Retaining Talent Through Coaching and Mentoring

Retaining Talent Through
Coaching and Mentoring
Erin L. Neill, PhD
Ellen Breipohl Thorp, CAE
National Women in Roofing
12110 Pecos St., Ste. 220, Westminster, CO 80234
202-276-7054 • ellen@nationalwomeninroofing.org
Jennifer Keegan, AAIA
GAF
1 Campus Drive, Parsippany, NJ 07054
Jennifer Stone, GRP, LEED AP
Johns Manville
717 17th St., Denver, CO, 80202
916-880-0366 • jennifer.stone@jm.com
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Jennifer Keegan is the director of building and roofing science for her firm, focusing on
overall roof system design and performance. Keegan has over 20 years of experience as a
building enclosure consultant specializing in assessment, design, and remediation of building
enclosure systems. She provides technical leadership within the industry as the chair
of the ASTM D08.22 Roofing and Waterproofing Subcommittee, and she serves as an advocate
for women within the industry as the educational chair for National Women in Roofing
(NWIR) and a board member of Women in Construction.
Jennifer Stone, with preferred accounts at her firm, is a founding member and executive
chair of NWIR. She has also run operations for a large commercial roofing contractor. Her
specific focus with NWIR is recruiting women into the roofing trade and, more importantly,
speaking out on how to retain women by empowering them. One of the many aspects of
retaining any diversity within our industry is mentoring, which she has focused on for the
past several years. Her knowledge of the industry—from operations to manufacturing—helps
her to lead real-world discussions that translate to action-based steps to be implemented.
Ellen Thorp, executive director of NWIR, has over 20 years of experience working with
college students, new professionals, corporate executives, and volunteer member leaders in
business coalitions and trade and professional associations on issues ranging from government
relations to strategic planning to program implementation. A Southerner transplanted
to Washington, D.C., she blends an intuitive and positive-oriented approach to motivate people
and an East Coast assertiveness to “get stuff done,” with the ultimate goal of a completed
project, program, or initiative that meets the identified objectives and serves the needs of the
organization’s members.
Nonpresenting Author: Erin L. Neill, PhD
ABSTRACT
SPEAKERS
Building enclosure consultants are often in the position of training and/or supervising an employee, teaching a
facility manager about roof system maintenance and forensics, explaining to a building owner or HOA board why a
seemingly simple enclosure issue is actually quite complex, and working collaboratively with contractors to problemsolve
and get work done quickly. As we are in the longest period of uninterrupted growth in the construction industry,
building an inclusive culture amidst diverse project teams benefits one’s professional practice and reputation.
Supporting female employees on the rooftop, at the wall, or in the office is critical to reducing employee turnover.
Creating a collaborative culture that is supportive of women is also beneficial to all employees and colleagues.
Future leaders are entering the workforce with the expectation that coaching, mentoring, and emotional intelligence
are a basic skillset among their colleagues and managers, so there is a need and value for consultants to possess
and utilize these skills to successfully retain a future workforce. Organizations without deep knowledge of these
topics risk plummeting employee retention rates.
Content will be provided by a professional coach knowledgeable about the building enclosure consulting industry
and supplemented by IIBEC members.
INTRODUCTION
Contact and communication
among
colleagues is not only
a daily occurrence
in most workplaces,
but it is also necessary
in order to have
effective work performance
and share ideas, concepts, and
other information. Businesses run better
when people know and trust one another.
[10] In order to have this type of effective
communication, coaching and mentoring
employees are musts. Future leaders are
entering the workforce with the expectation
that coaching, mentoring, and good
managerial and leadership skills, as well
as emotional intelligence, are basic skillsets
among their colleagues and managers.
There is a need and a value for individuals
in all industries—including managers
and coworkers in the roofing and building
enclosure industry—to possess and
utilize these skills to successfully retain a
future workforce. Organizations without
deep knowledge of these topics risk the
plummeting of employee retention rates.
Additionally, mentoring and coaching skills
are not only related to employees; having
mentoring and coaching skills adds more
tools to the toolbox when working with
colleagues, internal and external project
teams, and clients.
This paper and presentation were
inspired primarily by the female members
of IIBEC and supported in an informal
survey of a variety of IIBEC members.
