Mentoring for Wisdom

an article by Frances Degbor Capacity Lead at The People Shop

Everyone within a corporate or entrepreneurial environment often states the following: I wish I had a mentor. I wish I had someone that I could learn the nuances of how to navigate the spaces within the work environment I am in (company culture) within the industry I am in, within the function.

Mentors don’t find you, you find them and if you are lucky, you choose to become one as well.

The relationship between a mentor and a mentee as broad and diverse and as the values which guide us. A personal one to one relationship in not necessary for one to be mentored.

Women’s day, Community and or Business programmes and events, where graduates, youth, or anyone in the community interacts with a speaker, be it a community leader, a business woman, an executive, an entertainer, an author are examples of mentoring events.

For me, my mentors are as varied as my experience and meet the many facets of that which shapes me as a person. My first mentor was my grandmother, she taught me the wisdom of community and generosity. I learned Ubuntu in action through her. My mother as mentor, I learned the wisdom of resilience and independence.

My first corporate mentor was an amazing man whose passion and ingenuity for negotiations made me fall in love with Procurement and Strategic sourcing. I learned creativity and gained a love for my chosen profession. I approached him to be my mentor based on observations on how he engaged with the youth and graduates coming into the organization. His passion to empower the youth in the professional was the fuel that kept him motivated. Through this, I learned kindness, compassion in the workplace, as well as developed a passion for empowering the next generation leaders in any business setting.

And  as the world opened me up to other mentors;  Oprah Winfrey (TV personality & Media executive, and philanthropist), Lisa Nicols (Author & Motivational Speaker), Sarah Jakes-Roberts (Author, Preacher & Motivational Speaker) Brene Brown (Researcher, Author & Speaker), Karen van Vuuren (Executive, Leader, Mentor- Transnet – R.I.P),  Napo Mashaene (Poet, Author, Playwright & Producer), Maria Ramos (Business Executive), Ilse Gravett-Hulzer (Business Executive), Refiloe Moahloli (Author) and Debbie Craig (Author, Business owner & Neuro Change Solution Consultant) became some of my life mentors throughout the years. From these ladies I saw and learned resilience and generosity in motion. They taught me the power of a pioneering indomitable spirit, of paying it forward and of vulnerability, compassion, kindness and courage.

As a trained executive and life coach, I recall asking the coaching facilitator, to distinguish the difference between coaching and mentoring for me. He stated it as follows: mentoring is learning from someone else’s wisdom and experience, coaching is learning to master yourself to gain wisdom from your experiences. In basic terms, mentorship is the seat of wisdom. Coaching and mentoring go hand-in-hand, however, a mentorship relationship can span over many years and many areas of one’s life.

A mentor is someone that you look up to and say, “one day, I want to be just like him or her”, regardless of their age. They embody your aspirations in so many different ways.

And you too, as you navigate this life in all is facets, are a mentor to many of the next generation of leaders – what is in your well of wisdom?