FTSE 100® Cross-Company Mentoring Programme: Next Generation Women Leaders (2012 – 2020)
This section provides detailed information about the above Programme, which ran for eight years and was drawn to a close in 2020 because organisations were increasingly establishing their own, in-house mentoring programmes for women at an earlier stage of their career. Please therefore regard it as historical record.
The mission of the Next Generation Women Leaders Programme was to assist in the development of the UK "pipeline" of talented senior female executives, by offering highly individualised and effective mentoring relationships for high-potential women at the mid-stages of their career.
The Programme was launched in late 2012 as a pilot: "The Pipeline Programme" which ran for a year. Due to the success of the pilot programme, which you can read about by clicking on the link below, the Next Generation Women Leaders Programme was launched in early 2014.
How the Next Generation Programme began: The Pipeline Programme
In his 2011 Report, Women on Boards, The Lord Davies of Abersoch CBE identified attrition of women at mid-career stage of their life as the most significant obstacle to ensuring a robust pipeline of future women leaders. He described the reasons as complex and mentioned lack of flexible working, work-life balance issues and disillusionment at career progress as factors. This Programme was aimed at talented mid-career women who had the potential to progress two or three more levels in their organisations to reach senior management or executive level. These women often faced key career transitions at a time when they were also balancing other competing demands on them. They frequently lacked strong female role models to guide and support them. This Programme:
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drew attention to the particular challenges women face at this stage of their career, which have resulted in such high levels of attrition |
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addressed those challenges through a mix of one-to-one mentoring and group learning |
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facilitated the introduction of Mentees to senior business figures through the broader network of the Foundation and its Executive Programme |
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facilitated shared learning between senior sponsors within participating companies about the issues facing women in the talent pipeline, to enable them to refine their understanding of the interventions that might best help retain top women |
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maintained in-depth qualitative data about our cohorts of Programme Mentees, in particular their future progress, offering unique insights into how the Programme and related interventions help them progress through their careers, and |
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disseminated research knowledge, advice and guidance on the development of human resource management policies to address the career challenges faced by talented younger women executives in the UK. |
How the Next Generation Women Leaders Programme operated
The Programme implemented and supported mentoring relationships for high-potential women at the junior end of senior management in participating companies. These women were paired with senior female executive Mentors at or just below Executive Committee level.
Mentees were selected by participating companies in consultation with The Mentoring Foundation. The Foundation drew on its network of Mentees and Alumnae from the original FTSE 100® Cross-Company Mentoring Executive Programme to act as Mentors. These women had the experience both of having built successful careers and having been mentored in the original FTSE Programme. The Mentors were successful, well-connected and influential, working at the highest level in some of the country’s largest organisations. They offered enormous experience and great role-modelling capabilities for Mentees on the Next Generation Women Leaders Programme. Mentor and Mentee profile documents produced by The Mentoring Foundation offered guidance to participating companies in identifying suitable candidates.
Two cohorts of up to ten Mentees in each year were admitted to the Programme. A bespoke Programme, creating a network of opportunity, was developed for them, centred around a first-class mentoring relationship combined with facilitated action learning. Mentees also benefitted from a broader network of connections made possible by the generosity of the Foundation’s unique Executive Programme Mentors, Mentees and Alumnae.
One-to-one mentoring
We matched each Mentee with a Mentor from a different organisation. The Mentors were all successful, senior women and alumnae of the FTSE 100® Cross-Company Mentoring Executive Programme. They had themselves benefitted from mentoring at the highest level on the Executive Programme, and had expressed a desire to extend a helping hand to women further down the pipeline.
Each cohort ran for a twelve month period. The number of mentoring meetings arranged, and the precise duration of each, was agreed between Mentors and their Mentees. As a guide, the mentoring pair met every two months, and each conversation lasted approximately an hour and a half. The principles governing the Executive Programme also applied, allowing each pair to find a way of working that suited them. The same matching process was used, and as with the Executive Programme it was this, together with the skill of the Mentor and willingness to learn on the part of the Mentee, that ensured success. We maintained close contact with both parties, and were on hand if questions arise.
