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Building relationships within the workplace, top tips on mentoring and confidence building
Yardi RISE, a new initiative for women at Yardi, continues to develop its community by harnessing the following four pillars –
R – Recognise
Discussing things that affect women in the workplace, such as health (e.g., menopause, pregnancy and more).
I – Inspire
Celebrating each other’s successes and empowering women in the real estate industry. These events can help inspire people who are new in their careers and want to work their way up the ladder.
S – Showcase
Exploring different opportunities that women can get involved with, e.g., events, speaking panels, mentoring opportunities etc.
E – Empower
Supporting, encouraging and challenging ourselves and one another, whilst being able to talk freely in a non-judgmental space.
After the first successful event focusing on careers with guest speakers Hannah Marsh and Margaret Sweeney, Yardi RISE saw its second event in December 2022. The session concentrated on building relationships within the workplace, top tips on mentoring and confidence building, with guest speaker Honor Barratt, chief executive for Birchgrove.
As a woman in a C-level position, Barrat provided valuable insights on how women can accelerate their confidence in and outside the workplace. Her spotlight piece of advice for the Yardi RISE community was, “My entire strategy in life has always been to say, ‘yes’ to every single meeting that a woman invites me to,” said Barrat. “I get my inspiration from other women – therefore, I try and introduce myself to those whom I know I can learn from so I can store their skillset in my head for when I need it.”
Barrat added that there is an importance for self-assurance and being confident in ourselves within the industry – despite the surrounding pressures of being a woman. “There’s a lot of pressure put on women to ensure that we show up and deliver in every single aspect of our lives, from motherhood to building a career.”
Mentoring
The session then moved on to mentoring and how we can utilise this to encourage open discussions and enhance the confidence of women in the workplace. Fay Chester, regional director for Yardi and board member of Yardi RISE, along with Megi Cara, a solutions consultant at Yardi, presented a mentoring strategy that works effectively within their team.
“Mentoring means something different to everyone and as a community, we are still learning,” said Chester. “However, to help us figure this out, we are presenting a strategy called FRIDAY that compiles structured questions to help you get the best out of mentorship.”
Feedback
Designed to gain a holistic overview of how a mentee feels, this section holds questions relating to confidence, what is helping, what needs improving, relationships with the team and an opportunity to raise concerns.
Result
An opportunity to explore quantitative and qualitative results of the mentee’s performance, e.g., skills achieved/improved, knowledge areas acquired, number of projects completed etc.
Important Initiatives
This section covers the initiatives required for a mentee to perform to their best ability, including a development plan, resources, training and/or coaching needed.
Development Areas for You
The final section reviews the progress made with a mentee’s key development areas – reflecting on current progression, change, additional support required and more.
“As a mentor, it’s important that you nurture a conversation that brings out the best in your mentee,” said Cara. “Following a structure like this ensures that they open themselves up to feedback and critique which, in turn, will help them grow.”
Cara continued, “It’s not necessarily about getting through all the questions, it’s about understanding what your mentee is interested in, developing tangible actions and creating a space where your mentee feels comfortable to open up.”
The Yardi RISE community agreed that creating a safe space where mentees can step outside their comfort zone is an important catalyst for confidence building.
Chester added, “This process further advocates a stronger social relationship with you and your colleague(s) – you begin to trust, understand and even learn from each other.”
Myth Buster Quiz
The meeting finished with a Myth Buster quiz, which underlined interesting facts about womanhood, including mental health, pregnancy, fertility and more.
Despite the commonalities that lay between women, the quiz results highlighted some surprising truths that caught the group off-guard, including:
7 in every 10 women say they have experienced mental health challenges.
Men hold 62% of manager positions to women’s 38%.
Women are a minority in the private sector and a majority in the public sector.
With a former view of being too ‘taboo’, many of these topics would have been overlooked. A lack of open discussion has led to knowledge gaps in some of the simple aspects of being a woman. The Myth Buster quiz reiterated the importance of raising awareness about the realities of being a woman.
The next Yardi RISE event will take place in January 2023 with multi-award-winning Mavis Amankwah, an inspiring entrepreneur who will discuss the topic of mentoring. #RiseWithYardi will continue to evoke open conversations throughout 2023 to Recognise, Inspire, Showcase and Empower women in real estate.
