By Olivera Perkins
The Plain Dealer
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) “Mentoring Monday” is taking place across the country next week. Olivera Perkins of the Cleveland Plain Dealer shares how women in Cleveland will be celebrating. #FindYourMentor
CLEVELAND, Ohio
A mentor can boost a professional woman’s career by providing guidance, encouragement and valuable connections. But research shows most women don’t have mentors.
Mentoring Monday seeks to make a step toward changing this. The event, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Feb. 24, will pair “women leaders with businesswomen seeking insight.”
The program, which is presented by The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com, will take place at the Cuyahoga Community College Metropolitan Campus, 2900 Community College Ave., Cleveland.
Mentoring Monday is a one-day, national event in which women in Cleveland will join an estimated 8,600 attendees and 1,700 mentors in similar gatherings.
For information about the Cleveland event and to buy tickets, go to events.cleveland.com/e/mentoring-monday. Tickets are $45, which includes a light breakfast.
Mentors can especially help women’s careers, research shows. For example, a 2015 report from the University of California Haas School of Business found women benefited more than their male counterparts from the support of a highly placed mentor by “experiencing a greater increase in visibility and legitimacy.”
A 2014 international survey by Development Dimensions International, or DDI, a global human resources consulting firm, found that nearly two-thirds of businesswomen never had a mentor, though about the same percentage of them said mentoring was critical to career success.
Jill Rizika, executive director of Towards Employment, which is focused on job training and placement for people with barriers to employment, agrees having a mentor is critical. She offers this advice in seeking out a mentor:
“Embrace your passion in deciding on your direction — then be open to following the data when identifying strategies and solutions and seek out collaborators who share your values,” she said. “As the saying goes: if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.”
Mentoring Monday attendees will have the opportunity to interact with women mentors from diverse career backgrounds, including business, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), the nonprofit sector and higher education as well as entrepreneurs. The program will include one-on-one speed coaching, three or four short conversations with different mentors and group sessions.
Sue Workman, vice president for university technology and chief information officer at Case Western Reserve University, is among the confirmed mentors attending. Workman has published in industry and higher education journals and speaks on topics including leadership, the change process, team-building and strategic planning.
She offers this advice to women wanting to succeed in the workplace:
“Be present,” Workman said. “Act with intention. Do your best every day. Finish projects early. Treat people with kindness and compassion, and have a bit of fun along the way.”
The following is a partial list of confirmed mentors for Mentoring Monday in Cleveland. For more, go to events.cleveland.com/e/mentoring-monday.
___
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