Although the paper is written through
the lens of supporting women in the roofing
and building enclosure industry, good
management and leadership practices that
lead to increased employee retention are
applicable to all employees. The intent of
this paper is to provide IIBEC
members with the knowledge
and skills about mentoring
and coaching to work more
effectively with colleagues,
supervise employees in a
supportive way, and ultimately
create a positive work culture that contributes
to increased employee retention of
women and men.
DEFINITIONS
In this paper, we discuss the relationships
managers and employees
can shape as they utilize coaching
and mentoring techniques
and the specific ways to guide
employees and help them build
pertinent relationships and
learn about the specifics of their
job. Briefly, we differentiate
mentoring by defining it as “a
relationship between an older,
more experienced mentor and a
younger, less experienced protégé
for the purpose of helping
and developing the protégé’s
career.”[14] For our purposes,
coaching is defined here as a
“supervisor or manager serving
as a facilitator … by enacting
behaviors that enable employees
to learn and develop workrelated
skills and abilities.”[4,9,10] While coaching is generally
done by a direct supervisor or
manager, mentors sometimes
do not even work in the same
organization as the mentee.
Mentoring is a developmental
relationship that is unique to a
person’s career.[14] Coaching is a
method of supervising subordinates to help
them learn, and improved performance is
a byproduct of this learning.[10] Good mentors
and coaches should have ability in
their field and be able to organize capital
and labor, but they also must have leadership
qualities, including integrity, enabling
them to serve as a role model. They must
be able to motivate, reward others’ efforts,
act with benevolence, and set the overall
tone of their organization’s work environment.[
6] While differentiated in this paper,
a coach and mentor could be the same
person. That is, one supervisor could both
coach and mentor his or her coworkers.
Retaining Talent Through
Coaching and Mentoring
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Future leaders
are entering the
workforce with the
expectation
that coaching,
mentoring, and good
managerial and
leadership skills,
as well as emotional
intelligence, are basic
skillsets among
their colleagues
and managers.
BENEFITS OF COACHING
AND MENTORING
Workplace culture and employee support both contribute to improved employee retention. As we are in the longest period of uninterrupted growth in the construction industry, building an inclusive culture amidst diverse project teams benefits one’s professional practice and reputation. Creating a collaborative culture that is supportive of women and diverse employees is also beneficial to all colleagues. Supporting female employees on the rooftop, at the wall, or in the office is critical to reducing employee turnover.
Coaching and mentoring are beneficial to not only the individual employee, but also to organizations, as they are imperative to retaining employees—particularly female employees. Mentoring leads to positive outcomes for mentees, such as higher job and career satisfaction, greater commitment to their organization, and greater commitment to their career, and it ultimately affects their intention to stay in the organization and, often, the industry.[5] Negative mentoring experiences not only mean that the employee is learning less, has less career support, and has lower job satisfaction, but they are also associated with more stress for the employee, depressed mood at work, and withdrawing from their job—which would lead to decreased productivity and ultimately an increase in turnover rates and lower employee retention.[5] In fact, having negative mentor experiences—such as lack of mentor experience, and manipulative or distancing behavior from the mentor—could be worse than having no mentor at all.[5] Therefore, learning to be a good mentor to employees is necessary.
Coaching and mentoring positively influence job satisfaction and job performance, and they improve not only individual but also organizational performance.[10] Therefore, the benefits of coaching and mentoring employees ultimately lead to employee retention. One group[6] estimates that employee turnover can cost an employer around 20% of a salary (with some estimates being higher) because of the need to recruit and train new employees, as well as lost time and productivity. Having an immediate boss with strong leadership qualities increases retention rates by 2.7%.[6] Retaining good employees is good business in terms of social as well as financial capital. While it may cost some extra time on the part of the coach or mentor to attain these skills or to learn to adapt their managerial or leadership style, it is still far less than the cost of having to find and replace an employee.
