“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself,” Oprah Winfrey famously said after being mentored by the renowned poet Maya Angelou, who inspired her to become the media mogul she is.
Just as every new sapling needs support to grow, so all of us need a mentor who can provide guidance, support and encouragement in our careers. None more so than women.
“Women can accomplish amazing things when we support each other,” says Sheryl Sandberg, former Chief Operating Officer of Meta and author of the best seller Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. “The more women help one another, the more we help ourselves. Acting like a coalition truly does produce results.”
But progress is slow. Only one in three top management executives, (sometimes called C-suite executives) are women, and even less are women of colour, according to the 2024 Women in the Workplace study, the largest comprehensive initiative looking at the state of women in corporate America, published annually by McKinsey and LeanIn.org.
The research shows that men naturally gravitate to mentoring other men who they connect with more easily; and because there are more men in senior executive positions, women do not get the helping hands up that they need. More mentoring programmes for women are essential.
Sandberg’s foundation supports more than 35,000 female networking groups called LeanIn Circles in 160 countries. The initiative has helped shift the dial from 17 percent of women in C-suite positions in 2015 to 29 percent in 2024. But it is not enough.
“Scientific studies have consistently shown that on the most key traits that make leaders more effective, women tend to outperform men. For example, humility, self-awareness, self-control, moral sensitivity, social skills, emotional intelligence, kindness, a prosocial and moral orientation are more likely to be found in women than men,” says organisational psychologist Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of business psychology at University College London and author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (Harvard Business Review Press).
“Women also outperform men in educational settings, while men score higher than women on dark side personality traits, such as aggression, narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, which account for much of the toxic and destructive behaviours displayed by powerful men.”
It’s time for things to change.
HOW TO FIND A MENTOR IN BUSINESS
Ask good questions in the workplace. Sometimes you can stand out by simply asking well-thought-out queries.
Demonstrate your usefulness and problem solve. A potential mentor will be interested in how you can help them.
Join women’s networking groups.
Consider the Women Love Tech Mentoring Programme.
Remember that mentors don’t have to be other women. They can also be men. And they don’t have to be more senior to you either. Peer support can be invaluable.
Be coachable, trustworthy, and prepared to listen.
Remember to pay it forward. Help those who are more junior behind you coming up. That’s how it works.
