Mentoring and Managing: Taking a Page from Leading Ladies in the Fortune 500

Last week I read an article over at Forbes.com about how women should be helping other women climb the career ladder. While the article by Carol Hymowitz discussed how women can and are mentoring other women in Fortune 500 organizations, a few things really resonated with me.

As the article explains:

During the course of my career I’ve met many executive women who seemed far more intent on promoting themselves than championing women who were climbing the ranks behind them.

And gauging from the preference many women employees have for male over female bosses – a choice they’ve expressed in several recent studies – a lot of women managers could benefit from coaching on how to be better mentors.

While I definitely get the point and agree that women should be doing a better job of mentoring other women, what’s interesting to me is that this probably true for both sexes, in all sizes of organization. Most of us need to be better mentors, and actively need to find ways to create stronger coaching practices within our companies.

The article uses an example from Frontier Communications and discusses the issue with their CEO, Maggie Wilderotter, who shares a key point about coaching:

“When I think about talent, I think about someone’s potential and capability more than their experience,” she explains.

Personally, I think this is the perfect way to sum up what talent means, and reinforces the value of a holistic approach to talent management. It reflects the richness and possibilities of your organization’s talent when managed effectively.

The piece also looks at Margaret Maxwell Zagel of Grant Thornton, and how she is helping to mentor and manage female staff at this global accounting and consulting company.

Zagel doesn’t have children herself, but she has offered flexible or part-time schedules to several talented attorneys who are raising young children. As a result, she has retained her best staff, she says, and gotten “great work” from women who are grateful that their family needs are being addressed. “They work their hearts out” and are loyal, Zagel says.

As a mother, I appreciate the value of what Zagel is offering these employees, but I think this is a point that should be kept in mind with all employees. The reality is that most of us would welcome some flexibility, more so than a bonus or other perks, so offering such benefits will help increase engagement and retention efforts.

These are great examples of how organizations are driving value from talent by using practical, proven approaches to talent management – coaching, development, flexible work arrangements and more.