Hernández & Cía. is committed to promoting women’s leadership in the legal sector. Therefore, in the first semester of 2023 we initiated the “Group Mentoring for Senior Women Lawyers and Consultants” program. The objective was for our partners – men and women – to help our senior women lawyers strengthen their competencies in three key areas: professional development, work-life balance, and gender equality empowerment.
The first step was to commission Carla Olavarría, a coach specialized in mentoring and diversity and inclusion, to design the program. The expert led a workshop with the lawyers to learn about their interests and concerns, in order to be able to respond to them through concrete plans. This process is being supervised by the partner and leader of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of Hernández & Cía, Miyanou Dufour.
What differentiates a coach from a mentor?
A coach guides a person on his or her goals and objectives to help him or her reach his or her potential in specific areas of personal or professional development. The coach poses provocative questions to empower the client to arrive at his or her own solutions.
Mentoring is an interpersonal relationship of support, conversation, and learning. In this exchange, an experienced person (mentor) shares the knowledge, skills and experience he or she has acquired in his or her life to help younger people develop and grow. It is a feedback process that enriches both parties.
The next step was to select and train nine of our partners to be valuable mentors.
The program was then launched in May 2023 and is planned to culminate in four three-hour sessions. In them, the partners will provide tools to promote professional self-knowledge. After each meeting, mentors give mentees specific tasks to enhance their learning processes, which included accessing tools such as videos and articles.
The experience is proving to be very enriching for all participants. While the mentees learned from their peers and mentors, the mentors had a unique experience learning more about gender challenges.
