FAQs

Sponsors - Mentors - Mentees

  • Any woman in the electrical industry you believe has potential and would benefit from mentorship. By sponsoring a mentee, she will receive one-on-one support, tools, networking, and resources to help her grow professionally.

  • To invest in up-and-coming women in the industry. Identify a woman you see potential in and think would benefit from having a mentor then submit her name and with a small investment of $550 it will cover the mentorship pairing, training materials, templates, and ongoing support throughout the program. Your investment can make a lasting impact, helping a talented woman thrive in her career.

 Mentors

    • Someone that wants to give back to this industry

    • Someone willing to be transparent, open and honest 

    • Capable of given honest and critical feedback when needed

    • Someone who cares

  • We start the process with a one hour ‘How to be a great mentor’ training session, there is an hour long virtual kick off session. Then the mentor will meet with their mentee for six - one hour long sessions over the course of the next 14 weeks. Then we have a wrap up celebration at the end of the session. 

    Following the wrap-up celebration, your commitment is complete. You and your mentee may choose to continue the conversation, but we spell out in the kick-off that there will be no hard feelings if/when the relationship ends.

    • Encourage and support

    • Share – experiences, insights and expertise, but don’t teach or preach

    • Role model & sounding board –

    • Accessible and fully present – full attention, ample time and energy

    • Confidentiality – safe place

    • Have fun – Be yourself – remember it’s a conversation

  • Sometimes it takes time to get to a comfort level with your mentee, sometimes it never really comes, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still mentor her. Chemistry is not something that is a necessary ingredient for a successful mentoring relationship.

  • You are not alone in the journey, you will receive the tools and guidance for taking the steps you need to ensure a successful mentoring relationship.

    • Guidebook - We provide a step-by-step guidebook to get you and your mentor started with tips and templates that you can customize to ensure the program meets your needs.

    • Mentor webinar - Mentors can participate in a webinar on “How to be a great mentor”. In this webinar, KJ and Stacey share tips and best practices on being a mentor and facilitate an interactive discussion with other mentors in the program.

  • A mentoring relationship is beneficial for all those involved. It allows the mentor to leave a living legacy behind in the form of people who have benefited from the mentor's life experiences. Mentors give much and also get much from the mentoring relationship. We find that mentees are frequently able to teach the mentors a thing or two during their time together. 

    Some additional benefits of being a mentor are: 

    • Personal satisfaction - seeing your mentee succeed because of your input is a reward in itself.

    • Leave your legacy - know that you contributed to the success of others

    • Improve your skills - being a mentor requires communicating, listening and other key management skills. Practicing through mentoring helps you hone these skills.

    • Learn something new – You will learn from your mentee. They may have skills and knowledge that you don't possess. The relationship may stir your creative juices and give you fresh insights on your own career.

    • Leadership development - being a mentor helps you develop your ability to motivate and encourage others.

    • New perspectives - because your mentee may come from a different background, you can learn new ways of thinking. • Be challenged and inspired - 95% of mentoring participants said the experience motivated them to do their very best.

    • Advance your career - employees who served as mentors were SIX times more likely to have been promoted. (Sun Microsystems)

 Mentees

    • Take responsibility for your own learning

    • Set realistic expectations

    • Build rapport and trust

    • Is respectful of your mentor’s time

    • Take appropriate risks

    • Remember your mentor is a volunteer

  • In the Empowering Women Mentorship Program, the mentee holds the responsibility for driving the relationship forward. This helps show her dedication to the program and her own personal development – as well as a way to utilize her management and communication skills. The mentee is responsible for identifying her strengths and gaps (areas of curiosity) that are used to match them with the right mentor. The mentee sets the agenda for each meeting, asks thoughtful questions, takes notes, tries out some of the ideas and reports back to her mentor.

    • Identifying your why

    • Setting the agenda for the meetings

    • Asking questions

    • Listening and learning

    • Trying out some ideas

    • Being grateful

    • Sharing knowledge and information with your mentor

    • Being flexible, keeping an open mind, and having fun

    • Maintaining confidentiality

  • You are committing to giving this program the effort and energy needed. To grow personally and professionally when you join the mentorship program as a mentee. Here’s what you’ll do:

    • Set Goals: Complete a self-assessment to figure out your goals. This helps match you with the best mentor.

