Uh So today, I would um love to speak to you about uh mentoring and really the the power of mentoring and what that has um you know, how mentoring has really made a difference in, in my life.And I hope there are a few things that you can also um take from, from the session. It's only 20 minutes. So it's not very long. Uh So if you have any questions um do also feel free to connect with me um afterwards. So um I'm a woman and I'm successful. It's not something that you hear very often, not from a woman and, and I'm not successful because of the house I have or the amount of money I have in my bank account or the size of my, my uh box bike. Uh I live in Amsterdam. So we have box bikes here, but it's comparable to a big car for instance, in, in any other country. But I'm really successful because of the type of people that I have met along my way. And to me, success is achieving what I value. So I value growth, recognition, freedom, and meaningful work. So over the years, my core values have not changed. In actual fact, uh quite the opposite.

Uh They've really helped me stay focused on what it is that I wanted uh from my life and from my career and if I'm in um a crossroads, then, you know, staying true to my values has really helped me focus and help me make decisions as well. So, um I grew up in South Africa. Uh my dad was a banker, uh Forex trader and later also uh finance director. So super, super serious man. Um my mom, uh she was a stay home mom. Uh I called her a domestic engineer, but she was also an artist and a creative. So as you can see, you know, I grew up with no real female business role models around me. And uh I understand you cannot be what you cannot see. So I spent a lot of Saturday mornings with my dad at the office. This is a nice indication of what the office would have looked like back in, back in the later eighties, I guess. Um, this is a typical dealing room, you know, big gray office, lots of men in suits doing very, very important things, uh looking very serious, uh staring at screens with green digits on and here was a young girl. Uh, always dressed in a dress. My mum loved to dress me up. I wasn't a jeans, a jeans girl at all, but very brightly colored, sitting around watching all these men going about their Sarah jobs. And I remember thinking to myself, but where are all these women? We're the woman.

Why are there no woman here on a Saturday morning. It's all these men doing. And um but of course they were at home looking after their kids. So my dad wants me to be a doctor or dentist or something. Medical. My most of my family are in the medical profession So he knew I had the smarts for it. But um and it was super, super clear that he did not want me to work in uh in business because there was no space for women in business as you can see. But being a curious learner, I was always looking for gross recognition, freedom and meaningful work. So I wasn't gonna settle for that as a concept and I wanted to do something different, but I also knew I wanted to work in business. Um So we're gonna talk about mentoring a little bit today, but following the uh the rule of how to deliver an awesome presentation and no presentation is perfect without some powerful stats. Um I'm sharing a couple of numbers with you today. Um I love the Harvard Business Review.

It's a great source of uh research and learning and uh there's some pretty awesome uh um uh articles on mentoring, for instance, within the, the Harvard Business Review. So the first one is 80% so 80% of learning takes place between mentors and mentees. So that's a really, really big number right there. And then 75% of private sector executives describe mentoring as critical to their own career development. That's 75%. That is again a really, really large number. Then the final 1 71% of fortune 500 companies um offer some sort of mentoring program. So if these numbers don't convince you that mentoring is important, then uh nothing else will unless you experience it for yourself. So there are often some really big questions that people overlook when they think about mentoring. Um And that is what type of mentor should I be looking for? Now, today, I'm gonna tell you uh about two key mentors that played a really big part in micro. But before that, I also want to just talk to you a little bit about the difference between mentoring and coaching because that's often uh confused a lot of people, men mentoring and coaching kind of in the same sentence. So, but there are some really key differences which I like to point out. And I also want to tell you just a little bit about um the three types of mentors that you would uh potentially uh uh come across.

So when you think about coaching, so coaching is when you really need clarification on your path or direction, so you're not really sure in terms of where you need to go, what do you want to do your direction, your um goals, etcetera, etcetera, you would really partner with a coach.

So this is a very structured um decision. They help you ask, they, they ask you right, kind of clarifying questions. They help you find your own answers. Um They help you gain clarity on a specific direction or specific um problem or, or, or something and they will really uh work out with you what it will take to get to, to reach your, your particular goals. So together you will brainstorm a very tactical action plan um um around goals that, that you want to achieve and also who else you need to involve along the way. So, um like I said, they follow a pretty structured approach. And the other really great interesting thing about um joining with a coach is that they will not really share anything personal. So they won't share personal stories, personal experiences and their learnings and, and, and kind of the mistakes that they've made whereas mentoring on the other side, um you know, you partner with a mentor if on a very particular piece uh on a very specific skill set. So if you know that you want to develop a very particular skill set or you want to reach a very particular um you know, um yeah, set of skills, then you would partner with, with a mentor.

So this is much more of a kind of a trusted, respected relationship in terms of that. Um both parties, the mentor and the mentee are in a learning situation. So very often, the mentor also takes something from the men, the mentee in that mentoring relationship. And uh a great thing about a mentor, mentor relationship is that there's a lot of knowledge share. There's a lot of uh experience, share, um skill share, like um mistakes made for instance, or uh lessons learned, et cetera. So you can see the learning between or the difference between the two is quite clear, even just on that, on that aspect. So it's really important for um for a company when they build a mentoring program to really think about um the specific skill sets that someone a mentor would want to learn. So they can compare them with the right with the right mentor. There's also um sponsoring and teaching, but that's another topic and it's, it's quite big. So we don't have enough time for that. But if you want to learn more about um how that those four then come together do let me know. Um So the type of mentors, you know, mentors, they're, they're, when you Google type of mentors, there's a ton of stuff that, that come up. Um And there's loads and loads of uh varieties of mentors that you can uh that you can come across.

