EWG/TEI 5th Annual Flash Mentoring

Registration for the 2012 session is closed. Please join us for the 2013 sessions.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 from 2:30 - 4:30 p.m.

Treasury Executive Institute, 801 Ninth St., NW, Washington, DC 20270

Career Insights Gained in a Flash

Insightful, meaningful, upbeat, and relevant were just several of the adjectives that participants from over 30 different federal agencies used to describe EWG’s Fourth Annual Flash Mentoring event.

Fifteen high-powered, current and retired federal executive women served as mentors from as many agencies.

“The barrier to successful mentoring efforts is often the limited time to devote to a traditional program,” according to Mary Josie Blanchard, Co-Chair of EWG’s Status of Women Committee. Blanchard, who along with Program Co-chair Paula Farrell, has promoted EWG Flash Mentoring over the past several years as a way to help busy female executives share their insights “in a flash” with the next generation of aspiring leaders.

“I’ve participated in all four of these events,” said Katherine Gugulis, Deputy Director for Administration and Management, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, “and probably learn as much from the mentees as they learn from me. It’s an opportunity to pass on what my mentors gave me.”

Flash mentoring is an adaptation of ‘speed dating’ transported to the world of mentoring and busy executive women. One of the objectives of Executive Women in Government, said Blanchard, is to mentor other women for continued growth and leadership roles. The barrier to successful mentoring efforts is often the limited time everyone has to devote to a traditional mentoring program. EWG began holding flash mentoring events to overcome the time barrier and provide mentees the opportunity to ask questions about their development and personal growth without all the bureaucracy and hard-to-meet commitments of more formal programs.

Mentors respond to three rounds of questions while participants rotate to a different table each time. Mentors share lessons learned for advancing in their federal careers, how to deal with setbacks or challenges, and what they wish they had known earlier in their career, specially when occupying a leadership position.

The answers to the questions are captured by scribes and compiled in a “Pearls of Wisdom” list that is published on EWG’s website.

“Flash mentoring is definitely one of our most popular programs,” said Elizabeth Cotsworth, EWG President. In fact, EWG officers have also taken the concept and offered it at a couple of agencies such as the U.S. Postal Service in 2010 and more recently at NASA, as a way to further their outreach.

Click HERE to Read 2012 Mentor Biographies.

 

2012 Scribes include:

  • Archie Barnes
  • Lillian Fata
  • Monica Gavin
  • Kimiko Oliver
  • Sylvia Rainford
  • Karen Seeh
  • LaVanna Stevenson
  • Lana Suarez
  • Samantha L. Spiece
  • Terra-Lynn Zentara
  • Courtney Hoover
  • Molly Ennis
  • Susmita Pendurthi

2012 Scribes coordinated by Patricia Licata

* Please note: All Scribe positions for the 2012 sessions have been filled.

2011 Flash Mentoring Exercise Pearls of Wisdom

February 24, 2011

Round 1: What lessons have you learned during your career that you think are the most important for our mentees to know about in order for them to advance in their federal careers?

Know Your Goals

  • Weigh life and career choices. Prioritize what you really want out of life.
  • Actively manage your career. Find indirect paths to your goals.
  • Always have a “Plan B.”

Focus on Knowledge, Skills and Work Quality

  • Always volunteer for projects and assignments. Volunteering provides visibility, networking opportunities, and builds your skill set.
  • Learn about basic administrative processes: procurement, human resources, budgets, and working in teams.
  • Keep your political antenna up; know what’s going on around Capitol Hill and at other agencies.
  • Know where to go to ask questions and when to ask questions.
  • Be an expert in at least one area.
  • Focus on results.

Everyday Is an Interview

  • Everyday is an interview. Watch how mentors conduct themselves: how they manage their time, their days, the people they work with and work for.
  • Practice humility and patience.
  • Be dependable and stay away from negative people.
  • Be assertive with balance.
  • Be a problem-solver.

Develop Networking and People Skills

  • The network you build is invaluable.
  • Join professional organizations.
  • Learn to play up (to your leadership), down (to your subordinates) and to the side (to your peers) — all directions are important.
  • Learn to adapt to different management styles. Make your boss look good.

Values Count

  • Be aware of the people around you; be kind. Don’t burn bridges.
  • If you’re unhappy, change it or move on.
  • Stay true to your core values.

Be Flexible

  • Be willing to relocate, if you can.
  • Find a way to take developmental assignments at other agencies.
  • Cross-fertilize. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Don’t invest all your time in one area. Build a broad knowledge base for places of employment.
  • Develop people behind you. This will limit resistance to your moving on.

