The following is one of several articles previewing BizWomen Mentoring Monday, a Feb. 24 program for women professionals in Northeast Ohio that is presented by Advance Ohio, including The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com. See below for event details.
The road to finding a trusted mentor is paved with cold calls and cups of coffee. At least that was the case for Stacy Cassio.
Two years ago, Cassio was working as a manager at a mostly male manufacturing firm in Charlotte, North Carolina, and searching for an experienced female leader to learn from. Local businesswomen would agree to meet her for coffee, but often the connection fizzled there.
“It was very hard to get to the point where the relationship was one where they would share their whole career journey with me,” Cassio said. “I wanted the bad stuff as much as I wanted the good stuff. I wanted the meat that I could learn from.”
Studies show workers who receive mentorship are higher paid and get promoted more. Successful businesspeople can often name several mentors who helped them in their careers. But for women, finding and connecting with a mentor can be tough.
Older men still dominate the c-suite and are more apt to take young men under their wing. Many women worry that asking for help could be perceived as a weakness. The challenges are heightened for women of color, who often find themselves the only minority in the room.
But mentoring is getting a reboot as companies invest in diversifying their ranks and more women break into top leadership. The #MeToo movement has underscored the need to support women at work, and female mentor networks are springing up in cities nationwide.
Cassio, who turned her experience into Pink Mentor Network, a platform that connects women online and in person, said women like herself are also rethinking their approach. Cassio urges women to seek several different mentors to help them learn and grow, rather than a single person to solve all problems.
“Women tend to look for mentorship when they’re already in pain,” Cassio said. “We don’t look at it as a way to get to what’s next.”
Mentors help boost careers
A growing body of research suggests a mentor can catapult a career. Studies show women who have a mentor get more promotions, achieve higher pay and report being happier with their jobs. A 2015 report from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley found that women gained more social capital than men did from a connection with a high-status mentor. Still, a 2016 survey by Accountemps, a division of Robert Half, a global human resource consulting firm, found that while 33% of men had mentors, only 18% of women did.
What gives? Mentoring has been around for decades, but most of it has been informal and organic. In the past, that meant mostly white male executives mentoring mostly white junior men, said W. Brad Johnson, mentoring expert and co-author of “Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women.”
“Women and minorities are more likely to drop through the cracks, especially if you have more men in leadership,” Johnson said. “It’s human psychology. We tend to gravitate toward mentoring people that look like us and that we’re comfortable with.”
Marcia V. Moreno is president of AmMore, a company she started to help employers “create strategies to attract, recruit and retain Latinx talent” in Greater Cleveland. She said it’s understandable why Hispanics and other people of color would want a mentor from a similar background. Moreno, a native of Chile, said her mentor is also a Latina immigrant.
“I have found that, for me, it's easier to connect with someone that is more like me and has navigated the system before,” Moreno said. “But how many Latina women are there that are out there that can show them [other Latinas] the way?”
So, she said, it is probable that Latinas will end up with a mentor of another ethnic background or gender.
“The connection is only going to work with someone when that person is very empathetic to the experiences of a woman or someone from a different background,” Moreno said.
Programs are evolving
Mentorship is evolving. Mentor relationships are placing more emphasis on personal development. There’s growing recognition that people require many mentors over a career, and that mentors have as much to gain as mentees, Johnson said.
Learning from a mentor’s “past successes and failures” is invaluable, said Alan Reisinger, regional vice president of Robert Half in Cleveland. Meanwhile, “mentors can benefit from mentees by learning about business issues from a fresh perspective,” he said.
Structured mentoring programs are also helping chip away at gender and racial lines.
“It takes a village to build a career,” explained Sherry Sims, founder of the Black Career Women’s Network, and assembling that village can be intimidating, particularly if you happen to be the lone minority woman in your workplace. Mentor programs offer a safe space for women to form connections.
“That’s really a big thing for women, I don’t care what color you are,” Sims said. “It’s all about finding a place that lets you know you’re not alone in this journey.”
While many companies have mentoring programs, they often fall short because employers don’t put enough thought into matching mentees with the right mentors, Moreno said.
“They tend to just match this person with that person, and that's it,” she said. “A year goes by and, maybe, they ask how it's going.”
Moreno remembers participating in such a program, in which she was paired with a mentor with which “she never really truly connected the way that I should have.”
Reisinger offers this advice to mentees: “Choose someone that has a positive attitude, time to commit to the relationship and is honest with advice. Foster the relationship by establishing contact at a frequency that works for both, being prepared for any meeting and showing appreciation for their time and advice.”
