Empowering our women through mentoring

We need to groom our talent pool and effectively mentor today's talent

As Mad Men drew to a close with its final season this year, it stirred the on-going debate of gender diversity in our industry. Even with a number of policies in place in agency environments, there’s a long way to go to increase the female participation rate and senior leadership positions to a satisfactory level. And why is it important? Because the generation entering the workforce lose the motivation to aspire to a top management position early in their career. We’re not grooming the talent pool to stick with their career and back themselves for senior leadership roles, we’re actively letting them check out in the middle of their careers.

Mentoring is an integral part of any career, but particularly a young woman’s. I’ve always had mentors throughout my career - whether a formal arrangement or through someone I worked with - and I openly attribute a large part of what I have achieved to these amazing mentors. Leading the Melbourne arm of global organisation SheSays, it’s astounding to meet so many talented, ambitious and passionate women through our network, who don’t have a mentor, or are unsure about the direction of their career. SheSays was founded for the sole reason of seeing more women in top jobs in agencies. With only 3% of women holding an Executive Creative Director role in agencies worldwide, it’s a pretty good reason to try to further promote participation of women in our workplaces.

Bain & Company recently conducted a study that revealed women with two years or less of experience slightly led men in the ambition stakes[1]. They’re young, they’re hungry and they believe in themselves.  Fast-forward two years in their career, their confidence drops 60% and rarely regain that initial confidence. Mentoring plays such a key role in this scenario, to keep our youth engaged and motivated, and on the trajectory of success. Do you know your employees career path? Do you positively reinforce their achievements?

In addition, research tells us that the top Australian companies with at least 25 per cent female boards, are performing more than 7 per cent better than those companies with all male boards[2]. This speaks to the diversity debate; by having more diverse views on a board ensure a balanced view around the board table. Recently, some of our team were also lucky enough to see Renee McGowan present the Mercer research “When Women Thrive, Businesses Thrive”. This research talked openly about today’s participation of women in the workforce and what we need to aspire to for the future to see more women in leadership positions. According to Mercer, three main drivers for women participation in the workforce was around health & wellness, financial wellbeing and talent management.

As a part of Accenture Interactive, one of the great things we at Reactive have access to is the intent focus on an individual’s personal development and the support of this through a dedicated career counsellor. In the Bain & Company research it states that it was common that direct supervisors didn’t know their career aspirations, or what to say or do to support them. Active career counselling and investment in our people’s personal and professional development is key to securing the best talent in our industry, and keeping them motivated and climbing the ladder.

If we can start to champion our young women in the industry and openly mentor them, we can only improve their individual career and inadvertently groom them to stay within the industry, to pursue a career and to rise to the top. 

Download the digital copy of Perspectives Vol.4 from Reactive here: https://www.reactive.com/perspectives-volume-4.html 

[1] Companies Drain Women’s Ambition After Only 2 Years, Harvard Business Review, May 2015. Retrieved June 2015.

[2] Top companies with women on boards perform better, research finds, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 2015. Retrieved June 2015.