{"id":42781,"date":"2023-10-20T15:23:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/four-powerful-reasons-to-sponsor-back-and-mentor-women-in-tech-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:23:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:23:43","slug":"four-powerful-reasons-to-sponsor-back-and-mentor-women-in-tech-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/four-powerful-reasons-to-sponsor-back-and-mentor-women-in-tech-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Four powerful reasons to sponsor, back and mentor women in tech – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

The reasons we help other women in their career journeys might seem obvious to most.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the right thing to do and it often just comes naturally, many of us may not even think about why we’re doing it.<\/p>\n

But the benefits of giving another woman a \u2018leg up\u2019 are numerous, and can have a far wider positive impact than just on the woman we might choose to help at that moment.<\/p>\n

Helping other women with their careers can come in the form of formal sponsoring or mentoring, informal encouragement, acknowledgement, advice or suggestions, or even via a specific offer of assistance in some way.<\/p>\n

It can also come, often very powerfully, from a simple, well thought out and well timed compliment.<\/p>\n

Kindness is leadership<\/h3>\n

The first reason to help others is that, as minister Linda Burney said at a Women\u2019s Agenda<\/em> event recently, acts of kindness and generosity are actually acts of leadership.<\/p>\n

You can demonstrate leadership through lending a hand to someone who needs it, or to someone who may not need it but will benefit from it anyway.<\/p>\n

As well as making a positive contribution to the world, through such acts you also create trust and followers, two essential ingredients of effective leadership.<\/p>\n

It feels good<\/h3>\n

Secondly, helping other women feels really good.<\/p>\n

Psychologists have found that altruism and kindness to others is part of what creates genuine inner happiness.<\/p>\n

Others benefit from your help, and you feel good about that. That\u2019s a simple win-win situation right there.<\/p>\n

It might help you<\/h3>\n

A third reason to help other women is that it might create a connection that later pays off.<\/p>\n

This applies inside and outside one\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

When I was at the end of a long labour with my first child, a midwife came on duty, to whom I had taught communication skills at university some years earlier.<\/p>\n

When she came to visit me and my baby son the next day, she told me she remembered me and how kind I had been to her when she was a nervous new student transitioning to university.<\/p>\n

That was what led her to choose to get under the shower with me, fully clothed, rub my back and tell me what a great job I was doing in labour when she could see my distress.<\/p>\n

She said she was so happy to return the favour of the kindness I had shown her years earlier.<\/p>\n

In terms of career, you never know how helping a woman advance up the ladder might benefit your business or your career at another point.<\/p>\n

You might not choose to help for that reason, but it can lead to an unexpected positive outcome later.<\/p>\n

The next generation will benefit<\/h3>\n

Finally, unless we pull other women up behind us, and even push them in front of us, we won’t create positive change or progress for female leaders.<\/p>\n

Without significant change, today\u2019s junior and emerging women leaders will still be facing gender discrimination and unequal pay in yet another generation, and that will be to everyone\u2019s detriment.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on Women’s Agenda. <\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn and iTunes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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