The Many Benefits of Mentoring Programs, with Julie Kantor

Episode 19:

Julie Silard Kantor is the founder of Twomentor, LLC, and an all-in roll-up your sleeves leader and serial entrepreneur committed to building mentoring cultures to drive employee engagement, retention and elevating a diverse, skilled workforce. Whether in a boardroom with executives or working with collaborative teams, Julie instills excitement, inspires commitment, and demonstrates an unwavering drive to succeed and see others succeed. Twomentor, LLC offers outsourced mentoring, mentor certification training, keynotes and more, builds on her 24 years in workforce development and building movements including Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a start-up tech company, and Million Women Mentors. As a sought-after global speaker and connector, Julie is well networked to the national community of top business, academic, non-profit, and government leaders. She currently serves on the board of ActiveMinds to reduce the stigma of mental health issues on over 540 college campuses and high schools. Julie lives in Boca Raton, Florida with her husband, daughter, and 10-pound Havanese Naomi.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why Julie feels passionate about helping people through mentoring after seeing its life-changing potential to lift others up, and why she founded Twomentor.
  • Julie shares a success story about entrepreneur Rodney Walker who came from poverty but went on to Yale, and how the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship changed his life.
  • How Julie defines mentorship, and why a successful mentorship is mutually beneficial for both the mentor and mentee.
  • Why business leaders are often confused about what mentoring really is and why organizations often need help to establish sustainable mentoring initiatives.
  • What elements need to be in place to create strong mentoring relationships, and why clear, communicated goals are a necessary component.
  • Why C-suite leaders should be not just mentoring but also sponsoring and championing talented, diverse executives and candidates.
  • Julie provides an example of the work she and her team at Twomentor provide for businesses that are interested in their services.
  • How research shows that when a manager goes through management training their productivity increases by 23%, but a mentorship increases productivity by 86%.
  • Why a successful mentoring initiative in an organization requires buy-in from top-level leadership to truly become a part of the culture.
  • Julie shares exciting figures of the financial, productivity, and career advancement gains that organizations, mentors, and mentees see due to mentoring programs.

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