillment in their careers and personal lives if they have a solid support group of other women. Build a network – networking is important for any individual, but it is especially important for women.
Mentoring is the ideal strategy to enable skill development and build networks, increasing employee engagement and retention. While mentoring is good for men and women, it can particularly benefit the latter, because it helps to build their confidence and enables them to see their careers more objectively. More organisations need to build it into their processes, to make it the norm within the workplace and to encourage more women and men to become mentors.
Paying it forward by developing others can actually have a pay off in your own career with greater advancement opportunities and higher compensation. Therefore, ladies, use your knowledge, career experiences and understanding of your organisation and industry to develop others, especially women and young girls. By reaching out to mentor a woman or young girl, you can change her life and put everyone’s future in good hands. Not only will it help your organisation or business build a strong talent pipeline, but because when women lead they not only lead businesses, they lead in their community, they fight for their children and they give voice to issues that are important to our collective future, make sense to me. Your investment in helping others will also help your own career, “because paying it forward, pays back”.