Our Mentors
Our Mentors are women executives drawn from the private sector, government, media or civil society. They share with their mentees advice and guidance, over time helping them to build critical communications, advocacy and business skills, and to develop strategies for advancing their work and positively impacting their communities.
Our Mentees
Our Mentees lead for-profit companies, social enterprises or non-profit organizations. They seek to gain new knowledge, experience and influence from more experienced business women in order to better develop their businesses and the local community.
Matching
Our matching process is designed to foster a successful mentor/mentee relationship. Each mentee brings a unique set of values and experiences to the program. Her leadership style is informed by varying cultural, economic and political realities. These differences are what make our program strong.
We find that regardless of business type or country of origin, our mentees are united by a set of common elements that are missing in their leadership and career growth.
Matching:
Our matching process is designed to foster a successful mentor/mentee relationship. Each mentee brings a unique set of values and experiences to the program. Her leadership style is informed by varying cultural, economic and political realities. These differences are what make our program strong. We find that regardless of business type or country of origin, our mentees are united by a set of common elements that are missing in their leadership and career growth.
We address these missing elements through our unique mentorship approach. Through in-depth interviews before each program, we align a mentee’s particular business challenge to a Mentor’s area of expertise. Our pre-trip assessments often reveal knowledge gaps or core competencies undisclosed in application materials or company bios. This tailored matching takes time and analysis, and we rarely pair two people from similar industries.
We address these missing elements through our unique mentorship approach. Through in-depth interviews before each program, we align a mentee’s particular business challenge to a Mentor’s area of expertise. Our pre-trip assessments often reveal knowledge gaps or core competencies undisclosed in application materials or company bios. This tailored matching takes time and analysis, and we rarely pair two people from similar industries.
Our mentorship model:
- One-on-one, group and peer mentoring provides an ecosystem of support and a “safe space” for learning and connecting.
- Business skills training led by experts incorporates strategic planning, financial management, human resource management, marketing and communications.
- Leadership, personal development and goal-setting sessions provide mentees with tools they need to thrive both at work and at home.
Mentoring relationships have the power and capacity to transform society. Relationships that extend over time and across geographies and industries — along with the profoundly transformative exchange of knowledge, ideas, data and perspectives — create a systemic and deep talent pool of women leaders that drives economic growth and social progress.
HOW WE LEARN
Our monitoring and evaluation methodology tracks progress through quarterly surveys that gauge:
- Organizational growth — sales, workforce and indirect beneficiaries
- Progress on SMART goals set during the program
- Organizational leadership progress
- Ongoing mentoring relationships and new contacts made.
During the Mentoring Program week, mentees build new and solid or enhance existing business plans, gain technical knowledge and develop leadership skills and connections that are needed to strengthen their businesses or social enterprises. They return home with a strong desire to pay forward the investment made in them to the next generation. They do this by leading initiatives such as the creation of local mentoring programs, and the mobilization of networks of entrepreneurs to call for better business climates for women. In some cases, mentees have gone on to participate in or serve as trainers for other World Woman programs.
World Woman Mentoring Programs are enriched and inspired through the sharing of experience and expertise with women leaders from around the world.
They learn about international business practices and develop new friendships and alliances with one another. Each Mentors says that she learns more from her mentee than she was able to teach. They appreciate the tailor-made and structured opportunity to give back in a safe environment where their mentees literally blossom before their eyes within the week that they spend together.