Two London-based real estate networks for women have joined forces on a mentorship programme for young female professionals in the UK to help them scale the career ladder.
It’s a familiar story: scan the real estate boardrooms, industry trade fairs and thought leader panels across Europe and the picture is the same everywhere – men are in the majority with only a handful of women visible.
It is the reason why numerous women’s networks have sprung up over the years, all dedicated to the same goal: to champion the cause of the female real estate professional and achieve a better gender balance in an industry that is still notoriously dominated by men.
The support these organisations provide usually comes via a mix of networking drinks and breakfasts, guest speakers, site tours and other events. Now, two such networks in London are going a step further by setting up a mentorship programme for young female professionals in the UK. The idea behind the initiative: that young women gain insights and guidance from senior industry leaders - both women and men - on a one-to-one basis to advance their careers.
Six-month pilot
Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) UK, the UK affiliate of US-based business organisation CREW Network, is preparing to launch the six-month programme in January 2021 in collaboration with Ladies in Real Estate (LiRE), another London-based network, following an ‘overwhelming response’ to a six-month pilot that ends in December.
‘We started out with the idea of having, say, 10 mentors and 20 mentees, but people just kept saying “yes” and before we knew it we were at 30 mentors and 60 mentees,’ enthuses Michelle Cooper, CREW UK programme consultant, who leads the initiative together with Kelli Williams, an associate director at property consultancy Gardiner & Theobald.
The idea for the mentorship programme gained traction when Adina David, founder of LiRE and a London-based director at global residential specialist Greystar, was invited by Cooper to collaborate on the six-month pilot. Cooper and David ‘hit it off’ on the personal front and soon got the ball rolling. The timing of the Covid-19 outbreak also helped. Says Cooper: ‘The mentorship programme had always been an idea, but the pandemic really drove it.’
Career ladder
David, a property professional with a career background in CRE in Romania, the US, and the UK, is a passionate proponent of support for female professionals. ‘Women start out on an equal footing with men at the start of their careers, but as they get older and move up the career ladder they “fall off” it,’ she says. Childcare issues certainly play a role, but the lower ratio of women to men also has to do with women not pushing for advancement or taking the risks to grow professionally in the same way as men do, she explains. ‘Men are often challenged to keep moving up and asking for more, while women are seen as aggressive and discouraged from it when attempting a similar push.’
In an industry which relies heavily on business networking for connections, this means that the key jobs and deals are shared ‘among the boys’. Notes David: ‘Women want to collaborate and connect like men do, but they need to feel supported and confident to do that.’
The mentors contracted for the online programme represent the full real estate spectrum and work at big-name companies such as Oxford Properties, Kennedy Wilson, DWS and Greystar (investment); Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank (financing); Dentons and Paul Hastings (legal); Deloitte (accountancy) and Savills (brokerage).
At the launch of the pilot in June, CBRE executive director and former RICS president Amanda Clack, who co-authored the book Managing Diversity and Inclusion in Real Estate, stressed the importance of mentoring in an online address. ‘Mentoring is absolutely key,’ she said, adding: ‘Too many people are afraid to reach out and ask for help that a mentor can bring.’
Also speaking at the launch event, Siobhan Godley, a tax partner leading Deloitte’s real estate business and CREW UK board president, said she hoped the mentorship programme would answer the two key questions she often hears from mentees: ‘How can I propel myself forward to the career that I want, and the lifestyle I want? And what’s holding me back from that?’
How the programme works
The CREW UK Connects Mentorship Programme is sponsored by US parent organisation CREW Network (over 12,000 members worldwide) and technically outsourced to Mentorship Rocket, a cloud-based platform. Mentors and mentees connect online after viewing each other’s bios and finding a match based on their needs. Sessions can be booked on a monthly basis, spread out over a six-month period, or grouped together over a shorter period.
For further information about the programme, go to www.crewuk.org