CONTRIBUTORS TO A POSITIVE CULTURE AND EMPLOYEE RETENTION
While we may not like to admit it, all people carry with them preconceived notions of other people. Often these notions or stereotypes are based on our experiences with people in some way similar to the ones we are thinking about. Gender and racial stereotypes influence how we perceive other people, including job applicants and fellow employees.[16] That is, while these stereotypes come into play in the job interview process, they persist when managers and leaders think about their employees. For example, women are often seen as being “warm” or “nurturing.”[16] However, these usually “favorable” stereotypical traits of women are consistently found to actually be disliked and less desirable by bosses in work environments.[16] Therefore, acting in these ways does not benefit women in the workplace, and is actually a barrier to women being able to attain leadership positions. This may mean that women are spending part of their energy regulating their own behavior in the workplace so as not to be perceived as too warm or nurturing, in addition to completing necessary tasks for their jobs. In another vein, building enclosure consultants often benefit from a more assertive approach, yet sometimes when women are assertive, they are termed to be “bossy.” In one study, researchers found that when women used leadership styles considered to be “masculine,” such as being assertive, the women were evaluated considerably less favorably than men.[16] That is, women were disliked because they were acting in ways that were considered to be masculine. Therefore, although women may possess the same skills as men for the same job, they may be discounted because their behavior is not considered to be stereotypically feminine.[16] In typically male-dominated fields, such as building enclosure consulting, mentoring may be particularly important for women.[19] In such male-dominated fields, women are more likely to encounter cross-gender relationships, and face more barriers to career advancement.[19] In fact, Ragins, Townsend, and Mattis (1998) found that 91% of female executives had a mentor, and having this mentor was cited as a key reason for breaking through the glass ceiling.[19] In a study of women in the male-dominated fields of science, engineering, and information technology (IT) in the U.S., Trauth, Quesenberry, and Huang (2009) found that three organizational factors affected women’s career development. These three organizational factors included work-life balance, organizational climate, and mentoring.[20] This study in particular assumes that not all women are the same, and that there are within-gender variations that help explain more about how organizational factors affect women’s careers. When women were interviewed for this study, although they were not explicitly asked a question about work-life balance, 84% of the participants brought up the topic themselves.[20] Individual factors, such as a woman who was a single mother and therefore felt that she did not have the luxury of
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putting her work first, were discussed as important to work-life balance.[20] Women of both Chinese and Argentinian descent commented that their cultures generally required women to be more responsible for taking care of their home and the children and as opposed to being responsible for working outside of the home, which also influences their views of work-life balance.[20] The takeaway message from this part of the study may be that we must treat employees as individuals with varying needs, outside roles, and ideas. Getting to know employees and mentees is particularly important, so that managers/mentors can tailor their mentoring to their particular mentee’s wants and needs, in a culturally sensitive way.
Under the theme of organizational climate, many women who were interviewed expressed that they felt excluded from social networks, with several describing this as a “boys’ club” or “good-old-boy network.”[20] Women also reported that gender-based stereotypes of women needing to pick up children from school or having children (pregnancies) led them to work harder and longer hours than male coworkers in order to make up for these gender stereotypes and biases.[20] Again, we should understand that women are individuals and we should base our judgements of a person on their performance and who they are as a person rather than on generalized stereotypes that are often not true and can be dangerous to women employees. Being aware of this and utilizing coaching and mentoring techniques will contribute to a positive work culture that will bring out the best in people and lead to increased employee retention.
WHAT IS MENTORING?
As stated above, in this paper we have chosen to define mentoring as “a relationship between an older, more experienced mentor and a younger, less experienced protégé for the purpose of helping and developing the protégé’s career.”[14] Settles, Cortina, Stewart, and Malley (2007) similarly define mentors as “senior individuals who provide support to more junior persons and advocate for them, typically from within the organization.” Usually, the mentor works in the same domain as the protégé; however, that is not always the case.[14] The timeframe on a mentoring relationship is open-ended.[14] While mentoring involves multiple relationships that are both formal and informal, mentoring often refers to a specific and developmental relationship that is unique to a person’s career.[14,19] Mentors offer three different types of functions to their mentees: career functions or development, personal support, and role modeling.[14,19] Ragins and Kram (2007) define mentoring career functions or overall development as actions that help mentees prepare for hierarchical advancement within their organization and within their career. These actions include providing career advice and/or coaching protégés, sponsoring their advancement within the organization, increasing their exposure and visibility within the organization and career field, and offering them protection.[14,19] Psychological behaviors or psychological support of mentors include offering acceptance, professional friendship, and counseling to mentees.[14,19] Mentors also serve as role models for their mentees—not only within their organization, but also within their career field.[19] These actions from mentors in turn help to enhance the mentee’s professional and personal growth, identity, and self-worth.[14] Good mentoring addresses larger issues of the mentee’s life inside and outside of the organization, as well as enhancing work effectiveness and success.[3,18] WHAT IS COACHING?
