How Mentoring can benefit Women in Leadership

This week we celebrated International Women’s Day and brought into focus the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles. What could organisations be doing more of to support women into leadership roles?  

The evidence shows that women are underrepresented among managers, directors and senior positions. While female representation in the overall workforce stands at just over 47 per cent, this proportion falls to 32 per cent of managers and other senior staff. According to forecasting from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, the picture does not improve when looking to the future. While management as a profession is set to grow substantially, men are set to “get the lion’s share” of new management roles.

The Business Case for Women in Leadership Roles

Research has shown time and time again that having women at the top is good business sense:

• Having larger percentages of women in an organisation predicts greater job satisfaction, higher levels of employee engagement, and decreased rates of burnout — for all workers, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, or leadership level.
• Gender diversity within the leadership team benefits the organisation by increasing employee retention and employee engagement
• Having more women in senior leadership roles, particularly within the C-suite, will likely help female employees across the company develop more favourable perceptions about their career opportunities.
• Talented women are more likely to be attracted to an organisation, and stay with that organisation, if it can demonstrate parity across all levels and will invest in their career progression
• Mentoring has a ripple effect, it not only changes the individual it changes the culture
• When women who were mentored step into leadership roles, they can mentor younger women, continuing the success lifecycle. This builds their networks further and promotes continuous gender diversity within the organisation.

Mentoring, first and foremost, retains women at work

To improve representation in leadership roles, we must “feed the pyramid” – make sure that there are more women at every level of employment to eventually ensure there are more candidates for the top roles. It was suggested by Tom Schuller – as one of his five ‘Paula Principle factors’ – that, even in the face of major constraints, women exercise choice in deciding not to go for promotions for which they are well qualified. Women often lack the self-confidence to put themselves forward for a job, even when qualified. Mentoring can change this.

Development opportunities such as mentoring have been proven to be highly successful in helping women build the confidence and skills needed to realise their potential and step up and succeed in a leadership role.

• In many cases women lack the vertical connections with senior employees who can help them with progress. Mentoring and sponsorship can help break down these barriers.
• Mentoring can change the perception many women develop when their leaders do not recognise their talent
• More frequent feedback and recognition from a mentor will boost confidence and help women advance into leadership positions.
• Participating in a mentoring program can give some women a much-needed push in the right direction.
• Mentoring can also be hugely valuable for new starters within organisations, especially shaping young women’s early experiences of work
• Mentoring can help gain access to network groups which are going to be good for career progression
• Mentoring can give women the support, skill and encouragement required to bridge the huge gap between board and interim levels
• It can also add real value to employers by giving women the skills and confidence needed to realise their potential
• Mentoring can encourage more women to actually enter the talent pipeline in order to build a stronger internal pool of female employees to further grow and develop
• Women in leadership roles to be encouraged to mentor existing female talents in the organisation
• Being part of a mentoring relationship can help to hold women accountable to their personal goals. It helps make career development easier and more achievable.
• The mentor can help women set goals and track their progress 

How I can help…

If you would like to explore mentoring in your organisation and how it can work for you and your staff, then please get in touch. Together we can identify what you want to achieve from a mentoring programme and how to go about achieving it.

I have put together an e-guide on Introducing a Mentoring Programme in your organisation, if you would like a copy, you can download it HERE

More information is available at: www.fptrainingltd.co.uk or email me at: fiona.porter@fptrainingltd.co.uk or call me on: (+44) 07711 967649