April 14, 2008

Live Blogging "Women Working in Technology" Conference 2008--Mentoring Panel

438 PM EDT

Karen Mangia, Lisa Oehl

Mentoring: How to Keep the Connections

Many good tips on being a mentor, and making good use of mentors:

1. Set clear goals for yourself

2. Have an agenda to talk about with your mentor

3. What's your brand? Describe your objective or career goal in three words--
such as, Global Project Management

More:

4. Exercise: write names of three people you want to meet as a mentor;
then your name; then the date by which you want to contact them;

"tear this off your notes; give this to your neighbor in this conference; and that person should
put it on their calendar, and call you on that date to remind you and check in on how you're doing
with this task"

5. Tip--ask your mentor if you can leave voicemail.

6. Share what you learn with other people; if you are reaching out to a mentor, think about mentoring
someone more junior than you. You would be surprised what you learn from people you are mentoring.

7. High-potential women--mentor them, so they can mentor others; that way you can help many more people
than you can help yourself

8. "Quickly filter out people who are not making good use of YOUR time" as a mentor--people who don't
have a plan.

9. "thank you for the opportunity of visiting with you; we've enjoyed being here" (ending conclusion)

Posted by Jay Gillette at April 14, 2008 04:39 PM