February 2022 Volume 4

OPERATIONS & MANAGEMENT

Individualization Many people grew up with the “golden rule.” Treat others as you would want to be treated. Within recent years, an upgraded version of this principle, the "platinum rule" has been gaining traction. Treat others as they would want to be treated. This is an important concept when participating in a mentoring relationship. To best aid a mentee, the mentor must understand what the mentee needs, which is not necessarily what the mentor needed at the beginning of their career. Learning how a mentee wants to be treated is all about learning who they are as an individual, including their background, strengths, weaknesses, needs and aspirations. As a mentor, it’s crucial to avoid making assumptions about what young professional women want out of their career. Effective mentors must take the time to listen to understand who their mentees are and who they want to become. This knowledge allows mentors to cater their actions to the mentee’s needs.

future of the world; experiences of sexual harassment and assault; microaggressions; sexism; systematic inequalities; and a global pandemic. Although some of these positive changes and challenges are not unique to this generation, the current day has shed a new and strong light on a lot of topics that, until recently, were skimmed over. The AAUW study found that 68.2 percent of women of color and 62.6 percent of white women reported experiencing some form of harassment at their workplace. They also found 31.5 percent of women surveyed reported believing that men received more promotions than women. Another 69.2 percent of women believed that the paid family leave policy at their company was lacking [4]. As an expert on careers, leadership and women’s issues, Kathy Caprino wrote in Forbes about the “ [7] power gaps that keep professionals from thriving and leading at work,” which include not recognizing one’s own talents, reluctance to ask for what is believed to be deserved and losing sight of one’s dream. Caprino found that 98 percent of professional women experience at least one of these seven gaps, and 75 percent face three or more at the same time [6]. Although work environments may have improved for women over the years, there is still a need for continual improvement that should be acknowledged. It is imperative that individuals who enter mentoring relationships understand the viewpoint and experiences of those who they are mentoring. Try to “see the world from their shoes.” A mentor’s personal experience can be insufficient for providing the level of understanding that’s required to best assist a mentee, so conversation and trust must be the building blocks upon which mentors and mentees work together to understand and help one another.

For example, do not assume that young professional women know nothing about and want to stay away from the hands- on aspects of manufacturing. Many young women do in fact have thorough experiences in this area. On the other hand, some women do not. Some women will want to grow their skills in this area of manufacturing, and some will not. Similarly, some men have hands-on experience, and some do not. Some men want to work on hands-on projects, and some do not. The only way for a mentor to understand a mentee’s experiences and aspirations is to build trust and then have an honest discussion about these topics. Furthermore, even in these conversations, mentors must be mindful of inadvertently making judgements that are based on stereotypes. Rather, mentors should strive to make decisions based on what is learned through direct conversation. Communication is the best tool for a mentor to get direction about individual needs and goals. Shoe Size The diverse group of women who are entering the workforce are mostly of the Gen Z age demographic and are coming from experiences unlike any other inhistory.GenZwomen are products of positive change, such as a growing access to the internet; educational opportunities, including college degrees; a new age of mental health awareness; conversations about consent; increased push for inclusion and diversity; and expanded discussion of intersectionality. They also are products of challenges of these times, including low self- confidence from social media influences; Impostor Syndrome; unprecedented amounts of student loans; concerns over the

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