Mentor Louise Goodman

PWA’s successful Mentoring Progam has been growing every year, with more and more interested members, and always new and innovative ways to tackle mentoring.We spok to Mentor Louise Goodman and Mentee Daniela Castagna as testimanials to what PWA’s Mentoring Program values.

What does PWA Mentoring Program and being a mentor mean to you?
I believe that the real value I’m gaining from the PWA Mentoring Program is the opportunity to build a rapport with another professional woman with a specific aim: define a negotiated approach and action plan aimed to a major change in the mentee’s professional development. Additionally, I have realised in this second year as a mentor that
mentees can be radically different. So the opportun ity is to keep finding the most suitable and effective approach to individual personalities and to challenges mentees are facing in their profession and personal life.

What are the positive aspects of the PWA Mentoring Program?
The PWA program gives the mentor-mentee pair total flexibility in how to achieve impact by experimenting strategies and practical approaches without the pressure of periodically reporting progress to the PWA Mentoring Program Committee. Formal feedback is only required at the end of the
program. This approach suits my profile: being a professional Business English Coach, I am very familiar with methodologies and techniques that could best fit specific situations. In this context the mentor-mentee couple is self-motivated to build a trustful and constructive partnership and program/action plan toachieve a positive result for both parties.

In one word, what did you gain from your experience?
PWPA (partnership with a purpose)

Mentee Daniela Castagna

What does PWA Mentoring Program and being a mentee mean to you?
I am the sponsor of the Italy Mentoring Program in my Company and I usually have a couple of mentees each year.  On top of that I decided to try the contrary experience and  became a mentee myself so as to have the opportunity to  understand what it means to be one. I think that everyone needs a mentor regardless of age, experience or position. Being a mentee means having  the chance to get a different point of view from another person who is less involved in your life, job and business sector. This makes it possible to get a more open, neutral and honest opinions, share diverse perspectives and even learn new approaches to a situation.

What are the positive aspects of PWA Mentoring Program?
The positive aspect is the opportunity to find a Mentor who is outside of you business sphere. PWA is good at finding the best matches between mentor sand mentees based on your personal/professional profile and the objectives you want to achieve. It was good for me to find a Mentor who is a very inspiring woman, who was able to listen to me and giveme advice and support with open-minded views, also based on her previous experience. I am grateful to this program because it gave me the possibility to construct a trusting relationship with my mentor which continues has continued to work with me afterwards.

 In one word, what did you gain from your experience?
Inspiration