Action learning
Participants in the programme were brought together in their cohort groups to engage in learning sessions, which we facilitated. These confidential groups provided the opportunity for women to address issues of shared importance as a group; for example, understanding and developing executive presence, the skills of influencing and persuasion and the importance of building strong professional networks for the future.
Support provided by The Mentoring Foundation
The Mentoring Foundation provided a highly individualised service including:
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preparation workshops for Mentees, allowing them to meet and network with each other as well as offering tips and guidance on how to prepare for and build successful mentoring relationships that deliver results for them |
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an initial meeting with Mentors to discuss the role of Mentor in this particular Programme |
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a bespoke matching process where each individual Mentee was placed with an appropriate Mentor in another company. Matching was based on a briefing from the sponsoring organisation, one-to-one meetings with both Mentees and Mentors and on supporting written submissions from the Mentee, setting out her expectations from the Next Generation Women Leaders Programme |
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face-to-face review sessions with individual Mentees to discuss progress |
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facilitation of action-learning workshops for Mentees during their time with the Programme, and |
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systematic liaison with sponsors in participating companies. |
Access to a broad and influential network
As a result of the generosity and commitment of our Executive Programme Mentors and Mentees, Next Generation Programme Mentees had the chance to meet with leading figures in business and the public sector in informal settings. Such meetings included an informal meeting with Sir Simon Fraser KCMG, Former Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; lunch with Sir Philip Hampton, Chair, Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, to discuss the issues faced by women in business, an afternoon discussion with Sir John Sawers, then Chief of SIS and his colleagues, and an afternoon workshop with Elaine Arden, Group Human Resources Director, Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, on the theme of her career journey and how organisations could support the retention and development of talented women.
Building the Mentoring Relationship
Each matched Mentee and Mentor got together for an initial “chemistry” meeting, after which they decided whether and how they would like to proceed. As with the Executive Programme, we provided each mentoring pair with our Mentoring Guidelines – but as a template rather than a straightjacket, and each pair was encouraged to agree a framework for their relationship that met their individual needs.
A guiding principle was that at least 4 meetings should take place over a 12-month period. Mentoring relationships lasted for 12 months.
The Next Generation Women Leaders Programme offered its Mentees benefits similar to those enjoyed by the Mentees on the Executive Programme. These do not lend themselves to quantitative measurement, but our experience suggests that they included the following:
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Role models. Mentees interacted with some of the country’s most successful senior female executives and benefitted from their experience and the model they had developed for building their own success in the corporate world |
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Bespoke Professional Learning and Development. In the context of their own specific needs, Mentees built a development framework with their Mentor that offered them the type of insight, coaching and support they needed to help them consolidate their careers |
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Confidence. Research shows that women suffer disproportionately from lack of confidence. Our experience of leading the FTSE Executive Programme since 2003 is that the Next Generation Women Leaders Programme enhanced Mentees’ confidence, both by virtue of having been selected as a Mentee and through the influence of the Mentor’s coaching, advice and support |
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Network. Mentees had the opportunity to expand their networks through their mentoring relationships, connections with other Mentees and through the broader Mentoring Foundation network and events |
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Facilitated Action Learning. Through self-managed workshops, the Mentee group acquired both substantial business knowledge and skills in a confidential and safe environment of shared development. |
Robust Evaluation Framework
Together with Birkbeck, University of London, we developed a framework for evaluation. It promoted a culture of learning, using feedback systematically sought from participants and other interested stakeholders. This was analysed and the learning fed back into the Programme. Feedback was based upon one-on-one confidential discussions.
Achievements of our Mentees
86 Mentoring Pairs participated in the FTSE 100® Cross-Company Mentoring Programme: Next Generation Women Leaders since its launch in 2012, and many of the women who were mentored are progressing in their careers, receiving promotions and assuming positions of greater responsibility.