Peer-Mentoring for Women in Business Jackson MI

Leslie Grossman is cofounder of the Women’s Leadership Exchange with Andrea March. Their group holds conferences around the country, reaching thousands of women business owners in the million-dollars-plus revenue level. Leslie talks about the value of peer mentoring and how it can evolve: “My first real experience with mentoring was peer-to-peer mentoring as part of an organized, all-female leads group at New York University. Even after that group disbanded we stayed connected. Later one of the women from the original group informally mentored me through the dot-com crash by generously sharing her survival strategies.” Informal peer mentors don’t always come through professional organizations. Sometimes they come from unexpected places. Jane Blalock is the owner of a multi-million-dollar company and president of the LPGA’s Senior Women’s Golf Tour. And she found her mentor through the mailman! “When I started my business it was a woman who helped me, an outplacement person,” she says. “The mailman in my office building knew that this other woman was a golfer, and she had an office in the same building, so he said I should meet her. For a year we met once a week for lunch. And she was a perfect business coach to help me.

These are the most common mentoring relationships since they evolve naturally in the course of business. There are sometimes limitations, particularly in a large corporation, where your immediate report might not have enough leverage to boost your visibility with senior people. You might also find it hard to be entirely honest with your boss about troubling issues. But with the right personality mix and range of opportunities, a mentor/boss can be optimal, providing you a chance to hone your skills on a daily basis and graduate to bigger projects quickly. If you’re in a larger organization, having a senior boss as a mentor sometimes defers advantages over having your immediate report in that role. First, someone higher up may have more clout in supporting your projects and more venues to increase your visibility. Secondly, in case your boss is unfair—doesn’t give you credit for your ideas, undermines your efforts, or holds you back—you have somewhere to turn. But beware that you always have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of going outside the chain of authority

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