Babes On Bay Street

Archives by Tag 'mentors'

What is the difference between sponsors and mentors?

Throughout my career I have had several sponsors and mentors.  Sometimes even the same person.  To me a sponsor is in a position of influence and can persuade others of your value.  Definitely a sponsor is needed to get a promotion or a plum assignment or a big sale.  Usually, my sponsor was my boss or a key client, but quite often it was someone in human resources who knew how to pull strings and believed in me.   During my banking and entrepreneurial careers, I have had many great mentors.  Mentors are experienced people who are willing to share their wisdom to teach you the ropes.   From my mentors, I learned how to negotiate a raise, how to bring together two ...

Establishing a Mentorship Program. Part 1

I asked Nancy to tell me about her involvement with mentoring. She said: “It goes back to my strong, passionate belief that we don’t have enough women in business, especially in commercial real estate. I have a legal background, so I’ve read a lot of articles about the percentage of women that drop out of law.  The common theme in most of those articles is that women drop out because they don’t have any mentors.  They have nobody to look up to, to talk to, to tell them that there’s light at the end of the tunnel and that if they stick it through they can have a fulfilling career.”   She continued: “I’ve been involved for years with an organization called ...