mENTOR EXPECTATIONS
Thank you for sharing our vision in supporting women of colour and Indigenous females build their ideas into reality.
Below are details on mentors' time commitments, expectations and workshop guidelines to ensure a great experience for you and our mentees.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our team.
Below are details on mentors' time commitments, expectations and workshop guidelines to ensure a great experience for you and our mentees.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our team.
Time commitment
The expected mentor time commitment per workshop:
- Preparation: 1-5 hours to prepare your PowerPoint or presentation relating to what you’ll be teaching a group of mentees during a one-hour workshop. Due to COVID-19 recommendations, our workshops and events are virtual until further notice.
- Industry or Discipline Focused Delivery format:
- Each workshop will be focused on a certain discipline or industry to ensure mentees are gaining relevant advice to pursue their ambitions. (I.e. Healthcare, engineering, tech, retail, e-commerce, education etc.)
- Thirty minutes to teach a skill-based workshop relating to your expertise. The topic is determined by the mentor with guidance from #shemeets team to ensure mentees have tangible takeaways.
- Thirty minutes to share your experience, failures and advice with mentees. There will be a Q&A portion for mentees to ask specific questions.
- Workshop length: 30-45 minutes hour per workshop
mentor expectations
To secure you as a mentor, we would like to ensure you are aligned with our expectation to create a positive experience for our mentees.
- Use professional and respectful communication during workshops.
- Please prepare an excellent learning experience and presentation so our mentees can gain a skill taught by an experienced leader.
- Listen to the mentees' concerns and keep the workshop's conversations confidential.
- Be patient as our mentees are emerging leaders, innovators and creators that are interested in developing themselves.
- Help mentees set realistic goals based on your experiences without demeaning their initial plan.
- If you must reschedule or cancel your space at a workshop, please notify us as far in advance as possible.
- This experience will teach you something new based on the diversity of our mentees and their lived experiences.
- Please listen and keep an open mind so that you can learn from the mentees' experiences and insights.
- Be willing to share your feedback at the end of the workshop to demonstrate the program's impact.
- Manage the workshop within an accountable space guidelines format.
- If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.
Workshop rules: accountable space guidelines
Research shows that groups with higher social diversity (i.e., diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation) share more information, are more creative, and perform better than those with lower social diversity. However, diverse groups may exhibit less cohesion and may encounter greater conflict and communication challenges.
To maximize the impact of diversity to ensure all group members have an opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the conversation — it all starts with communication.
To maximize the impact of diversity to ensure all group members have an opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the conversation — it all starts with communication.
- Please do not interrupt others.
- Listen actively, instead of just waiting to speak.
- Be mindful of your total talk time.
- Give everyone a chance to speak without unnecessary pressure.
- Recognize and embrace friction as evidence that multiple ideas are entering the conversation — not that the group isn’t getting along.
- Give credit where it's due. If you are echoing someone's previously-stated idea, give the appropriate credit.
- Ask for clarification, don’t assume or project.
- Words and tone matter. Be mindful of the impact of what you say, and not just your intent.