On April 18, Becca Zinn, Assistant Professor of Practice, Marketing and Supply Chain Management and Marketing Director of Fox Management Consulting, and Cliff Tironi, Manager of Performance Analytics at Temple University’s Fox School of Business facilitated a session with business professionals on ways to have productive, growth-focused conversations. The event, hosted by The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, was the third and final session led by Fox School faculty as part of an eight-month-long mentorship program, “Pay it Forward: Mentoring our Future Leaders,” designed to help young professionals grow and develop through mentorship.
At the onset of the mentorship program in 2016, participants were tasked with working on a project together. During the breakfast session, they discussed how feedback-related conversations impacted their projects’ progress, and participated in a conversation about how to facilitate productive feedback conversations in the workplace.
The Chamber decided to pilot the mentorship program with its own Young Professionals Council (YPC) upon learning that employers were concerned about retention of young professionals in the area, according to Patty Day, project manager in the Leadership Councils business unit at the Chamber and organizer of the mentorship program. The program, designed to help root young professionals in Philadelphia, has received extremely positive feedback from both mentors and mentees, who felt it was a good use of their time, according to Day. “They’re all really busy people, and by their commitment to this, they’re showing how important it is to them,” she said.
Christina Wong, vice president of ESM Productions, was paired with mentor Emily Bittenbender, founder and managing partner of Bittenbender Construction. The pair reflected on the positive experience the mentorship program provided. “I’ve been at my company for 11 years and have received mentorship, but being with Emily has given me a different perspective,” Wong said. “There’s no judgment here, and the trust factor is remarkable,” Bittenbender added. “The most incredible thing is that I have a new friend.”
Program participants included mentors who are current Chamber members and mentees participating in YPC. They represented a wide array of Philadelphia area companies such as KPMG, Comcast, PNC, Saul Ewing, the Kimmel Center, Wawa, and Vanguard, among others.
Through its consulting services, Fox Management Consulting (Fox MC) has worked with firms of varying sizes and functions on strategies to meaningfully engage young adults, both as customers and as employees. To learn more about these and other services Fox MC offers, contact us here.