Women's Ways Of Mentoring

Coordinates: Subhana Ansari, subhana.ansari@adecco.com

Old Rule: You're a mentor or a mentee.

New Rule: Everyone needs mentors.

The old school taught that mentoring was for the young. The new style adamantly rejects such an antiquated notion. Procter & Gamble, for example, has created a breakthrough "reverse mentoring" program to tutor senior executives about issues facing women.

And it's not just men who benefit from the mentoring-in-reverse program. Deb Henretta, 37, the leader of P&G's advancement of women task force, learned from her younger "reverse mentor" about false assumptions that were affecting young female staff members. "At P&G, we used to discuss issues of 'work-family balance,' " says Henretta. "By labeling it that way, we didn't acknowledge that single people had life commitments outside the company."

One measure of the program's success: P&G has vastly improved its retention rate of talented women. In 1991, the advertising division was losing twice as many women as men. Since the launch of several mentoring initiatives in 1994, the rates have evened out.

Coordinates: Deb Henretta, henretta.da@pg.com

The most important lesson that the women's approach to mentoring has to teach: It's not about a mentoring relationship. It's about a mentoring mentality. "You don't need a single mentor who you keep throughout your career," says Otte. "What happens when your company downsizes and your mentor leaves? What you need is a mind-set that allows you to learn from those around you, no matter who they are."