For some time, mentoring programs have become an effective means of building the capacity of women in business. Many established executives or entrepreneurs—male and female—have valuable information to share about how to excel in the workplace, and companies have found a variety of ways to bring mentors and protégés together.
ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical Company and Kean Miller are among the local companies that feature mentoring programs for women, the purpose of which is to provide support to recruits in fields traditionally dominated by men. Mentoring programs also have long existed in fields where women have gravitated in large numbers, like nursing and teaching. Furthermore, a growing number of entrepreneurship programs are aimed at helping women build the skills required to launch and grow new businesses.
Mentoring programs take many forms, but researchers suggest that participants should approach signing up with caveat emptor awareness. Consider what you’re looking to learn or improve, and then search for quality opportunities that have the best chance of filling the need. Not every mentor-protégé relationship is successful, and you’re not confined to your own company when seeking one out.
In a study entitled Mentoring in the Business Environment and published by the National Women’s Business Council in 2003, researchers pointed out the stage of the entrepreneur or businesswoman affects the type of program best suited to help her advance.
There are three types. Peer-to-peer mentoring involves colleagues who can effectively push each other to excel and who can share best practices. A mentor-protégé relationship helps accelerate the productivity of less-experienced colleagues through one-on-one conversations. And entrepreneurship training is designed to help would-be business owners execute a new venture, either in a group format or through one-on-one counseling.
The study also pointed out the importance of e-mentoring or telementoring, a field that has grown substantially and presents convenient opportunities to gain and give feedback. For example, MentorNet [mentornet.net] is a site devoted to increasing diversity in engineering and the sciences that links mentors and protégés. Participants are both male and female. The National Women’s Business Council Web site [nwbc.gov] lists dozens of entrepreneurship mentoring programs as well.
As more women climb the management chain, and a flurry of female college graduates enter a cross section of fields, more mentors—male and female—are needed to pass on institutional knowledge and personal experiences. For those with the capacity to serve, it’s a good time to participate as a mentor, in person or through an e-mentor site.
LSU to host workshop
On Saturday, Aug. 22, LSU’s Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute will host a daylong workshop to help women who are thinking about launching a new business understand the steps necessary to get it off the ground. SEI Associate Director Carol A. Carter says the event will feature a series of local speakers to address topics like how to generate business ideas, how to write a business plan, marketing on a shoestring, understanding legal issues, how to set up financial recordkeeping, how to balance family and new business issues, and how to appreciate the banker’s point of view.
Carter says topics have been shaped according to feedback gleaned from focus groups, which have revealed that many women who start or own small businesses wish they had better training in general business, marketing, management or finance. They also want to understand how to navigate financial institutions. SEI’s purpose is to increase the entrepreneurial energy of Louisiana.
The workshop will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Ione Burden Conference Center, 4650 Essen Ln. The cost is $65 and includes lunch. Registration starts at 8 a.m. For more information, visit sei.lsu.edu or call 578-6411.
