Great post- Kathryn of WANBAM here. I would be very happy to share insights on what I have found has and hasn’t worked with mentorship projects with anyone considering exploring this area. We have provided similar insights to emerging mentorship programs over the last 6 months or so. You can find me at <eamentorshipprogram@gmail.com>. Thank you.
Hey Kathryn, this is a bit off-topic, but I was wondering what that impostor syndrome training is that Michelle mentions in the post. Asking here because I imagine more people might be interested in this.
Thanks! I’d also love to see any tips you could share here for what has / hasn’t worked. I imagine a lot of us do informal mentoring (eg my workplace has an internal cross-team mentoring program), and so would be interested in these.
When we calm down a bit post the launch of Round 3, I will do a deep dive into our feedback and make a mini-post for the Forum. I think we are seeing some emerging themes after 2 rounds: Peer-to-peer seems to be surprisingly helpful and highly rated, accountability/encouragement to apply for opportunities when job-seeking is potentially very useful and high-impact for excellent hires who may struggle with their confidence when applying to highly regarded orgs, having an optional structure seems good to ensure engagements don’t fizzle off due to social awkwardness, but one-offs can also be the best tool in certain cases, a diversity of activities (mentoring, ice-breakers, peer-to-peer, training) appears to make both mentors and mentees happier and more engaged, mentoring seems better when approached as a community-building exercise not just a way to facilitate a 1-1 engagement, individual mentor and mentee experience matters a lot, if you reach 1 excellent person and they have an excellent experience and tell 5 other excellent people you reach communities you wouldn’t otherwise necessarily reach through marketing or whatever, be super clear who you are serving and listen to them, make sure they feel welcome and heard because even the best-intentioned plans have blind spots :) The list goes on but those are my top lessons learnt so far.
Chi: We used an external trainer but I think we should make our own materials on Imposter Syndrome and I am hoping to get more bandwidth to do so with help. I have my eyes on some potential partners for this but it’s all about time right now. With that said, I think there is impact gold if we could do this and do it well because I see confidence as a huge bottleneck right now! Big thanks to both.
Thanks for the reply! I was initially just self-interestedly wondering which training you got and whether you would recommend it. But I am also happy to hear about your plans in that direction.
Given the time constraints, do you think there any other people for whom it would make sense to take the lead regarding this that you are not yet in touch with about this, (e.g. a specific type of person rather than specific individuals.) And if so, which traits would that person need?
You already mentioned that you want to work on it with help anyway, and I can imagine that it doesn’t make sense for any other person to take this up right now given your expertise. Still wanted to ask if you think there are any sensible versions that would involve you less and would be feasible time-wise because I also think this is a majorly important topic and would love to see something happen.
Great post- Kathryn of WANBAM here. I would be very happy to share insights on what I have found has and hasn’t worked with mentorship projects with anyone considering exploring this area. We have provided similar insights to emerging mentorship programs over the last 6 months or so. You can find me at <eamentorshipprogram@gmail.com>. Thank you.
Hey Kathryn, this is a bit off-topic, but I was wondering what that impostor syndrome training is that Michelle mentions in the post. Asking here because I imagine more people might be interested in this.
Thanks! I’d also love to see any tips you could share here for what has / hasn’t worked. I imagine a lot of us do informal mentoring (eg my workplace has an internal cross-team mentoring program), and so would be interested in these.
When we calm down a bit post the launch of Round 3, I will do a deep dive into our feedback and make a mini-post for the Forum. I think we are seeing some emerging themes after 2 rounds: Peer-to-peer seems to be surprisingly helpful and highly rated, accountability/encouragement to apply for opportunities when job-seeking is potentially very useful and high-impact for excellent hires who may struggle with their confidence when applying to highly regarded orgs, having an optional structure seems good to ensure engagements don’t fizzle off due to social awkwardness, but one-offs can also be the best tool in certain cases, a diversity of activities (mentoring, ice-breakers, peer-to-peer, training) appears to make both mentors and mentees happier and more engaged, mentoring seems better when approached as a community-building exercise not just a way to facilitate a 1-1 engagement, individual mentor and mentee experience matters a lot, if you reach 1 excellent person and they have an excellent experience and tell 5 other excellent people you reach communities you wouldn’t otherwise necessarily reach through marketing or whatever, be super clear who you are serving and listen to them, make sure they feel welcome and heard because even the best-intentioned plans have blind spots :) The list goes on but those are my top lessons learnt so far.
Chi: We used an external trainer but I think we should make our own materials on Imposter Syndrome and I am hoping to get more bandwidth to do so with help. I have my eyes on some potential partners for this but it’s all about time right now. With that said, I think there is impact gold if we could do this and do it well because I see confidence as a huge bottleneck right now! Big thanks to both.
Thanks for the reply! I was initially just self-interestedly wondering which training you got and whether you would recommend it. But I am also happy to hear about your plans in that direction.
Given the time constraints, do you think there any other people for whom it would make sense to take the lead regarding this that you are not yet in touch with about this, (e.g. a specific type of person rather than specific individuals.) And if so, which traits would that person need? You already mentioned that you want to work on it with help anyway, and I can imagine that it doesn’t make sense for any other person to take this up right now given your expertise. Still wanted to ask if you think there are any sensible versions that would involve you less and would be feasible time-wise because I also think this is a majorly important topic and would love to see something happen.