Round 2: How have you dealt with setbacks or challenges in your career?

Know Your Goals

  • Use your setbacks as an advantage to accomplish your goals. Turn a negative into a positive.
  • Develop a personal growth strategy to learn new skills.

Focus on Knowledge, Skills and Work Quality

  • Stay current regarding the state of the practice in your field.
  • Take the risk to talk to someone in another department to see what is going on there.
  • Your reputation and quality of work matters.
  • Ask your staff to teach you something everyday.

Every Day Is an Interview

  • Don’t let over-emotion cloud your vision. Maintain your composure and let the data, not personalities, drive your analysis.
  • Manage your role and your behavior as part of your personal accountability. Could you have done something that may have contributed to the setback or challenge? Become proactive and not reactionary to setbacks or challenges.
  • Be gracious and mature along the way. Work diligently and remain teachable.
  • Stay professional. Don’t get sucked into office gossip.
  • Always maintain a positive attitude, but realize that not everyone will like you.
  • Maintain a team attitude. Learn how to take out “I” in your discussions.
  • Seek to add value at the table and you will be welcomed.
  • Be able to advocate for yourself and deal with your setbacks.

Develop Networking and People Skills

  • Build coalitions and leverage your resources.
  • Take advantage of social opportunities and events at work. If people don’t know you exist, they can’t recommend you for a job or other opportunity.
  • Learn how to deal with difficult people and controversial situations.

Values Count

  • Develop a personal sense of responsibility and accountability.
  • When overlooked for a job, don’t get upset with the person who got it. Be honest with yourself about the credentials you really have.
  • There is always a “gift” in a setback. Look for it.
  • Learn to value everyone you work with. Appreciate diversity in style and personalities. Make sure you hear what the “opposition” is saying.
  • Don’t be in denial that things will always go as planned. Develop thick skin.
  • Find ways to relieve stress. Take care of your health.

Be Flexible

  • People who work for you need to know you are open to ideas.
  • Sometimes what’s needed is a change in agencies to advance your career.

Round 3: What do you wish you would have known earlier in your career, especially when occupying a leadership position?

Know Your Goals

  • Know where you will be in 5, 10, or 15 years.
  • Don’t be afraid to negotiate for things when you take a new job. If they want you, they will at least meet you part way.

Assess Yourself

  • Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses.
  • Determine how you will work on your weaknesses—then do it.

Focus on Knowledge, Skills and Work Quality

  • Become familiar with technology and keep building your skill sets.
  • Interview people before or soon after you get the leadership role, to seek advice.
  • Seek out various taskforces or working groups, so you can demonstrate your leadership skills and abilities.
  • The higher up you go, the more of a generalist you need to be.
  • Never miss deadlines. Know how to make your manager happy by knowing what he/she wants.
  • Focus on the big picture; everything else will fall into place.

Develop Networking and People Skills

  • People are the most important aspect of an organization, not technology.
  • Management is about people.
  • Build team spirit with peers.
  • Have a strong network and good mentors to shine a light on appropriate

things for you to think about.

  • Exchange business cards when you meet someone and write on the back of the card where you met, so that you have a context when you need to call the person.
  • While it’s good to concentrate on the people working for you, you need to spend time playing to the people you work for.
  • It’s important to network with senior managers.
  • If you want an SES position, apply for the job and have someone who is already at that level review your application.
  • Consider scheduling regular meetings with potential mentors to talk about work-related issues. People are often flattered when you ask to meet with them to talk about their work.

Values Count

  • Treat people the way you wish to be treated.
  • You must separate home from work.

Be Flexible

  • Be ready to give up control as you climb the management ladder. Learn to trust your staff, and train them so that you can take time off.
  • Always watch for positions that are opening up. Keep an open mind as to how your expertise may mold or transfer into something entirely new.
  • Never be hung up about working at one specific location. Stay flexible, move around, and apply for jobs within your agency. Don’t be afraid to take a chance.
  • Realize that there is competition, backstabbing and prejudices at the top. Be prepared to move on.

Every Day Is an Interview

  • Don’t forget to sell yourself.
  • Be on guard about what you say because you never know all the connections that exist between people.
  • People will remember you before they remember your input to the project.
  • Send thank-you letters after your interview and once a selection is made.

"Pearls of Wisdom" Compiled by Patricia Licata

Download "Pearls" as MS Word document
 

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