Brought to you by the Professional Women’s Network of Barcelona.
Paola Gómez Corzo. Photo courtesy of PWN Barcelona.
In our first article, Clotilde Tesón Ruiz, VP of PWN Barcleona's mentorship program, highlighted the many ways in which mentorship helps women increase their productivity, challenge themselves professionally and develop their leadership skills. In our second article, Gabriella Lovas interviewed two participants in the program to get their take on how the experience challenged them. This month she interviews two more for the third and final article in our series on the PWN's mentorship program.
Paola Gómez Corzo (Mentee)
UK Customer Service Representative at Solenis
Paola, who was born and raised in Guatemala, decided to continue her studies abroad at the age of 28. She had the opportunity to choose between Madrid and Barcelona; she picked the Catalan city for being cosmopolitan, young and progressive, with the added bonus of having both the sea and mountains nearby. After twelve years, she now considers Barcelona her home.
She found PWN Barcelona while she was looking for a gender balanced organization; growing up in the machismo environment in Guatemala made her acutely aware that she needed support to be able to move away from that mindset. When she joined PWN she became a volunteer and a mentee of the mentoring team. The PWN team makes her feel that she belongs—something that was missing in her life before. “I want to be like the women I met at PWN, so positive and able to overcome all those challenges in their lives,” she says. Besides changing her mindset, she also sought to expand her professional network through joining the organization.
With her mentor, she worked on her fears and limiting beliefs. “At some point I was insecure and afraid, I wasn’t taking enough risks. I wasn’t speaking my mind. I didn’t ask for what I really wanted. I needed to believe in myself again.” she explains.
The sessions with her mentor gave Paola the courage to talk to her manager and ask her to be considered for new projects and challenges at work. Her manager’s reaction was positive; she was happy that Paola was finally coming out of her shell. “Men always say what they want and they are chasing it,” she says. “That’s my new approach, I don’t let fear stop me any more.”
Martina Bote. Photo courtesy of PWN Barcelona.
Martina Bote (Mentor)
HR Consultant at MBR Recursos Humanos y Formación
Martina set up her own business as a human resources consultant in Girona two years ago after leaving her job as a human resources director at a Swedish firm. When she learned about the PWN Barcelona from a close friend who told her about the mentoring program, she felt that she could contribute a lot to the project.
“At this moment of my life I see a great opportunity to share my experiences with women who need support. I have the tools to guide them, to give them support and advice,” she says. “I would have very much liked to have someone in the past to help me achieve my own goals.”
She is now working with two mentees: one is an Estonian girl who wants to become a member of the Estonian Gymnastics Federation and the other is a Dutch woman who aspires to be a public speaker.
Read more: For more on the PWN's mentorship program, read the first article in the series: Mentorship: Accelerating Diverse, Gender-Balanced Leadership.
In the mentoring process she first identifies what her mentee wants to achieve and then they make an action plan together. Online mentoring during COVID-19 hasn’t been a problem for her because she was already familiar with the technology and with working online. Nevertheless, she misses face-to face interaction, because “you lose a lot of information on feelings if there is a screen between you.”
Martina is helping her mentee to focus and to clarify what she really wants to achieve in her professional life. “The biggest challenge has been to eliminate all the noise—thoughts, beliefs—that cloud her priorities,” she says.
“I have learned a lot from her, too, like allowing myself to ask for help and accept it rather than trying to do everything on my own,” she says. “And, I have also learned to recognize my vulnerabilities.”
You can learn more about the PWN Barcelona's mentorship program and events on the website at pwnbarcelona.net and follow the organization on Facebook @pwnbarcelona, Twitter @PWNBarcelona and LinkedIn.
Brought to you by the Professional Women’s Network of Barcelona.