How Coaching & Mentoring enables women to reach their potential in the workplace

If 1% of the workforce in Australia transferred to jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), $57.4 billion would be added to the country’s GDP, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Part of this workforce is of course, women. To strengthen the country’s economy, women should be encouraged to pursue STEM careers, industries that have traditionally been dominated by men. Mentoring can assist in turning the situation around and enable women to thrive in STEM careers – or any other career for that matter.

Coaching and Mentoring involves establishing a relationship with someone who is more experienced in their career or in their business to gain advice and insights on professional and personal development. The relationship can either be formal through organisations providing structure for interaction; or mentoring can be informal, where the mentor and mentee exchange experiences over a coffee or lunch meeting. Finding a good mentor before entering the workplace can be beneficial for young women because it can teach them the fundamentals of the professional world. It can also orient women on how to handle workplace politics and how to create networks to aid them in their career advancement.

Coaching and Mentoring can equip women with skills to negotiate their salary, promote their own achievements and pursue leadership opportunities. This is especially important, as women tend to downplay their achievements and have lower confidence levels than men. Aside from this, coaching and mentoring can also provide women with positive feedback and moral support whenever they are facing challenges in their work. It can help boost their confidence, as well as show them areas for improvement in order to maximise their potential in their chosen career.

Female Mentors and Coaches can offer more to women’s career advancement

Though a Coach and Mentor can either be male or female, a female Mentor and Coach can assist in helping young women thrive in their career. A female Mentor/Coach serves as a role model. A female Coach and Mentor occupying a position of power can build up the confidence of a young, female employee and demonstrate to her that climbing the corporate ladder is possible.

In general, female Coaches and Mentors can help women find the delicate balance between work and outside work, especially if they have children. They understand how emotional intelligence and logic plays into a woman’s decision-making process, and can provide advice and their support accordingly. Furthermore, female Coaches and Mentors are more likely to use their intuition to encourage women to open up about their personal and professional challenges and how to address them.

Female Coaches and Mentors can also help women advance in their career through sponsorship. Female Coaches and Mentors that hold leadership positions in organisations can serve as testimonies regarding the potential of women. They can build the case for companies on promoting women whenever they agree to sponsor women and speak up on their behalf regarding their skills and achievements. This is powerful for women to help cultivate gender equality in the corporate world.

behind closed doors offers peer group coaching and mentoring, face to face and/or online, helping support and connect women nationally through their extensive networks.

I would be keen to hear about your mentoring and coaching experiences and whether you have engaged internal and external sponsors.

Warmly, Donny - behind closed doors, Managing Director