Women in leadership: How mentoring can boost your career

Page 1 of 2

(/)
Home (/)

Insight (/Insight)

Women in leadership: How mentoring can boost your career

Women in leadership: How mentoring can boost your career

Rhian Morgan
Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:58 PM

Mentoring can reinvent, rejuvenate or

reignite your career, writes Rhian
Morgan
As a professional woman, you probably boast
the qualities of curiosity, a thirst for
knowledge, and an ambition that is not just
confined to your current area of expertise.
However, as weve seen in previous blogs,
there are far too many obstacles to women
achieving their dreams. Motherhood is fulfilling
for a lot of women but it can create a gaping
impasse in your career trajectory. Also, far
more people are choosing to stay in their jobs
due to the fear incited by the recession,
meaning fewer opportunities for advancement.
There is also the glass ceiling to contend with,
being made redundant, or simply the feeling
that you could benefit from some guidance.
Alternatively, there are plenty of people who feel they should be grateful for having supposedly achieved it all yet feel
something is missing. Others feel the need to give something back, despite feeling happy and fulfilled.
Either way, the perfect solution is to join a mentoring programme.
There are many schemes for professional women out there. For example, Women 1st supports women who aspire to senior
leadership roles to fulfil their career ambitions in hospitality, travel and tourism. Also, the Aspire Foundation has corporate
managers mentoring women in the non-profit charitable sector.
And theres the Women in Film & Television UK (WFTV) mentoring scheme, set up in 2010 to try to prevent the exodus of
women in their 30s from the film and TV industry.
WFTV is the leading membership organisation for women working in creative media in the UK, and part of an international
network of more than 10,000 women worldwide. It was set up in 1989 by a mix of business executives and creatives, such as
Dawn French, Lynda La Plante, and Janet Street-Porter.
The scheme is aimed at mid-career women, with at least five years experience (although they typically have 10 to 15 years)
who are facing some kind of career obstacle.
As Mentoring Scheme Producer Nicola Lees said: Essentially, they fall into wanting to do one of three things: reinvent,
rejuvenate or reignite.
Mentees come from a diverse field of editorial, craft, or business roles, including a financier, a media lawyer, and a composer,
as well as directors, producers, writers, editors and distributors.
They are matched with a mentor who gives six hours of mentoring over six months with an experienced industry figure.
Alongside that, the group of 20 women selected for each scheme meet at least every fortnight for a series of master classes
and networking events.
Mentoring is free, and the organisation even throws in a years free WFTV membership (worth 100). WTFV is currently on its
fourth scheme and has had 80 women in total on the programme. It is supported by EON Productions, Creative Skillset, the
BBC, and Channel 4.
The application is in-depth, and competition is understandably fierce.
But both mentors and mentees enjoy numerous benefits, as evidenced by the websites testimonials.
The mentor scheme is an excellent means of enabling experienced executives to help develop women with great potential,
said Anne Sheehan, Director of Film Finance, Prescience.
It is key that the scheme organisers are good match-makers. In my case they were and it was a very rewarding
experience.
The mentors are experts in their fields but the mentees also boast incredibly impressive CVs. Take Lisa Francesca Nand, for
example, who was already an accomplished broadcast journalist, producer, director, presenter, writer, and voiceover artist.
Lisa has had contracts with the BBC, Sky, and regularly shoots online films for the national press and websites including
Sky.com. She was also the first female presenter on national radios talkSPORT.
She has many years experience producing, directing and presenting high-end corporate films, and is a regular expert guest
on national TV and radio (mainly in travel, health and current affairs). She is also currently making her first documentary, First
Heartbeat, an authored film about recurrent miscarriage.
Yet, despite her obvious talents, Lisa still felt she needed a helping hand.
She said: I feel women in particular often have an underlying suspicion that they're winging it in work - despite having many
years of experience and success behind them.
The WFTV mentoring scheme really helps mentees recognise successes and focus on strengths. It has been amazing and
really opened doors.
Through the scheme, I've met so many successful, strong and inspiring women - both fellow mentees and via my mentor, a
major production company executive.
Being on the scheme has been good for both practical advice through my mentor, which is helping me complete my first
feature-length documentary, and also helped me feel I now have a support network, which as a self-employed broadcaster
used to working on my own has been invaluable.
It's hard, when you're midway through a good career, to admit that you might need help but I feel that everyone could benefit
from having a mentor, whether self-employed or in a small or large organisation.

https://www.i-l-m.com/Insight/Edge/2014/April/how-mentoring-can-boost-your-career

13/10/2016

Women in leadership: How mentoring can boost your career

Page 2 of 2

Sometimes it's easier to see the wood through the trees, as it were, with someone giving you an outside perspective.
It has certainly given me renewed inspiration and vigour in my work and I really hope that the contacts I've made through the
WFTV mentoring scheme outlast the six months of the scheme itself.
For more information on the WFTV, visit www.wftv.org.uk (http://www.wftv.org.uk )

Comments

Share on

Add a comment

https://www.i-l-m.com/Insight/Edge/2014/April/how-mentoring-can-boost-your-career

13/10/2016