But there are actually just 33 clear types of mentors. There's the peer mentor, the career mentor, and the life mentor. Um There's a ton of information on these. So if you want to learn more, do do let me know. Um but just some high level uh it's for the peer mentor, for instance, um this is a really nice one and sometimes overlooked when um in an organization, this is where you would pair someone with more of a buddy. So um this is where the act of mentoring is more around the act of learning. So you would um be partnered with somebody who could really help you with those very early days of starting a new job or um or learning something in kind of like AAA bit basic level, a new level, then there's the classic and the, the, the classic or the career mentor. So this is the one that you typically think of when you think about mentoring. Um And this is the uh the, you know, there's loads of different varieties of um career mentors that you would, that you would come across. Um They would be more of kind of like a trusted advisor or someone who would really help you think about things in the long run and help you with career choices, potentially also with uh navigating some um company politics, um anything like that, some really, and um they might also point out some really valuable opportunities on the horizon, for instance, it's something that you might not have considered or thought about.

Um And they would also help you think about your space in the car in, in. So for instance, if it's within an organization, kind of your career path or your place within the organization, then the last one is my favorite. And that's the the life mentor, more of an aspirational mentor. So this is a really interesting one. this person and you might only ever need one or two of these in your, in your life. So this is someone whose core values really align with yours. Um And someone who you would um if you think about your career, your community and your relationships and your personal goals and values, and you put these three kind of circles together, someone who kind of sits in the middle of those three very powerful communities and it really brings that together for you.

Um Sometimes it might not even be someone that you have met personally. So for me, for instance, um a really great life mentor is someone like um Oprah Winfrey or for instance, Richard Branson, these are people that I really, there's some core bits of their skill set or their values that really align with mine. Um So yeah, so that's a really interesting one to, to explore. So those are the three kind of key mentors um that I wanted to mention. So I said that I'd love to give you a couple of examples of mentors in that have played a role in my life. The first one is, um, my fluffy version of one of the three categories I've mentioned earlier and that's a dementor. Uh, in actual fact, this is an interesting one and I'm gonna take you back to the late nineties when I was still living in South Africa. And I was studying and doing lots and lots of different, uh, part time jobs. And one of the jobs I had was a few days a week. I was working in the HR department, um, in the bank that my dad was the finance director. And um I was reporting to the uh uh head of hr awful woman, really, really awful.

She was mean, uh, she was, uh pretty angry and she was a really great example of a businesswoman that I did not want to be the type of businesswoman I did not want to be. And I remember thinking to myself, wow, if hr people and business women are like that, I do not want to have anything to do with that at all. However, she was also really good at playing politics great with the, the senior staff and really kind of knew how to pull the pull strings to get what she wanted. And it was just something that I just could not, could not align with. So I really, very clearly remember, you know, thinking that that was just not the kind of woman. Um I wanted to be in business, you know, I grew up with the idea of it being a man's world. Yes, I was really frustrated with this concept of us living in a man's world, but, you know, half of it are women. And this was a really great example for me of um you know why it just, this concept is just completely just wrong. And she used to call me Mr Roos daughter as if I had did not have my own name or my own identity. It's terrible. So, um, so, yeah, so I had this idea of something that I just absolutely did not want to do in a, in a career.

I just don't want to be in. So then I'm gonna take you to the next type of mentor, which is, um, uh, or the next woman who made a real impact in my life. And now I've left South Africa, I've moved to the UK and, um, you know, I'm working in a big, um, corporate corporate company. Um, and after a few years, the company had closed down and, um, we all left, lost our jobs and I was in this real weird space where I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with my career. I was now in business and I was working and, um, you know, I'm doing kind of what I'm doing, but I needed to take the next step in what I wanted to do. So then along the way I met this woman, I mean, we worked for the same organization and she really took me under her wing and she got really got to know my strengths and my weaknesses, my skill set and also my potential. So she knew what um she knew me pretty well so she could then help me rethink and reposition um the concept and the term of hr which in actual fact is something that I feel truly passionate about.

If you think about my values around growth, um recognition and meaningful work, you know, these are things that, you know, I would love to, to be able to give to somebody else. So she really helped me kind of re rework that concept in my mind to then move back into the world of hr which is then where I was able to really build a very interesting and very successful um career. Uh So I know I'm probably running out of time, but I want to leave you with um a quote from Steven Spielberg on mentoring. So it's a delicate balance of mentoring. Um Someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves. So if you wanna be a mentor or you're looking for a mentor, do contact me via linkedin or um Eva Connections, which is uh my email at uh El Eva connections.com. Uh I'm gonna try and get back the screen and see if I can get some questions in the small amount of time. That I've got left uh from anybody. If you want to um connect, I'd love to hear from you. Uh I see there's quite a few people on this session, which is great. Thank you so much. And uh yes, reverse mentoring, reverse mentoring is fantastic. Um It's a real, it's quite a new concept, well concept in organizations and they're really using reverse mentoring.

Um now, especially with millennials coming in to the organ and all the other wonderful gens coming into, into work and with technology moving at the speed of it does, you know, bringing in reverse mentoring into a normalization and into a mentoring program um is fantastic. There's also uh maternity mentoring, which is a great one for organizations to really use and think about, you know, women going on maternity leave and how they reintegrate back into uh the working world once they've um had their baby, you know, diverse mentoring is another great one for, for organizations to think about.

So there's tons of um different programs that uh you could join as a woman or I think you could think about as an organization. And I think uh I'm gonna be kicked out of this room any second now, but lovely to see you all and uh hope to connect with as many of you as possible.