Save the Date for the AWNY Mentoring Program Leadership Breakfast on August 18th by Vicky Sullivan

AWNY’s mentoring program is all about celebrating today’s industry leaders while cultivating the leaders of tomorrow. For this reason, we have selected one of the most ground-breaking women in the communications industry to address our mentoring community at our upcoming breakfast at Yahoo! on Wednesday August 18th. Gina Garrubbo, fellow AWNY member and Executive Vice President of BlogHer, Inc, the largest community of women who blog, with a publishing network of 2,500 blogs and a reach of 21 million unique visitors per month, will be speaking about her professional philosophy and how it relates to mentoring.

This is an excellent opportunity to hear one woman’s story about how mentoring helped her become an innovative and influential women in the industry. You will also have the chance to exchange ideas and experiences with other mentors and mentees within AWNY’s growing mentoring community. Hope to see you there.

*Please note that this event is open only to AWNY members actively participating in the mentoring program. If you are interested in joining AWNY and being a part of the 2011 mentoring program please visit http://www.awny.org/

Get on Par with your Mentor/Mentee this Summer

Looking for someplace new and exciting to go for your next meeting with your mentor or mentee? The sport of golf has long been associated with closing business deals and career success. On July 28th from 6-8 p.m. AWNY will be holding our Annual Golf Clinic at Chelsea Piers sponsored by TRAFFIQ. For this month’s mentoring meeting, take a break from the coffee shop or your usual meeting place and attend AWNY’s premier summer networking event as a mentoring pair. No previous golf experience is required. We will also be holding a raffle with coveted prizes generously donated by companies such as the PGA Tour and The Wall Street Journal. Every attendee will leave with a gift bag full of free swag.

Signup on the AWNY website: http://www.awny.org/module-Pagesetter-viewpub-tid-3-pid-74.html!

Taking it to the Next Level by Lori Wigler

A topic Beth and I have discussed is motivating a team and leading key people to the next level in their careers. While some things are easy to measure (e.g. understanding media and using tools), it’s difficult to teach someone how to think “big picture”, to be “strategic”, and to think from a “holistic brand perspective”. I've been struggling with this task as I prepare my Account Executive for the next level. Beth gave me great suggestions and I recently put one to immediate use with a twist!

If a team member's work is not up to par or has errors, rather than fixing it for them or pointing out the issues, inform the employee that it isn't client ready. Direct the employee to spend more time with the project to find the mistakes. For example, I recently set up time with my Account Executive for something I call “Supervisor School”. I gathered a few recently completed emails or projects which I had revised. We spent about an hour going through four examples and talked about why I made revisions from a bigger picture perspective. Some of my key rules:

• Always ask why: we often are working at such a fast pace that we become task oriented vs. thinking about the big picture. You should attain the objective and end goal for each project. This will ensure the employee is always thinking about the next steps and will ask the right questions.
  

• 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, why & how): think back to elementary school--does the final project address all of these key points clearly? For example, who is the consumer/demo? What is the objective? How will we achieve it? These are basics, but are imperative for discussions.
  


• Get back to the clients' initial requests: have we answered it in the simplest terms? For example, we were asked for cancellation dollars and the AE provided a very detailed spreadsheet that highlighted by quarter, media type, etc. However, it failed to include a bottom line. While all the details were pertinent, we could have provided this as back-up and simply provided the bottom line amount to most efficiently answer the initial question.
  

This process helped set the precedence for my Account Executive of what the next level entails. I also made her aware that in the future, she should expect that I wouldn’t fix her work and instead have her spend more time with it. This process allowed me to set up my expectations upfront. My AE’s reaction to “Supervisor School” was incredibly positive. It was clear that I was invested in her growth and wanted to see her succeed. I have seen immediate positive changes in her work.

Joining AWNY for Mentoring by Lori Wigler

My name is Lori, I’m 33 years old, have been working in media for about 9 years and have been happily working at the same company for over 7. While I have had great managers, I never connected with an official mentor. I joined AWNY this year based on a co-worker’s recommendation of the AWNY mentorship program.

After applying to the mentoring program, I soon received a helpful welcome package with my mentor, Beth Egan’s, resume. I was overwhelmed by Beth’s success in the industry. She is currently a Managing Partner at Mediaedge, but once held a position similar to where I am in my career now. The similarity gave me an immediate sense of connection to her and made my long-term goals seem realistic. I asked around and was thrilled at the reaction when I mentioned Beth’s name. I was told she was “real”, “great to work with” and a “great person”. While I’ll always make my own judgments about people, her great reputation just furthered my excitement about starting our mentor/mentee relationship.