    • Meetings: After the virtual kick-off, plan and attend six 60-minute meetings with your mentor over 14 weeks (about every two weeks).

    • Check-Ins: Let the program manager know when your meetings happen (no need to share details).

    • Wrap-Up: Join the virtual celebration at the end of the program.

    You won’t be doing this alone! You’ll get helpful tools and guidance to build a great mentoring relationship. Plus, you’ll be part of about 100 other women on this same journey.

    This program takes time and effort. Before you join, make sure you’re ready to commit to the meetings and stay in touch with your mentor.

    • Network of experienced leaders in the industry. We will match mentees with one of these leaders to serve as her mentor.

    • Access to the virtual kick-off and wrap-up events to connect with other mentees, mentors and other women in the electrical industry.

    • Access to an online community in a LinkedIn group of present and past participants.

    • Access to periodic networking events with other program participants during the program as well as follow-up alumni networking events.

    • Empowering Women Mentorship Program Guidebook – a guide that covers:

      • What is mentoring and why mentoring is important?

      • Key elements of a successful mentoring relationship

      • Roles & responsibilities

      • Qualities of a good mentee and an effective mentor

      • Meeting guidelines and sample agendas

      • Tips for building trust and rapport, asking questions and giving feedback

      • Reference templates & worksheets to ensure you’re maximizing your time together

  • Having a mentor can provide you with many advantages, personally and professionally. Some of the benefits mentoring provides are:

    • Shorten your learning curve and become more productive quickly.

    • Make Connections - feel like you are part of the team.

    • Sounding board for ideas - mentors can offer valuable insight into what it takes to get ahead. Giving insight on the best course of action in difficult situations.

    • Develop your knowledge and skills – mentors help you identify the skills and expertise you need to succeed. They may teach you or advise you on where to go for the information you need.

    • Encouragement, support and help working through specific problems, challenges or issues – at work or in your personal life.

    • Improve your communication skills – Learn to communicate and/or communicate more effectively with people not like you, or that don’t “speak the same language”.

    • Advance your career – a mentor helps you stay focused and on track in your career through advice, skills development and networking. Employees who received mentoring were promoted FIVE times more often than people who didn’t have mentors. (Sun Microsystems)

    • Gain insights into best practices, new ideas, opportunities, possibilities and perspectives.

  • By nominating you, your sponsor has agreed to pay your $550 program fee. The program fee provides you access to everything listed above.

    • Share insights, experience, and lessons learned throughout their career.

    • Attend the virtual kick-off and virtual wrap-up celebration.

    • Meet with you six times for 1-hour each between the kick-off and wrap-up meetings. These meetings can be via phone, video, live, or a combination that works for you both.

    • Following the wrap-up celebration, program participation is complete. You and your mentor may choose to continue the conversation, but we spell out in the kick-off that there will be no hard feelings if/when the relationship ends.

    • Your mentor will help you focus on your goals and guide you throughout the program.

  • Mentors are asked to complete a profile and self-assessment to help us identify each mentor’s strengths. Similarly, the mentees complete an application and self-assessment to identify the 2-3 gaps (areas of curiosity) they plan to work on during the mentoring relationship. We match mentoring pairs based on the skills of the mentor with the development needs of the mentee.

    Our goal is to ensure we are making the best matches to ensure everyone gets the most out of the experience. To enhance the likelihood of successful matches, our pool of mentors is larger than our pool of mentees. As such, not all mentors will be matched with a mentee. If we do not match you with a mentee, we will keep you in our mentor pool for future programs.

    We use our industry knowledge to avoid matching mentees with a mentor who works for a direct competitor. As a final check, before we finalize the matches, we send a note to the mentor with the company and position of the mentee to ensure there is no conflict.

  • Mentees are first nominated by their sponsor. Since a mentoring program requires a commitment of time and energy of both mentors and mentees, we ask that you take the application process seriously. We will do our best to include all mentee applicants in the program. However, given that we have a limited number of openings, we will prioritize based on first come first serve. So if you’re interested, don’t delay in sending in your application during the submission period. 

  • We have two sessions a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Watch our website and LinkedIn for information on the next session for the enrollment period.

 Sponsors