Connie Askin
Updated: May 27, 2024
Viewpoint
Viewpoint: Why women mentors should pick male mentees
By Connie Askin
I often read about why men should be gender-blind in picking mentees and how it’s important for women to find male mentors to help them climb the corporate ladder.
Frankly, there should be more focus on female mentors with male mentees.
Workplace mentoring is sometimes posed as a very direct and simple value proposition: Increase your visibility with leadership, expand your professional network, or receive situational coaching.
One level deeper, a more profound set of benefits exist:
• Increase your self-awareness and self-confidence;
• Reduce anxiety;
• Practice your communication skills with people who have different perspectives;
• Develop the art of seeking and receiving feedback.
A female mentor may both wield these skills differently than men and may be more likely to invest in their mentee’s development.
A study of 500 subjects – aptly named, “The Relationship between Mentee-Mentor Gender Combination and the Provision of Distinct Mentoring Functions” – published In Women in Management Review found: “Female mentors provided personal and emotional guidance to a greater extent than male mentors; female mentors provided career development facilitation to a greater extent than male mentors.”
Interestingly, the mentor experience was neutral: “As far as mentors were concerned, there were no significant differences in the functions provided to female and male mentees.”
A female mentor’s lived experience can provide an important viewpoint on how to decode the politics and culture of a workplace.
She can offer insights to your effectiveness as a listener, test your level of inclusiveness in a marketing plan, or spark an a-ha moment about how your customer base behaves.
Of course, male mentors are important, too. The point is in our post-COVID world, where everything is in a state of flux, seeking out diverse perspectives leads to better decision-making and more resilience.
So men, if you are seeking personal as well as professional growth, ask a woman to be your mentor.
Connie Askin is CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Mass & MetroWest.
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