Getting women 'board-ready'

I believe that it is the primary responsibility of the organisation to set-up systems which are conducive for healthy mentoring relationships. It has to be system driven where the mentors are formally trained with a buy-in into the process, willing to invest the right kind of time, effort and heart into the process. The system should be designed such that mentees can reach out to mentors beyond their 1st level network. Organisations can also benefit from providing mentoring opportunities through joining industry bodies where there is a much larger chance of finding a mentor whose experiences and thought processes may align with the needs of the mentee. You may have noticed that I have used gender neutral terminology here. This is because I believe that everyone will benefit from having a good mentor and not just women. Beyond mentoring, finding sponsors at work becomes crtical to advocate for one's career and is important to find the right ones, who would vouch for you in forums even when you are not present.