Teaching Men How to Mentor Women

Source: Bowman FirstAlert

Bowman reports on a Wall Street Journal article on this subject.

There aren’t enough women in leadership roles to help other women become leaders. But men aren’t confident they can mentor women. Ernst & Young is asking men to assign women to large, complex accounts and to coach them in taking leadership roles in those accounts. They should take women to client meetings early in their careers. Young male staffers are more likely to ask to be taken.

Men are being told not to:

• Be reluctant about telling a woman she must dress more professionally.
• React negatively to a woman’s announcement that she is expecting a child. Rather than focus on the difficulty in managing both a career and a child, men should offer help.
• Fear that a woman will cry when criticized. Just relax and give her some tissues—the crying will pass quickly.
• Sugarcoat constructive criticism.
• Assume a woman will decline a transfer (say to a location where she can become a partner) because of her husband’s job. Sometimes husbands can transfer too.

For the complete WSJ article, click here.

From Bowman FirstAlert, the Bowman Accounting Report, Vol. IV No.13, Bowman Communications, 323 Wilcrest Drive SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30044-5253, 770-972-0783.