While coaching employees may previously have been perceived as necessary—or a “fix”—to address poor performance, coaching should now be understood as a developmental intervention for improved performance, even when there isn’t a problem.[10] Beattie (2006) defines a coach as a “supervisor or manager serving as a facilitator of learning by enacting behaviors that enable employees to learn and develop work-related skills and abilities.”[10] Coaching can also attempt to help individuals understand how their reactions interfere with their feelings of ability to perform the necessary aspects of their job. Coaching is a process where the coach creates enabling relationships with others to help them learn and improve performance of the person being coached and is a by-product of learning.[10] That is, coaching positively influences job satisfaction and performance, as well as improving individual and organizational performance.[10] Coaching employees can have an effect on how well employees feel that they
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can do their job. Like mentoring, coaching provides employees with access to their coach’s resources and expertise, as employees can use their coach’s network and status, as well as brokering to other parts of the company.[21] Managers and leaders experienced with supervising employees and utilizing coaching techniques as tools can take their work to the next level. Coaching attempts to help individuals understand how their cognitive, behavioral, and emotional reactions interfere with their self-efficacy. Self-efficacy means a person’s expectations or perceptions of their own abilities and performance, and relatedly, their expectations for success in their endeavors.[2] Self-efficacy influences a person’s behaviors, thoughts, and emotional reactions to a given situation.[1] Therefore, coaches who can help a coachee examine their thoughts about their abilities can have an impact on that coachee’s future thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. This may be an important skill to learn and use with future coachees or employees who are working on mastery of their job.
Bandura’s (1982) theory describes four sources of information that increase or decrease a person’s self-efficacy: 1) enactive attainments (i.e., performing the specific desired behavior successfully), 2) vicarious experiences (i.e., observing the specific behavior being performed by someone similar to them), 3) verbal persuasion (i.e., being told that one possesses capabilities that will help in performing the desired behavior), and 4) one’s psychological state (e.g., emotional arousal) that may help or hinder performance. The first point may be clear—that individuals who are able to perform an aspect of their job successfully feel more confident in their job-related skills, or that aspect of their job. Then, coaches who are able to model appropriate work behaviors—from specific skills to interactions with colleagues and clients—help their coachees feel a sense of confidence in their skills through these vicarious experiences. Additionally, simply being told that a person possesses capabilities to help in performing the desired behavior is also important; so, coaches who can verbally praise and encourage employees help their coachees be successful. Finally, work performance can be affected by an employee’s personal life, so those coaches who do take on more of a mentorship role can help their coachees feel a sense of mastery over their work.
A type of coaching called “executive coaching,” or a helping relationship between a managerial-level client and a consultant that follows a formally defined coaching agreement, also focuses on both interpersonal and intrapersonal issues. However, this is a coach who is external to the company and paid to coach employees. Since this is not the focus of this paper, we mention it only as a resource and possible area for future work.
INCORPORATING MENTORING AND COACHING INTO THE WORKPLACE
How to Mentor in the Workplace
As mentioned above, mentors offer three different types of functions to their mentees—career functions or development; psychological functions, behaviors, or support; and role modeling.[14,19] In this section, we briefly describe ways to incorporate these functions into mentoring in your workplace.
Career functions help mentees prepare for advancement in their organization and their career. One way to help mentees develop is to provide career advice; mentors within the same career field and within the same organization may be in a unique position to do this. Increasing a mentee’s exposure and
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visibility may mean introducing them to colleagues and leadership both within the organization, as well as helping them make connections in the career field generally. Sponsoring a mentee’s advancement within the organization may mean not only making those connections, but also looking for opportunities for advancement that fit the mentee’s career goals and skillset and serving as a recommendation for the mentee as they advance. Offering the mentee some protection, or a barrier between the mentee and higher leadership, may include helping to insulate them from organizational change or bureaucracy that need not affect newer or lower-level employees. Mentors may also coach their protégés, which we will describe further in the next section.
Psychological behaviors or psychological support of mentors include offering acceptance, professional friendship, and counseling.[14,19] While this does not need to resemble a therapy session, it is important for employees to have sources of support at work. Creating a sense of trust between the mentor and mentee, as well as among other colleagues in the organization, allows employees to rely on each other and creates relationships that make an organization work effectively.[10,11] Trustworthiness, having a sense of community, and stronger connections between colleagues has benefits—not only for the employees, but also the organization.[10] However, these types of support or connections cannot be manufactured; they must be cultivated.
