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4. Introduce mentoring programs for women
As one senior executive once commented, “I have been coached to death, but I have never been mentored.” This is backed up by research which found that 62% of men had a mentor at the CEO or senior executive level compared to 52% of women.
A good mentor will ideally be a senior executive within the organization who will share their knowledge, experience, and network to help the mentee to navigate their career and clarify their goals. They will also provide sponsorship by opening doors and recommending their mentee for certain assignments that will increase their visibility within the organization. A coach, on the other hand, will focus on the individual’s skills and competencies. By giving women more access to coaching instead of mentoring, an organization may be inadvertently harming their chances of success: having a mentor who is a senior executive increases a person’s chance of promotion and securing a bigger pay bump.
One challenge is that men sometimes feel uncomfortable mentoring women. I once held a workshop on mentoring with a company based here in Switzerland and noticed there was some unease around the topic. The…
