All right. So good morning. Good afternoon. Anywhere you are in the world. Thank you very much for taking the time to joining this session. Uh My name is Natalie Churchill or Natalie La Fia as I am known for this network.Um Today, I want to talk to you about mentoring around the world. Women Tech Network has created a platform to foster a global community of mentors and mentees. And now we have meaningful global connections. Back in 2020 I realized that an overwhelming feeling of doom and gloom was setting into my life when I wasn't busy working. So I decided to act, make a change that would bring me joy. So in February 2021 I signed up to be a mentor with women tech network. I've accepted nine monies. I invested two Saturday mornings a month to cover all the time zones and just like that joy replaced the doom and gloom. So today I will tell you what I learned from my mentees and the value add this mentoring experience has brought to my life. The first thing is COVID-19 has not deterred those amazing women, the grit, the passion, the excitement every time we start a mentoring session, it's absolutely awesome to meet every single one of them, the challenges that come with working from home or studying in a dorm during the pandemic.

They have been innovative about it while spending time with their families and taking care of what matters most. They were still plowing through applying for a job, holding a job looking for new career development opportunities, starting a mentoring session. It was just inspiring to me.

One of the things that mentee uh taught me is the Ikai model, which is a Japanese concept, meaning a reason for being as we were stepping through, how to choose your career right after university. What kind of job you would like to, to get to start with and what are the selection criteria to bear in mind as you are making those choices? She actually introduced to me the EKG model, but I didn't know and this has now become part of my mentoring toolkit. So I'm I'm very grateful, learning about industries and roles I knew nothing about. So while I do mentor within Dell Technologies where I work, um I learned through this external mentoring opportunity about roles and industries, I knew nothing about. And um I'm all the the wiser if you will um for it, I, I am genuinely finding a passion for discovering all those new roles, new jobs, new, new landscapes that I had no idea about interview prep for a roll abroad a panel interview format. Um That was absolutely awesome. I had never seen what it takes to prep for an interview for a panel. And, and one mentee went through that process via Zoom meetings, as you can imagine. Right?

And the whole planning um and documentation that she had to go through and the whole process was really interesting and I learned what it takes to do this successfully through air lens through the lens of she was applying for, for patrol and doing the work. Relocating to another country remain a very popular topic. So it's actually awesome to see women who are currently employed living in their home countries who want to actually still move to another country to further their careers and in the process, moving their families and, and everything.

And we, we have also um mentees who actually just finished university or were literally planning to, to pass their finals. And not only they were looking for a job after university, they were looking for a job abroad. So when, when I, I dial back and I, I think about my own experience, um yes, I moved abroad right after university. But when I see how they go about it and their thought process and the maturity they bring to the table. It was inspiring to me and, and I take all that inspiration. It, it fills me with a lot of energy every time to some of um the topics we covered um salary negotiation refresher. Incidentally, this is actually something I had not looked at myself for quite some time. And actually for the opportunity of mentoring someone, I actually got to refresh my own my own techniques, right? So that's why it's, it's listed here. Some topics we covered to give you an idea of what the mentoring is about in terms of content, the M BT I profile. So the Mayer Briggs uh methodology is something that I like every one of my mentee to take so that I can better understand their profile, uh their personal and professional profile. But it's also a topic where I get to see through val uh how they perceive each different personality types because then they do the bridge between the M BT I methodology and people and peers they they work with, right? And, and how to tackle some situations.

So that was really interesting to me because some of the M BT I profiles we covered, I had actually not yet met in my professional life. So I learned prevalence interview techniques, selecting your first job after university resume review, planning to move in a new role, building a development plan, planning for a promotion or salary increase, um unconscious bias in the workplace. Those are all topics we covered and again, through shared experience, what they share and what I share. I learn more and I I developed myself as a person, not just as a mentor as I get as they let me into their world and their experience. The main takeaway is that we share the same values, we celebrate our successes and we fight the same silent fights no matter where we are in the world. And by silent fights, I mean, highly competent woman facing imposter syndrome. Um That, that is the best way. That is one example. They are, they are different ones, but that is the most frequent example where there is that back and forth where we keep on going back to imposter syndrome in some situation. And I wanted to put it out there because if mentoring was to help improve one thing, I would love it to be fighting that I imposter syndrome, that, that feeling that sticks to us.