Beth and I first met at the AWNY kick-off breakfast. I was standing in line to get coffee and although I had no idea what she looked like, I instantly smiled at the woman getting in line behind me. It was Beth! Although I had some pre-conceived notions about top management at other agencies, Beth seemed the complete opposite of all of those things- we made plans to have lunch the following week near my office and we arrived at the same time- 15 minutes early.

We both admitted that we’re new to a mentor/mentee relationship and we weren’t exactly sure how to structure our conversations. This actually made me feel comfortable just speaking, without a set agenda. Beth was a great listener and she even wrote down some things to send me following our lunch. I’ll share the outcome of our meetings soon...

Starting the day off with a Mentoring Breakfast: A Recap by Vicky Sullivan

Thank you to everyone who came to our 2010 Mentoring Kick-Off Breakfast on Tuesday Feb. 4th! This year we paired 113 mentors and mentees (the most ever!) and had over 100 attendees during the event. Members networked and mingled, and Terry Yoffe of TRY Coaching, LLC and Chair of the Mentoring Program Committee, started by addressing the importance of mentoring and how one can get the most out of the program.

As a new programming format, the crowd was split in half between mentors and mentees and regrouped in separate rooms to address mentoring roles and questions. The mentors’ discussion was lead by Terry, while the mentee's discussion was lead by Cheryl Darmanin, Senior Director of Account Management at Yahoo! and Mentoring Committee Member. The mentors compared how they meet and communicate with their mentees. Lyle Landon recommended using www.meetup.com which is a social network geared toward setting up offline meetings. Others recommended meeting your mentee for breakfast before work since most NYC restaurants are quietest in the morning.

Meanwhile in the mentee room, some mentees expressed concern about how their employers would react (and if it is acceptable) to participation in an outside mentoring program. Cheryl reassured that multiple mentors from different areas of the business are perfectly acceptable and employers should support AWNY’s participants in their desire to further their careers through mentoring. She also stated that their participation might inspire their companies to create an internal mentoring program. One of the biggest suggestions was to have a plan/timeline outlining your goals between you and your mentor.

Books on professional development were also suggested throughout the breakfast. They included: StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, a book devoted to developing your strengths and finding your top 5 talents, How Remarkable Women Lead co-authored by Joanna Barsh, Geoffrey Lewis, and Susie Cranston which creates a model of work and life for women leaders, and Basic Black by Cathie Black, who is president of Hearst Magazines and one of Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business in 2006 http://awnymentoring.blogspot.com/search?q=Basic+Black

The crowd rejoined at the end of the event for a video demonstration of the AWNY blog was given by Amy Lam, Digital Marketing Manager at Direct Brands. This video is available for viewing at:
http://www.screencast.com/users/AWNYMentoring/folders/Jing/media/d547d0b9-671c-43d8-b5a0-4dbea0d9fcde.



There will be two other free exclusive mentoring events in the Spring and in the Fall and check back for more in-depth book reviews! Watch for emails or sign up for the RSS feed today!

The All-Important Plan B by Lyle Landon & Adrienne Blanks

The AWNY Mentoring pairing of mentee Adrienne Blanks, Account Executive at the New York Times, and mentor Lyle Landon, National Sales Director at NCI got off to a great start with a friendly phone conversation and plans to meet for lunch in January. As soon as they were seated, Adrienne announced, “I have some news, I’ve been laid off.”

Lyle, an experienced mentor, realized that her anticipated agenda would have to be scrapped to deal with this new, urgent development. Adrienne was adamant that she wanted to continue with the program, and that she would be relying on it even more to help her develop and execute a new short-term and long-term plan. When Lyle got back from lunch, she got the news that her position, among others, also had been eliminated, effective immediately. What a beginning!

Adrienne and Lyle continued to have mentoring meetings - in diners in NJ, in cafes in New York and then via phone conversations when Adrienne went home to Houston to explore employment opportunities there. They both encouraged one another to investigate other specialties within media, as advertising sales positions were continuing to disappear. Adrienne networked through colleagues and friends and worked as an Independent Contractor managing regional marketing promotions. Lyle, who had established her own company in 2007 for freelance sales and marketing projects, became an independent representative for her former employer and an out-of-home college media company. These were short-term solutions for both women, but important steps that generated cash flow and built confidence.

As of December, Adrienne continues to do contract work as a marketing manager and has launched theblvdmag.com, an online magazine catering to the lifestyle of the culturally aware twenty-somethings in the greater Houston area. Lyle’s client base has expanded beyond ad sales to include an outplacement services company, Bloomingdale’s, the US Census and a nonprofit dance company.

Adrienne said, “The AWNY mentoring program afforded me the opportunity to meet a dynamic mentor who helped guide me through this challenging year.” Lyle said, “I can’t wait to see what happens in the AWNY Mentoring 2010 program!”