Finally, mentors also serve as role models for their mentees—not only within their organization, but also within their career field.[19] Role modeling may be defined most simply as leadership by example.[17] It may include work habits, (positive) attitudes, goals, and other behaviors.[17] Therefore, we may think of role modeling as the mentor performing desired behaviors of the organization or career field in order to model the appropriate and desired behaviors for mentees and other employees.
How to Coach in the Workplace
Ellinger and colleagues (2011) suggest that the basic skills required of coaches include listening, analytical, interviewing, questioning, and observational skills. Managerial coaching behaviors include giving and receiving performance feedback, communicating and setting clear expectations, creating and promoting a supportive learning environment, question-framing, providing resources, transferring ownership to employees, broadening employees’ perspectives, being a role model, and challenging employees to stretch themselves.[10] In fact, Ellinger and colleagues asked employees at multiple organizations in a wide range of industries about these coaching behaviors. They found that the most endorsed item regarding coaching was that coaches set clear expectations with their employees and that they communicated the importance of those expectations to the larger goals of the organization.[10] Coaching was also important for employees to broaden their perspectives in order to help them see the bigger picture.[10] Providing employees with constructive feedback on their performance, as well as asking employees for feedback on their coaching interactions, are other ways to communicate well and set clear expectations.[10] Finally, Ellinger and colleagues (2011) found that coaches providing employees with resources so that they can perform their jobs most effectively was also crucial to good managerial coaching. Other ways to be a good coach include being fair and providing equitable opportunities among employees, offering encouragement to employees, being a good role model and setting a positive tone within the organization, being consistent and direct in communication with coachees, showing respect for employees, keeping promises that are made or following through on commitments, and spending quality time with their employees, including completing tasks together and being fully present to listen to employee concerns.[10] In the next section we discuss “employee voice” as another way to be a good coach in the workplace.
Employee Voice
One way to be a good coach or mentor in the workplace is to be a good leader generally. Good leaders allow “employee voice,” or allow employees to express opinions, voice comments, and give recommendations for needed change, workplace issues, or about actions of others.[11] More specifically, “voice” is defined as “the attempt to change rather than escape from an objectionable situation,” and allows employees to feel connected to others in their organization.[12] Employees being able to challenge the status quo without feeling that they will upset the leader, or the person responsible for the established framework of thoughts and routines, is needed for all employees to have a sense of personal agency and feel safe and valued.[11,12] Settles and colleagues (2007) found that women who perceived they had more voice regarding issues in their department had higher levels of job satisfaction than women who perceived having less voice. This was true even for women who worked in departments that had negative climates, with issues such as sexism, sexual harassment, and general hostility leading to the negative climate.[19] This again shows that it is important for female employees to feel that they have a voice and can speak up about issues and present suggestions for positive changes. Without feeling that they have a voice, employees of either gender are more likely to have low self-confidence, feel depressed, and underachieve.[19] Some studies show that voice is actually of particular importance to female employees, who are more likely to value relational connections and loyalty than male employees.[19] Anecdotally, some female roofing and building enclosure consultants report being able to have a stronger voice with male mentors and supervisors; but Settles and colleagues (2007) found that female employees with female mentors reported having more voice, whereas female employees with male mentors did not report
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having voice. The good news is that voice can be fostered within the workplace by effective leaders and mentors, both male and female.[19] Mentors, in particular, can increase an employee’s sense that they have a voice or influence in the workplace.[19] Mentors of female employees may need to be keenly aware of the need for employees to have a voice and facilitate this, especially in the beginning of a mentoring relationship when trust is still being established. More research is needed in the roofing and building enclosure industry to elucidate the nuances of the influence of gender on mentoring relationships in this industry specifically.