And, and we all need techniques to basically look at ourselves, look at ourselves, self worth and, and put ourselves in the world and feel worthy of the position we hold, right. So mentoring is a virtual place to feel safe and brave and be candid. It's a dedicated space and time to actively listen. It helped create action plans tailored to your mentee and share experiences that help move the needle for all of us. The value of this experience brought to my life, joy above everything else, human connection, a sense of purpose, personal fulfillment. When my mentees share their dreams and aspirations, it reminds me to periodically pay attention to what matters most to me in my own professional life.

But also to check my privilege and feel grateful for all I have mentoring, prompts me to be present in the moment and in my down time to spend time on self reflection. I grow through this mentorship, I learn from my mentees and it is a humbling experience to partake in their silent fights, struggles and celebration of their successes. In closing. I will leave you with a quote that one of my mentee sent me recently as I was asking for feedback. And this is to illustrate why you should give into the joy and become a mentor yourself in this chaotic world. We often struggle to make ourselves heard. This mentorship experience gave me mental peace and strength in knowing that someone is listening. I felt I could share my professional struggles in a nonjudgmental environment. Her confidence in me gave me the confidence to stand up for myself. I will now stop here and I will now take your questions. I hope you have some, you can use the Q and a window to ask a question if there is anything you want to know from me. Unfortunately, I don't think you can open your microphone. What has been your toughest mentee or mentor situation? How did you overcome that situation? And what was the long term outcome? So that is a very good question. Thank you Paul. So one of the toughest mental mentor situation, it happened a couple of times. Unfortunately.

Is when the expectations are different. So you start a mentoring, you basically start a catch up session um to see if you are compatible. Basically, because it's important the mentoring relationship needs to be fluid and, and counted and, and easy, right? So, unfortunately, there has been situations where a mentee would have bad punctuality and that is actually a big no, no with me. So, you know, when I meet someone for the first time, you know, I set some, some ground rules, basically, we establish a schedule and a cadence and, and punctuality is, is a big one. And at some point, um if the person is not punctual like several times, obviously, you can be late once or twice, you know, I'm not a monster. But if the person is repetitively late, um and has a tendency to cut the meeting short is not following basically the agreement we have amongst ourselves. Um I would, I would gently recommend that they would, they would find a mentor that is better suited, you know, for, for their needs, for their schedule and for the flexibility they require. I think it's important to be, to be candid about, about that. All right.

Uh And the long term outcome was um in two instances, we actually resolved uh the issue uh punctuality in one instance. And in another instance, it was about making sure that they were, they were taking stock of their, their takeaways, right, Paul? And, and that they were actually implementing what we were discussing. And in two instances, it actually worked out, it became better and it was fine. Unfortunately, one, in one case, I had to, to terminate the mentorship because, you know, kept on, kept on having to get up really early in the morning to do that mentorship and nobody turns up and eventually, you know, you, you, you, you call it a day. Um Another question. So Ian, how far can you use the skills you are gaining from mentoring in your own professional career? It's a great question. Thank you, Rebecca. I, I gain so much experience and I, one of the things that I suppose I implemented most in my day today, I would say is probably be being present in the moment. So we, we have a very, I have a very intense job that I absolutely love. I love working for Dell Technologies and, and I love my job in particular, but I suppose, you know, I get busy and then I forget to really be present in the moment and to really be there for my stakeholders or for the people I really care about at work.

And that mentoring gave me pause. It's, it really signal to me, it was time to do some self reflection and to just take a breath and, and be more present. And I have implemented that and it's actually because I took the time to be there for other people, but I suddenly reminded myself, ok, I need to do that for myself as well and for the people I care about at work and there is a ton of skills as well. So I mentioned I do, I am a mentor in Dell Technologies for the absolutely amazing um er GS employee resource groups that we have, I do volunteer and I do mentoring, but I am a better mentor, I believe because I have that external experience that I then bring back into my, my skill set at work and into the mentoring, I do with some people at work.