Margo Reda, director of OhioMeansJobs Geauga County/Geauga County Job and Family Services, suggests developing “professional relationships both inside your organization, as well as outside your organization; eventually you’ll have a network of professionals who will advocate for you as your career develops.
“At the same time, be generous with your time and talents — volunteer for a meaningful cause, lead a group of young people, or help your neighbors when they need a hand,” she said.
Experts say successful mentor programs emphasize matches based on personality, skill sets and goals, rather than age or job title. They train both mentors and mentees, and help set ground rules like how often pairs will meet.
Most importantly, the relationships have to be confidential, said Rene Petrin, an adviser at Mentoring Complete. Mentees, especially women, have to feel comfortable talking openly, Petrin said.
“It is a very private relationship, which is what makes it so powerful,” he said.
This year, 700 people will participate in the Bacardi Women in Leadership Initiative mentor program. Chio Zubiria, a senior director at Bacardi North America, said the need for the program was clear after an internal review found qualified women weren’t even applying for leadership positions. Zubiria and other female executives lobbied company leadership for a structured program, and it launched in 2013.
“We saw a need to really work on the development side,” Zubiria said.
Today, a technology platform matches employees companywide who have complementing personalities and goals. Participating mentors are half male and half female, and relationships span departments and, in some cases, the world.
Jenn Labin, chief talent and diversity officer at MentorcliQ, a mentoring software firm that counts Bacardi among its clients, said technology, from software to social media, is helping tear down the barriers that prevent women from accessing mentors.
“Mentors aren’t limited to the people who sit around them or the people they happen to see out at happy hour, which has been the problem historically for women,” Labin said.
Addressing #MeToo
Still, challenges remain. Nearly 60% of male managers say they are uncomfortable mentoring women in the #MeToo era, according to a June 2019 survey by LeanIn.org. Meanwhile, female leaders, especially women of color, are flooded with mentoring requests and risk burnout.
Women can counter #MeToo hesitancy by suggesting to meet men in public places and being transparent about their goals, but the bottom line is men need to do better, Johnson said.
“This is a man problem,” he said.
Some firms are doubling down on mentoring in response. Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas prioritized a mentor program for women in leadership in June 2018 following a #MeToo scandal that embroiled its former CEO and other top executives.
Chris Flatt, one of the female executives who helped steer the initiative, said the program allows men and women to talk about career goals as well as what makes a workplace safe and healthy. Thirty-two women have been mentored so far, and five of the 13 in the first cohort have gone on to receive promotions.
“You can’t not do it. You have to bring people together,” Flatt said.
Labin, with MentorcliQ, urges women to speak up. Know your goals and ask helpful people to be in your corner, she said.
“Put yourself out there,” Labin said. “It’s career-changing.”
Plain Dealer reporter Olivera Perkins contributed to this story. Contact Jennifer Larino at jenlarino@gmail.com.
TIPS FOR FINDING A MENTOR:
· Be specific. Instead of asking to meet for coffee, ask for 15 minutes on the phone to talk about two specific questions you have. Make sure to specify what about that person’s expertise is valuable to you.
· Set ground rules. How often should you meet and where? Is it OK to call with questions? What about email or text? Lay out your expectations for the relationship early and often.
· Broaden your horizons. The right mentor for you could be the same age as you or in a different industry. Mid- and late-career? A younger mentor can help you stay on top of industry trends.
ABOUT BIZWOMEN MENTORING MONDAY
What: A one-day mentoring program bringing together area women professionals and businesswomen seeking their insights. Presented locally by Advance Ohio, including The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com. For the event schedule and a list of mentors, go to https://www.advance-ohio.com/mentoring-monday-mentors/.
Where: Cuyahoga Community College Metropolitan Campus, 2900 Community College Ave., Metro Campus Center, Room (MCC) 201.
When: 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.; registration begins at 8 a.m.
Tickets: $45; ticket bundle is $360 (buy eight tickets, get two free). Cost includes a light breakfast. The deadline to purchase tickets is Sunday; go to events.cleveland.com/e/mentoring-monday.
More coverage: Join a Facebook Live event at 9 a.m. Monday at facebook.com/clevelandcom, and look for a special print section in this Sunday’s Plain Dealer.
Previous Mentoring Monday stories:
Workplace mentorship can take many forms, says Cleveland Leadership Center’s Marianne Crosley
See tour of Fount’s leather workshop and handbags and get details on Mentoring Monday event
Summit aims to keep women professionals from falling through the cracks