Jennifer Discusses the Benefits of Mentoring and the CREW UK Connects Mentorship Programme
Over the past 8 months I have been involved with the CREW UK Connects Mentorship Programme which offers women working within property and real estate 6 one hour mentoring sessions with a range of senior property professionals.
On signing up to the program it seemed like a fantastic opportunity to learn from some amazing industry leaders and the chance to (virtually) meet with both mentors and other mentees from across the property industry was really exciting, especially at a time when networking and collaborative working has become much more of a challenge.
Despite initially feeling slightly intimidated by the calibre of mentors, I found them all extremely friendly and welcoming. A valuable lesson I learnt was the importance of collaboration across different sectors of property. After signing up we were encouraged to seek out mentors from a variety of fields and not just from areas that we are familiar with. This led to some informative sessions and was also a thread throughout my mentoring, highlighting the value of applying expertise from other fields and having a broadminded approach to your work.
I was surprised to hear how beneficial the mentors found the mentoring sessions and how many of them also had their own mentors. The feedback we received was that it encouraged them to think about their own strengths and weakness, evaluate their achievements and consider how they can support people in their own organisation.
Mentoring can offer practical guidance and advice on a variety of topics such as time management, working from home and industry trends. It can also be a great way to connect with others from different backgrounds, sectors and stages in their career and this was definitely one of the highlights of the program for me. I would definitely recommend signing up to a mentoring or networking opportunity that enables informal conversations and discussions with people outside of your normal work environment as a way work on your strengths and weaknesses but also to meet new people and form new ideas.
If you’d like to discuss the programme or are thinking about become a mentor or mentee I’d love to hear from you at jennifer@sayproperty.co.uk
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