International Mentoring Day

This report, written by Sophie McCarthy, presents some statistics about men and women in science occupations; the literature around women’s careers and the factors that hinder and support them; current strategies and programs in NSW, Australia and internationally that support and promote women’s leadership in science. Whilst written in 2008, this report is based on sound research and remains startlingly current in its strategies and findings. Download the full report here

Our 2017 article with the same title remains one of the most popular resources on our website. Which prompted us to examine how much things have changed in the last six years, and how much has stayed the same. While we see the magic of mentoring in engaging and developing current and future leaders on a daily basis, the evidence from  global research remains clear.  In 2023 mentoring is a valuable investment in developing and retaining talented people in your organisation. 76% of working professionals believe a mentor is important to growth. After all, “to teach is to learn twice.” 92% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs (up from 73% in 2017!) Why? Because investing in leadership capability pays off in performance, productivity and innovation (Centre for Workplace Leadership 2016). Additional data in 2023 suggests that companies actively choose to develop their talent by leveraging internal knowledge and as a way to boost job satisfaction. Since 90% of employees who have a career mentor are happy at work, mentoring can add value to retention goals. In 2015 Sun Microsystems revisited a 2006 Gartner five-year study which showed that 25% of employees who enrolled in a mentoring program had a […]

McCarthy Mentoring Founder and mentor, Wendy McCarthy AO is an experienced manager and company director who began her career as a secondary school teacher. She has held many significant leadership roles including Deputy Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Chancellor of the University of Canberra, Chair of Plan Australia and Global Deputy Chair for Plan International. She has also served as Chair of Headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation and Chair of Circus Oz. In December 2018 she completed her term as Deputy-Chair of Goodstart Early Learning, and as non-executive Director of IMF Bentham, a publicly listed litigation funder. She is a Patron of the Sydney Women’s Fund, Ambassador for 1 Million Women and Advisor to Grace Papers In this interview, recorded in early 2022, we talk to Wendy about some of the key milestones on her significant leadership journey. We talk about growing up in country NSW, the influence of her early career as a teacher, how to plan a career and the power of saying yes to opportunities.