Um So it definitely makes me a, a more well rounded person. Um And you know, I must say right voice, Saturday mornings, guys, you should know about how much fun and laughter I get to have. I mean, those sessions are absolutely awesome. You know, they are deep and serious conversations, but also it's, it always leaves me with a feeling of being on high, being so happy and, you know, I bring that back into my own life and into my professional life. I am a happier person. Therefore, I am better at work and that cannot be overlooked. It is very happy, a very happy person is a better employee, no matter how you look at it. Ok. I hope I answered your question, Rebecca. Um Let me see. Were you ever afraid of mentoring someone that wouldn't understand or follow your advice? Yes. Absolutely not. I absolutely. I have been afraid of that. Um, some at times, um, people would approach me and ask that I would mentor them and my field and their field would be so very different that I was, I was scared, scared that either I couldn't help them or I wouldn't understand what they need or, or vice versa, that there would be, you know, the message would be lost in translation somehow.

But actually, those are probably have been the best experiences I ever had and both ways as far as I know, because what happens is that when you have different background and like quite different experiences, what happens is that you, you meet in the middle and then there is that awesome experience where you bring an unbiased view of the world to that person's question to that person's perspective.

So it actually makes the exchange all the more interesting. And of course, it's always frightening to me. I'm always worried. Am I gonna be meeting that person expectation? And so what I do, I do have those regular check ins every of every few months where I would candidly ask is that still working for you? Are we covering the the topics that you wanted to cover? Have you had any more thoughts since we first established, you know what you want to cover? Because you know, it evolves, you know, people need change over time. So that's something I like to do to keep myself honest, but also to open the door and make sure that if someone wants to perhaps move on to another mentor or um change the experience somehow that it can be easily honestly communicated. Um Do you recommend having multiple mentors as a mentee? Absolutely. You should have what I call your own board of directors? Ok. So basically, you should have as many mentors as you feel you need. But here is what you need to remember when you approach someone to be a mentor, you need to know what you want out of this person.

You need to for yourself have already thought for why this person, if you want a mentor for the sake of wanting a mentor because it's your first time. Absolutely. It's fine. I think that's how we all start, right? But if you want to have multiple mentors, you need to have a valid reason for it. So maybe you want to have um a mentor with a deep background in finance because you are looking for someone to give you mentoring advice in terms of your functional expertise in perhaps in the finance sector. But at the same time, you like that over mentor because that person cares deeply about diversity and inclusion. And you may want to have a mentor with whom you, you may be dedicating more time to looking at how can you contribute to actions towards, you know, diversity and inclusion in your company, for example, So that's an example where having multiple mentors makes sense, but make sure that um when you build your board of directors, your board of mentors uh that you, you are clear as to what you are gonna ask of each of them.

Um And then you will get the full benefits. Did I answer your question, Antonia? Thank you. All right. So just looking in the chat. Thank you, Katrina. Thank you so much. Um I think I have answered all the, all the questions I am. I am so happy that you, you, you came to this session today, Kaitlyn. Thank you so much for being here. This is, this is awesome. Um I am, I am really grateful for that experience um for, for you giving me the time to, to talk about this. I think being a mentor is one of the most fulfilling experience one can have. I am genuinely passionate about the topic and, and I am a genuine passionate mentor and, and I do hope that if you are not yet a mentor that you will consider becoming one because I promise you. Um This is one of the most rewarding experience and I will leave you with a few of my personal heroes um who, who have made AAA small difference in the world. And I firmly believe that a mentor, no matter where the mentor is and no matter where the mentee is in the world, you can make a difference by just making that connection, set the table, set the ground rule.

What do you want to cover and start having that regular conversation and can it and enjoy it, enjoy it. They get so much joy out of it and so with this, I will say thank you all very, very much for your time today. Um It has been awesome. Have a very nice rest of the day. Bye bye.