As we celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March, we reflect on whether women and men approach mentoring differently and whether they receive different results.
According to the recently published Government backed FTSE women leaders review, the proportion of women in board roles in Britain’s biggest listed companies has risen above 40% for the first time; with only 10 of the UK’s 350 largest listed companies still having all-male executive teams. However, this review also found that UK companies were failing to appoint women to leadership positions below board level at the same rate, with only 33.5% of executive committee or their direct reports being women. In the top 50 private companies, analysed for the first time this year, the proportion of women in non-board leadership roles was slightly higher, at 34.3%.
In 2010, the Harvard Business Review undertook detailed research into why men were promoted more than women, even when they were both on mentor programmes. The conclusion was that not all mentoring programmes are equal! The researchers found that it was more likely that the men were “sponsored” rather than “mentored” – ie. the mentor would focus the mentee on improving their profile with their senior managers and would make introductions to the mentee to further their careers. In comparison, the mentors of the women were more focused on how the women could develop their skills and experience.
These conclusions raise more questions than they answer. What we don’t know is if the women’s mentoring objective was to secure promotions or did the women tend to focus on their self-development rather than promotion. We also don’t know the genders of the mentors and whether that had any bearing on the results.
Although this research raises lots of questions, a key lesson that it highlights, is that mentoring can have a powerful impact on a person’s development, skills, experience, confidence and can also lead to promotion. Furthermore, it is essential that mentees set out their objectives from the outset.
Whilst we celebrate International Women’s Day, we should also consider the benefits of women as mentors. A great mentor will demonstrate strong communication, listening and interpersonal skills, as well as being inspiring and trustworthy. In a research piece during the COVID19 pandemic, the Harvard Business Review reported that “women were rated significantly more positively than men” in terms of their leadership competences, scoring much higher on: “inspires and motivates”, “communicates powerfully”, “collaboration/teamwork” and “relationship building”.
A natural conclusion from this research could be that women should seek out female mentors. However, there are a number of benefits to women seeking male mentors:
- Firstly it enables a female mentee to see themselves through a different lens, enabling them to receive valuable feedback about how others perceive them.
- Secondly it can quite simply be a numbers game – generally with more men in senior leadership roles it can be easier to identify a male mentor.
- Thirdly, exchanging gender perspectives can enhance inclusion – and this is the same whether the woman is the mentee and the man is the mentor, and vice-versa. Mentoring is often looked at as the receiving of input and wisdom from a sage. But in developing the mentoring relationship, the mentor also benefits from the perspective and experience of the mentee. This cross-gender mentor relationship can help the mentor and mentee learn to communicate with and relate to the opposite sex. In addition where the woman is the mentee and the man is the mentor, there is an opportunity to expose male leaders to the challenges women face in the workforce. That, in turn, helps make them better, more empathetic leaders.
Ultimately the gender of the mentor and mentee should not matter. What does matter, is the rapport between the mentor and mentee, the setting out of clear objectives and expectations at the start of the mentoring journey, and ensuring that the mentor and mentee trust and respect one another.
NAHT’s Mentoring Scheme
A leader’s career can be a long, winding road, so we want to support this community the best way we can. One such way is by facilitating contact between leaders at various stages of their career allowing them to share best practice and invaluable guidance. By working together and tapping into all this knowledge we can make education the best it can be.
This platform provides a space for school leaders to share and gain knowledge that will benefit those starting their leadership journey as well as seasoned leaders.
For mentees, it’s a great way to build on areas that you’re less familiar with or that are completely new to you, and in turn build a strong working mentor relationship that’ll inspire you. For mentors, it’s a chance to give back and help strengthen the profession by sharing your experience and knowledge.