A study in China found that men were more likely than women to voice their opinions.[11] Another study conducted in the U.S. also found that men were significantly more likely than women to feel “psychological safety,” or the trust needed in order to feel safe enough to voice their opinions to managers and other leaders.[8] Leaders should take this into consideration when working with female employees; they may need to provide more specific opportunities for women to express their opinions, suggest changes, etc., as some women may be less likely to share opinions without a specific opportunity (i.e., being asked for their ideas). Additionally, allowing employees of either gender to speak out and recommend change or ideas that go against the current status quo should be met with an open mind and thoughtful consideration, rather than any initial opposition, defensiveness, or other behaviors that would retaliate against the employee or make them think it is not safe to bring up new ideas in the future. Finally, if a change suggested by an employee is made, recognition and any rewards should be given to the employee who made the suggestion, rather than recognition being taken by the manager.[11] CONCLUSION/ANALYSIS
Coaching and mentoring employees are musts for effective communication and employee trust, and for businesses to run well. As new employees enter the workforce, they expect to find managers and colleagues with coaching, mentoring, managerial, and leadership skills. The bottom line is that these skills are necessary for employee retention, and particularly for retaining female employees, in the roofing/building enclosure field. Additionally, mentoring and coaching skills can be extended to working with colleagues, internal and external project teams, and clients as well.
Mentoring leads to positive outcomes for mentees, such as higher compensation and salary, higher job and career satisfaction, greater commitment to their organization, and greater commitment to their career, and it ultimately affects their intentions to stay in the organization.[5] Mentors offer three different types of functions to their mentees—career functions or development, personal support, and role modeling.[14,19] In action, these functions include helping mentees advance their careers, making introductions to colleagues, providing support and professional friendship, and being a positive role model of the desired behaviors in an organization.
Coaches utilize skills such as listening, analyzing, interviewing, questioning, and observing. Coaches also give and receive performance feedback, communicate and set clear expectations, create and promote a supportive learning environment, broaden an employee’s perspective, and eventually transfer ownership of work and ideas to employees, while being a role model and challenging employees to stretch themselves.
Good coaches and mentors allow employees to have a voice. Organizations that encourage trust between colleagues and collaborative relationships also allow employees to express opinions, voice comments, and give recommendations for needed change and workplace issues, or about actions of others, without the fear of retaliation. Voice is needed for all employees to have a sense of personal agency and to feel safe and valued, but may be particularly important for female employees. In one study, women who perceived they had more voice regarding issues in their department had higher levels of job satisfaction than women who perceived having less voice. This was true even for women who worked in departments that had negative climates, with issues such as sexism, sexual harassment, and general hostility leading to the negative climate. Employees feeling that they have a voice and can speak up about issues and present suggestions for positive changes is powerful, particularly for women.
Voice can be fostered within an organization by effective coaching and mentoring, as they can increase an employee’s sense that they have a voice or influence in the workplace. Again, this may be particularly important for female employees, and specific opportunities for women to express their opinions and suggest changes should be provided as some women may be less likely to share opinions without a specific opportunity (i.e., being asked for their ideas). Allowing any employee to speak out and recommend changes or ideas without defensiveness or retaliatory behaviors will
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Coaching and mentoring will
also encourage open communication,
allowing employees to have a voice,
and otherwise contribute to more
inclusive practices that will create a
positive work culture and ultimately lead
to increased employee retention.
encourage them to bring up new ideas in the future.
Perhaps most importantly, we have discussed how coaching and mentoring contribute to a positive culture and employee retention. Gender and racial stereotypes influence how we perceive all people, especially employees.[16] In particular, stereotypes affect women. Whether we perceive women as being “warm” and “nurturing,” or “bossy,” women are spending part of their energy and workday regulating their own behavior in the workplace, in addition to completing necessary tasks for their jobs. Research cited in this paper shows that although women may possess the same skills as men for the same job, women may be discounted by both employers and colleagues because of behaviors that are or are not considered to be stereotypically feminine.[16] The emotional energy needed to regulate others’ perceptions is not only exhausting, but it would also be better spent on work tasks.
Research has found that women report that gender-based stereotypes such as women needing to pick up children from school or having children (pregnancies) led them to work harder and longer hours than male coworkers in order to make up for these gender stereotypes and biases.[20] We should understand that women are individuals and we should base our judgements of a person on their performance and who they are as a person, rather than on generalized stereotypes that are often not true and can be dangerous to female employees. Everyone holds ideas based on stereotypes, and the first step to challenging those is being aware of them. We hope that presenting this research allows employers, coaches, and mentors ways to examine their beliefs about people based on stereotypes and begin to challenge themselves to think differently by getting to know each individual rather than allowing our preconceptions to cloud our judgement of a person.
In typically male-dominated fields such as building enclosure consulting, coaching and mentoring may be particularly important for women. In fact, coaching and mentoring female employees may help buffer some of the effects of stereotypes and other challenges women face in the workplace. For example, in male-dominated fields, women are more likely to face barriers to career advancement and attaining leadership positions. Having a mentor is a key reason women are able to advance and attain leadership positions in male-dominated organizations and fields.
