Gender difference in approaches to mentoring

At its most basic level, mentoring is a very important tool in building interpersonal relationships in the workplace. Mentors help young people set career goals and start taking steps to realise them. Mentors are able to use their personal contacts to help others in the workplace.

Mentors provide their mentees with experience and can help in any number of situations.

And as British Airways announces plans to host a ‘Mentoring Flight’ as part of the relaunch of its On Business loyalty programme, the airline also releases research conducted with 175 of its top customers in to the value of mentoring.

The top findings revealed:
* 97% said mentoring added real value and 82% agreed it helped boost their business.
* 53% per cent of men said they were a mentor, compared to 39% of women
* 20% per cent of women will organise mentoring for themselves versus just 8% of men
* 84% of women want mentoring for career development and improving performance at work versus 71% of men
* 8% more men than women want mentoring to help them run a business and 4% more want it to help them build relationships
* 83% conducted their mentoring face-to-face
* The top names that people wanted to be mentored by included Barak Obama, Warren Buffet, Alex Ferguson, Joanna Lumley, Tim Cook and the Dalai Lama

The research comes as the airline is set to host a mentoring flight on October 20 to Austin, Texas — the heartland of innovation in the USA – for three lucky business owners.