Nearly 20 years ago Kim Molloy and Kerry McLernon both joined Nottinghamshire Police as young PCs. After a slow start, Molloy’s career took off in the late 1990s and two years ago she was made chief inspector of the South Nottinghamshire division. McLernon, meanwhile, had become “becalmed” as a sergeant.

Then Molloy became McLernon’s mentor and everything changed. Over the next few months McLernon passed her inspector’s exams and has been selected for a national fast-track programme that will involve taking a degree and promises promotion of two to three ranks within the next six years. How did this transformation take place?

“Mentoring is really about helping women take action to move their careers along,” says Molloy. “Most of it is about building self confidence and Kerry is a cracking example of that. She’s probably one of the best police officers I’ve ever met. But she does have a tendency to do herself down and as a result her career had gone a little stale. Together we’ve been looking at ways to kick-start it again.

“There can be a tendency for women to focus on the negative. Where a man will look at a job description and say ‘I can do most of that’, a woman is more likely to focus on the two things she can’t do, so she won’t apply. A lot of our meetings have been about taking a more positive, proactive approach.”

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BACKGROUND

• Keeping women on the career ladder

• The spy who came in over the gender divide

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BACKGROUND

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Molloy and McLernon meet up about once a month, away from the police station, to discuss any issues they feel may be relevant to McLernon’s career. The advice can be entirely practical – which forms to fill in, where to go for specific information – or more generally supportive.

“It’s very seldom about job-related matters,” says Molloy. “Most police officers are very good at their job and don’t need advice on how to do it. So often we are talking about work-life balance issues – ‘how can I do the job and still pick up the kids?’.” Molloy has also been able to steer McLernon discreetly towards the kind of networking opportunities that can be so important when promotions are in the offing.

“For instance Kerry didn’t know any of the chief officers’ team. It’s not about me making introductions but just advising on how to put yourself in the right place at the right time so that you can get your ideas across.”

The results have been spectacular.

In fact the protégée has already surpassed her mentor’s expectations. “When Kerry said she was going for the high potential development scheme I thought she must be bonkers because they only take a few entries each year. I was delighted when she made it.”

Perhaps the only downside of McLernon’s acceptance on to the fast-track programme is that it will mean an end to Molloy’s guiding influence. “We get given another mentor as part of the programme, which is a shame because I have come to see Kim as more of a friend now,” McLernon says.

“Kim has really helped me to work out my aspirations. I suppose I was lacking a bit of confidence in my own ability and didn’t really like to approach senior officers with my ideas. Kim has helped with that, not by telling me what to do but by pointing me in the right direction.

“If I have an idea she’s able to show me the best way to take it forward and get the evidence to support it. She’s also been able to show me how to view things on a more strategic level, so I’m thinking about how things affect the whole force rather than just my job.”

The new, more confident and assertive McLernon has now begun to refocus her career objectives and set her ambitions high. “The first step is to become an inspector,” she says. “I can really see that happening but there’s no reason why I can’t go beyond. When I look at what Kim’s achieved it does give me confidence because she’s not that different to me. We are both just normal women.”

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