To discuss in a mentoring session

A good mentoring session can take the conversation past the immediate concerns and move it into longer term goals and awareness.

Topics to raise:

• "Ins and Outs" of industries or organizations that might be worth exploring for networking or partnership reasons
• Locating other folks in other industries or organizations with whom you could have a tea and build your community
• ‘Safe places’ to explore a dream or plan - with mapping a direct path being secondary to discussing fit and purpose
• Sharing guidance, advice and encouragement (and the occasional smack to the head as I required this week - thanks Terri!) for career, balancing work and personal, being a woman in the work force, etc.
• Practice “soft/communication skills” - listening, questioning, offering feedback, introductions, etc.
• Turn the tables and discuss a mentor's current challenge
• Research and how it might affect our work -  Edelmans Trust Barometer report, a Gartner report etc... or even a book "Getting to Yes" or "Break Your Own Rules"

Providing a context

The management of most things is about providing a context - a report, a framework, principles, etc.

We need context or we will fill that void with our own stories. The "why" of decisions and the "how" of integrating the decision (or its consequence) is management.

That makes looking at change - personal or project - simpler. Sometimes the 'what' - the change itself - is out of our control. A context may not have us like it /agree with it any more than we already do but it will help us understand and accept / incorporate / act on it.

• If a parent changes a curfew, the teen is liable to make up their own reasons for the new requirement unless the context for the decision is shared.
• If a budget total seems inconsistent month to month, a report provides context for the variance.
• If new technology impacts a job, the principles its application will support adoption.

With context, a conversation can be held.

To manage, don't withhold context. To mentor, show how to create context by offering frameworks yourself.

Do you have these problems?

The news is carrying something like these articles every week... sometimes every day.

There is a problem, Houston....

In Canada, women earn 87 cents on the dollar - up 10 cents since 1981.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3558520/challenging-the-wage-gap-canadian-women-still-earn-less-than-men/

Sexual harassment is alive and well in North America.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/technology/women-entrepreneurs-speak-out-sexual-harassment.html?smid=fb-share

Technology is still not friendly to all women.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/why-is-silicon-valley-so-awful-to-women/517788/

These are not one-off occurrences. These situations may not be your personal situation but that doesn't mean they are not happening. 

We do not need to agree on the issues. We need to support each other's voices for the battles we choose to fight. How are you helping women get their voices heard?