Recently I was consulting to a small web development company. They had learned to call themselves a Digital Marketing Agency and had developed a whole language and client presentation mode to stress their "consulting" services. They were offering to lead clients through the maze of new technology, digital marketing and audience development. No sooner had they perfected their mission than I found an article in a popular web journal that described the evolution of web development companies with the whole same story and language. This web shop aka 'Agency' was right smack in the middle of the current trend.

Meanwhile, inside the 'shop' or web consulting group as it was now known, there were three male founding partners and three female full time employees. I was a consultant hired on a short contract - an older female employee at a much higher salary.

The President of the company knew a lot about advertising and performed feats and strategies that were new and successful. Another partner was schooled in technology and enjoyed learning and developing various IT (Internet Technology) protocols for himself, for the company and for the clients. He was a very patient teacher as well, and enjoyed instructing the three female 'subordinates' how things are done in the new world of web technology. The third partner was young, intelligent and willing to learn anything he needed to know to carry out a job. He found himself managing clients much as a senior account executive would have done at age 40 in 1970 in New York.

One of the young woman was learning how to make digital art that fit the requirements of online advertising. Another young woman was learning to manage projects - become an 'interactive producer' in new media.

The third young woman worked as an admin for the President and the company. She had a variety of tasks that ranged from research on the web to preparing materials for press kits to writing letters and doing office chores.

I helped the President sort out his priorities, shorten presentations and proposals, and I developed a company marketing program. This included creating prospect lists and research, writing letters, following up on leads, revising the press kits and so on. I was told that this young admin would be available to help me. I liked her.

She was intelligent, funny, and cheerful. She was also tall, attractive and very lively. She wasn't a perfect worker. Some tasks she completed with care and attention. Some she let slide until they had to be dealt with. Some things she did with little grace because she had no idea how to do them. And some things she did spectacularly for the first time.

I had never really had someone to carry out small chores for me. If I were making press kits, I would make every single piece. If I were writing letters, I would print three versions to get every comma in place. She began completing chores for me, doing the routine work, sending packets, and maintaining our data base. But this doesn't tell the story.

What really happened is that most of the excitement and satisfaction of this work for me and for her was working together. I am probably the age of her mother - and the partners' mothers as well - but my role became that of a mentor and had nothing maternal about it.

As I performed my tasks, I would explain to her what I was doing, why and how. She initiated questions and asked why I would select some companies for prospects and not others. One day in forty minutes we tore through a Denver newspaper and I picked out six potential clients while she asked a million questions about why this one, why not that one. After less than an hour, she was able to perform this task herself.

When I would be preparing a flier, proposal, marketing plan or report, I would explain everything that was happening and why. If I had a new way to create a picture online, or a new use of Photoshop, a program for making pictures, I would show her each step so that she could duplicate the process.

I knew that as I did these things, she would soon be able to take over what I was doing and move into my shoes. But it was fun to see her learn and grow. The most important thing I did was make her get on the phone and actually deal with leads and prospects. She has a great personality and was often more successful than I could ever be at this particular chore.

She was enjoying the constant learning and felt satisfaction from her positive impact on our projects. She appreciated my awareness of her need, like mine, to have ownership of her efforts so that she could have work satisfaction from a completed job. And mostly she appreciated the fun and the humor and the open-ended possibilities that come with a relationship of mutual respect.

We really connected when I told her that tall outgoing women would always be targets and have expectations put upon them that were not shared by younger, meeker women. The other two women in our company were good illustrations of this. No one ever got on their cases for anything although their abilities and performances had the same ups and downs of any normal employees on a high learning curve. They were softspoken and moved quietly and they were treated tenderly.

From the first moment my 'assistant' talked about having her own company. She was 24 and had already determined that it would probably be a spa or related to that industry. We talked a lot about women and their own companies. We could not help but realize the difference in status between men and women in this small web house. I wouldn't be surprised if she's up and running before she's thirty.

By the time I left, she could complete many of the new business development tasks I had organized and carry the process forward. There is explosive growth in that company and in that industry. There will always be a host of new things to learn and to integrate into prior workplace strategies. But will there be a mentor to teach her?

I'm thinking now, as an older woman, that perhaps we should be deliberately pairing off young, intelligent enthusiastic employees with older skilled workers. The young person will have the opportunity to learn more quickly and more widely than by struggling with a limited job description. The older person can benefit from the enthusiasm and different point of view of the new recruit.

I feel this is especially important for women. The men often take care of themselves and their own kind. If given free reign, they will naturally and instinctively put the women in a 'slightly' subordinate position. Women who train women can train them to be leaders, to work to their highest potential, to work forcefully and aggressively while at the same time building on the female relationship, problem solving and conflict resolution skills that seem to be inherent.

I do not mean this in any way as a criticism of men. I am talking about ways to develop women's abilities in the workplace. There are many stories on record of women who have been mentored by men, and indeed this has often been the case for successful women.

As we women move to higher level positions with more frequency, let us be conscious of what we can impart to the new wave of women coming up to help us and let's also remember how much new and wonderful energy we can get from them. (And we can set a good mentoring example for men!)

©1998 Sherry Miller. Miller is the Oldest Woman on the Web at http://www.sherryart.com/oldestwoman/. For reprints and permission, please contact Sherry Miller.