DM Coaching and Development

The Essential Ingredient for Career Development

I liked this article ‘How to find and use a mentor’ from Forbes as it talks about a subject I believe is essential for career women. Susan Adams of Forbes tells the story of how she found her mentor, economist Susan Lee, purely by chance and how when she needed a new job her mentor swung into action. She provided coaching on her career, helped overhaul her CV and connected her to potential employers. The benefits of having a good mentor are hard to overstate for a woman’s career development. In fact an overview of more than 100 mentoring surveys conducted by the East Mentors Forum found that nearly half of all respondents reported that mentoring increased opportunities for career advancement. Many of the best mentoring relationships develop naturally and I suggest that my clients seek both male and females mentors – the gender doesn’t really matter as long as they are genuinely interested in your career development. There are rewards to be gained for those doing the mentoring as well. In my experience, mentoring often gives people a renewed sense of job satisfaction as they pass on their knowledge and nurture their mentee into furthering their career. Mentoring clearly has many benefits from both sides of the fence so I challenge you to either seek out a mentor for yourself or offer your services to mentor a rising star in your organisation.

Are Women Bad Networkers – What’s The Verdict?

This article which originated in the Times has generated something of a backlash in the ‘twitterverse’ and online in general, including this rebuttal by Women Unlimited. As Julie Hall states in the rebuttal article ‘Last Monday, at the Women Unlimited Stepping into Success conference, the buzz was deafening as women were connecting and building new relationships with each other.  In my 10 years of networking, I have never seen this kind of connection and energy at a mixed networking event.’ The Times article points out ‘women are not natural networkers’ and cites this as one of the reasons there aren’t more women in Board positions and Gordon Brown even waded in this week saying companies could be threatened with ‘serious action’ to ensure more women at the top in UK PLCs. However, this all detracts from the argument in question about whether women can or can’t network. One quote caught my eye about women using social networking online, Liz Cable, a social media expert, says: “I think when women hear the phrase ‘social network’, they hear social. Men hear network.” And I think this cuts to the chase of the issue. It isn’t that women can’t network it is just that they do it differently to men, and actually they are probably very ‘natural networkers’. In fact on Blog Radio this morning ‘mumpreneur’ Alli Price, of Motivatingmum network stated that she finds female entrepreneurs very willing to network and help each other out without necessarily requiring financial reward in return.  I dedicate a large section in my book ‘Beyond the Boys Club’ to networking and in the words of PWC’s Janet Davies: ‘Networking is everything. I don’t know a single successful woman who does not have a high quality network of friends and colleagues on which she can rely’ Again I think the emphasis for women here is the friends part – in order to network successfully we women need to build a relationship and feel that this can be a two way street, not that we are just schmoozing for what we can ‘get’ from the connection. The highest growing demographic of online social networks is women over 30 and as my friend Andy Lopata, one of the UK’s leading business networking strategists suggests ‘There is no other route I’m aware of that offers such exposure so efficiently’ and in fact on LinkedIn alone there are over 3000 groups dedicated to women networking. I think this all serves as proof that yes, women CAN network, but maybe we do it in a less formal and hardnosed way than men.

Female Role Models and Mentors – could be the key to more women in science

I was interested in this article about reaching gender equity in science especially because it picks up on an area which I focus on in both my book and during my Beyond The Boys Club Boot Camps - the key factor of having female role models and mentors. The article gives some great examples of women in leadership, working in science and engineering who have become mentors and role models – some of them specifically because they had no role model when they started out. As Geraldine Richmond, a professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, says ‘one of the factors that has inspired more women to pursue scientific careers has been having examples of successful women who have done the same’. Aoife Moloney, a lecturer at the School of Electronic and Communications Engineering at Dublin Institute of Technology says she has always been in the minority and this inspired her to take part in Role Model Day at her institute. She explains "that has been very successful. We invite women engineers working in industry mainly. They talk to second level students about doing engineering.” The good news coming out of this is that the proportion of female graduates in most scientific fields has never been higher. According to findings reported in the NRC's (National Research Council) Gender Differences, although women are underrepresented in the applicant pool for faculty positions in many fields, those who do apply are hired at rates equal to or higher than those for men.

Why office gossip can be good for you

This story in Forbes caught my eye as spending time on water cooler talk is something that I do recommend in my coaching sessions for women. Office gossip isn’t always bad for you, the reality is that many deals are informally agreed and relationships strengthened during this ‘down time’ with colleagues. If you never participate in the banter and the ‘what are you doing this weekend’ type conversations you may not be seen as a team player.  As Donna Eder co-author of the paper "Strategies of Adult Gossip" says, when you aren’t the leader you don’t have as much power to express yourself directly, so a well placed piece of gossip could do the job for you. The professional female needs to learn this social skill and use it to her advantage to create camaraderie particularly if she works in a mostly male dominated environment, where she may be excluded from the golfing and drinking outings.