We also invite readers to remember that women are not a homogenous group. That is, not all women have the same experiences or the same career concerns and goals. There are within-gender variations that help explain more about how organizational factors affect women’s careers. Individual factors, such as cultural background, health status, family composition and dynamics, career goals, and more, are important to consider for any employee. Therefore, we must remember to treat employees as individuals, with varying needs, outside roles, and ideas. Getting to know employees and mentees is particularly important, so that managers/mentors can tailor their mentoring to their particular mentee’s wants and needs, in a culturally sensitive way.
While it may be an uncomfortable truth, experience reminds us that historically, organizations expected the majority of their employees to be white men. Therefore, organizations were designed to accommodate and benefit white male employees.[13] Ideas surrounding gender roles have changed and adapted more recently than we may assume. Research has found that particularly in male-dominated fields, many women feel excluded from social networks at work, with several women describing this phenomenon as a “boys’ club” or “good-old-boy network.”[20] Utilizing coaching and mentoring techniques can help combat this by helping employees, particularly female employees, access their coach or mentor’s connections and network of colleagues. Coaching and mentoring will also encourage open communication, allowing employees to have a voice, and otherwise contribute to more inclusive practices that will create a positive work culture and ultimately lead to increased employee retention.
As we look to areas with special challenges and future directions to consider, we hope that this paper has begun to provide the knowledge and skills about mentoring and coaching to work more effectively with colleagues, supervise employees in a supportive way, and ultimately create a positive work culture that contributes to increased employee retention of women and men.
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CHALLENGES TO CONSIDER
Intersectionality
Intersectionality—a term to define people who have multiple marginalized or “minority” identities—is necessary to consider, as it presents specific challenges. Black women are the largest female minority group to receive educational degrees.[16] However, there are many barriers for women of color in the workplace including a lack of networking opportunities, a lack of ethnic role models and mentors, and a lack of high-visibility assignments.[16] Corporations would benefit themselves and black female workers with mentoring programs and minority affinity groups that can give additional professional and social support.[16] Such programs would also show that the organization is working to create a more open, inclusive work environment and help black women to not feel as isolated and have more support[16]. While this research specifically addresses black women in the workplace, many of these ideas extend to other women of color and marginalized identities as well; having mentors, programs, groups, and other support for those with minority or intersectional identities goes a long way to support and retain employees.
AREAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
A review of the literature suggests that women are motivated at work by similar factors as men and want the same opportunities for career advancement and equal compensation to men. For example, in a study of female physicians mostly between the ages of 31-40 years old and the majority having children, Clem and colleagues (2008) found that women cited reasons such as recognition at work, career advancement opportunities, schedule flexibility, having supportive colleagues, and the fairness of financial compensation as significant factors for career satisfaction. Factors that were not found to be important for career satisfaction in this study included work climate, having a “caring” director, and demographic factors, including age and having children. Workplace factors that were most associated with high levels of satisfaction included sex-equal opportunity for advancement and financial compensation.[7] Importantly, the gender of the employee’s boss was not associated with career satisfaction among the women surveyed.[7] Future studies could investigate whether this is true in the building enclosure industry as well.
Additionally, many programs currently exist in order to help managerial-level employees learn coaching and mentoring skills. Therefore, there are two areas for future research under this umbrella. First, establishing a program for managers to learn managerial best-practices skills may be important for many who are new to mentoring and coaching, as well as those wishing to brush up or learn new skills to benefit their organization and help retain employees. Organizations and employers wishing to gain these skills do not have to reinvent the wheel; some programs already exist. From a review of the existing literature, we found that the most successful programs use a cognitive-behavioral or solution-focused approach. And as this may certainly be a time-consuming task for professionals with an already busy schedule, this type of program could be held not only in person, but could also have online modules which could be completed at each manager’s own pace.
The second area for future research under this umbrella is an assessment of current managerial and leadership coaching and mentoring practices to see if they meet best practices. After a review of the existing literature on the topic, we have briefly outlined and summarized best practices in this paper. A person intimately familiar with this research and these mentoring and coaching programs could observe and evaluate mentors and coaches in an organization and offer specific suggestions for improvement and feedback on what is going well.
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