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Have you ever been in this situation? You go to work on your very first day, eager and mentally ready to finally conquer Excel. You get signed in by security and enter the elevator, maybe meeting a smiling face or two. You walk through the doors of your new job, greet the receptionist, get ushered in and quickly notice that mostly everyone around you is of the same racial or ethnic makeup.

It can be disheartening to work in a corporation that offers amazing benefits, but very little of diversity within. But we shouldn’t be too hard on HR; some businesses just may not understand the various ways in which diversity would truly benefit them beyond gaining Multicultural Excellence Awards for their advertising campaigns. Here are the top nine ways that diversity benefits businesses:

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Women! Want to get ahead in business? Get a male mentor, say a group of success female entrepreneurs.

A panel made up of female entrepreneurs and investors spoke at the International Women’s Forum World Leadership Conference about how they found success in startups. “The women suggested that they didn’t get to where they are today by relying on other women for support or advice; men played an important role in their achievements,” reports Inc.com.

“Male mentors for women are critical. It has been critical for me,” said Mariam Naficy, founder of e-commerce sites Minted.com and Eve.com.

According to Inc.com, venture capitalist and Stanford professor Ann Muira-Ko, who is in a male-dominated industry, said she survived  by “learning from the men in her space. Whether it was in a computer science class or while working with startups in Silicon Valley, Muira-Ko says she made meaningful male connections (including working during college with then-HP CEO Lewis Platt) that helped her start angel investment firm FLOODGATE with male co-founder Mike Maples.”

Entrepreneurial and financial consultant Princess Clark-Wendel agrees.  She feels women better learn the way men operate in the workplace from being mentored by men in their industry. “Both men and women get things done in their own ways, however, the truth is we work and see things differently. We’re different, but we need each other to survive especially in business,” she told us in an online chat. “Women can certainly learn a few things from male mentors and not just the technical aspects of business. Women, in general multitask whereas most men are focused on the task at hand. In order to succeed in business women need both energies, especially now that the world of work has changed.”

Dr. Anita Davis-DeFoe, author president of The Afia Planning and Development Corporation, a management and development leadership firm, says she consistently advises businesswomen to team up with male mentors.

“I have male mentors and they have helped me enhance my skill sets and professional competencies tremendously. Interactions, coaching and encouragement from a male mentor can help a woman sharpen all of her skills, particularly in the areas of leadership effectiveness and negotiation, skills which are essential whether leading an organization or a business,” explains Davis-DeFoe.

One skill is negotiating. “Even when we know our goods and services are worth the asking price or more, we typically have difficulty negotiating for ourselves. Women tend to operate from a transformative perspective that is working tirelessly to engage everyone in changing things for the better; this can be both challenging and unnerving,” Davis-DeFoe told Madame Noire. “Culture eats strategy for lunch, so when women have the benefit of a male mentor, they learn how to better understand and navigate… tumultuous waters.”

It seems sometimes in business, you may need to think like a man. Any ladies out there have experience with a male mentor? Let us know.

Source: StyleBlazer.com

From StyleBlazer.com

While it can be hard to imagine now, a lot of the musicians currently ripping down stages and burning up the Billboard charts, at one point, needed a helping hand getting into the recording industry. Everybody needs to start somewhere and luckily for these artists they were introduced and mentored by just the right person to set off their careers.

From mixtapes to million-dollar deals,check out this gallery of Superstar Musicians and the Larger Than Life Proteges at StyleBlazer.com. 

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(AJC) — In a 12th-floor conference room of a Buckhead law firm the other day, a group of high school students took turns explaining the recent Supreme Court decision to block a class-action sex discrimination suit against giant retailer Walmart.  Girls dressed in modest skirts and blouses, the boys in shirts and ties, they easily looked the part. And their presentations were as reasoned and succinct as those of seasoned attorneys making opening arguments. Vesselina Kotzeva was poised and easily made eye contact with her audience. She managed even to make her case absent that singsong phrasing that is so common among teenage girls and that her young “colleagues” had become used to over the past week.

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(Businessweek) — If you belong to the 48 percent of entrepreneurs who don’t have a mentor, start looking now. Start simple by thinking about people you know who have been successful or by joining industry networks and your local Chamber of Commerce. During your search for a mentor, be sure to look for the following:  1. The right experience. Every successful person I know is happy to mentor others, myself included. But getting the attention of the right successful person for you can be a challenge. Identifying some common characteristics you share with your desired mentor can help move things in your favor. It can also be really helpful in building a stronger bond between the two of you and, more to the point, creating a willingness in the other person to offer mentorship guidance to you.

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It’s difficult to make it in any field without the support and guidance of someone who is or has been where you are trying to go. While not every seasoned vet is interested in shaping their descendants, there are plenty of folks who understand the value of reaching back and helping a younger sister out.  Here are a few tips on how to select the right sage and to secure their assistance on your path:

(Entrepreneur) — Need a mentor? Want to be a mentor? MicroMentor.org is a free online service that connects small-business owners with volunteer business mentors run by Mercy Corps, a nonprofit humanitarian agency.  To find a mentor, go to the website, create a brief profile and a specific mentoring request. The request is then listed in the mentoring opportunity database, where volunteer mentors can offer to help (you can also request help from specific mentors). The site has more than 3,500 entrepreneurs and 2,600 business mentors enrolled, and it has made more than 2,250 matches. It also offers advice and information on mentoring relationships and how to make them most effective, as well as a number of success stories.

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