How to get the recognition you deserve, and take control of your career

As you may know I am a great believer in mentoring and networking and the benefits they can bring to your career. In particular for career women working in a male dominated environment. This is one of the reasons I created my Beyond the Boys Club Boot Camps. Having run the first Boot Camp during January and February I was absolutely delighted with the feedback I received, with Boot Campers saying they ‘couldn’t believe’ the difference the Boot Camp was making to their career, and that was before they had even completed the course! Not only will you get the opportunity to network with the other Boot Campers, I will also teach you some valuable techniques for networking within and outside your organisation to enable you to widen your circle of influence. You will also learn how to raise your profile – something women often find difficult – to get the recognition you deserve. If you are a professional female who really wants to move your career on to the next level take the opportunity now, because this is the last Boot Camp to be offered at the special introductory price. It was such a pleasure to work with the last group of Boot Campers and I am really looking forward to the next group.To find out more and book your place go to Beyond the Boys Club Boot Camp

High Profile Opportunities in the Office - Are they Fair Game or Safely Guarded Secrets?

Interesting, the week after we discussed how to seek profile-raising speaking opportunities on the Beyond the Boys Club Boot Camp, two of the professional women who sought them out reported in their one to one sessions, how they were rebuffed from speaking opportunities where they offered to do them. In both cases, their bosses wanted to keep the chances to present at industry events to themselves - in one instance, even when the boss couldn't attend the event in question! This was the proof that the Boot Campers needed in seeing the high value senior people place on such opportunities ...and how getting them yourself, with a bit of preparation, is one of the surest ways to take your career forward. In both cases, we are looking for ways to work "around" the gatekeeper to get them on side eventually. If this sounds familiar - the next Boot Camp starts on March 12...what would you get out of it? 

An Idea to be "Thankful" for...Women to Mentor Male Bosses at Dell

I'm excited to hear how the the computer company Dell's "reverse mentoring scheme" develops over the next year. In this innovative programme, male senior executives are mentored by female middle managers. As explained in People Management "the reverse mentoring programme, which was piloted for six months in the EMEA region last year, aims to give male bosses an insight into the challenges women face in the workplace, helping more women into senior roles. Participants in the pilot met at least once a month, usually off-site to allow both sides to be more objective. Ingrid Devin, EMEA diversity manager at Dell, told PM they had deliberately chosen male managers who had a good understanding of diversity to take part in the scheme but “even they had a lot more to learn”. “Until you walk in someone else’s shoes you don’t know,” she said. Male managers often presumed all pregnant employees would not want to travel or take on extra responsibility but in fact “what women want is very particular to each woman”, she said. I'll be watching this space as this is one of the most innovative and promising programmes I have seen in a long time...

Join the new European Professional Women's Network in London

Michelle Brailsford, an executive coach and friend is relaunching the EuropeanPWN in London 2009 and there are great opportunities to join and get involved at the ground level, either as a volunteer, new member or even on the board. EuropeanPWN operates in 17 countries with a  mission to promote the professional progress of women through all their career phases.  European PWN-London will be focusing in 2009 on providing multi-cultural and cross-sectoral networking events  and training workshops to showcase diverse models of success. For example, there will be events ranging from Accounting Comes Alive® which teaches women to be financially literate and skilled at using the language of business to Ariadne's Thread: Networking the feminine way and Implementing a Career Lattice:  Building lattices, not career ladders. If you are interested in joining EuropeanPWN, please visit the website above as they are looking for volunteers and board members. 

Mentees from Fresh Ideas Give the Scoop on What Mentoring is Really Like!

Tonight I am facilitating a mentoring competition for Fresh Ideas Events, an organisation dedicated to promoting women in business. In September, they started a fantastic mentoring competition for 10 lucky women who wanted to be mentored by 10 sucessful female entreprenuers. Their only responsibilty? Learn all they could from their mentor and blog about their experiences of going from 0 to 60 with their business ideas and what it was really like to be mentored by a successful woman. You can read more about thier experiences at  http://freshideasevents.com/mentorcomp_ It really was a fantastic competition and one I would have loved to enter myself! Maybe next year.....

Men at Work - Friend or Foe?

I was at a networking event recently and that perennial question of whether it was best to work amongst an all-women or all-men team reared it's ugly little head. I personally think a mixed team is best and know that is the individual players within the team, male or female, that make the difference to how they work together. It reminded me of how when I work with many women's group's, I am ultimately working in the realm of self-belief and confidence - which is the real issue for most women. For many women in male dominated fields, the "men" issue is a red herring. Blaming men as a group for gender inequalities in the workplace (as well as in the home!) is not going to get us any further in our careers - and may blind us to potenial support. As Betty Friedan, of the Feminine Mystique said when addressing a group of professional women "The enemy isn't men. The real enemy is women's denigration of themselves." Which men have been supportive of your career?