What is Pay it Forward Mentoring?
At Collective Possibilities our driving purpose is to discover and foster leadership in unexpected places. We are thrilled when we can support distributed leadership and enable it to flourish. Now, more than ever, the world needs conscious, compassionate and courageous leaders. Pay it Forward Mentoring makes a valuable contribution to leadership in our communities and organisations.
We regularly receive requests from our clients about the possibility of introducing them to a mentor. Over the years we have built a valued and trusted network of brave and authentic leaders who have a wealth of experience they willingly love to share with others. Pay it Forward mentoring benefits those who are hungry to learn, willing to be challenged and want to refine their skills as engaged, smart and intentional contributors. This program seeks to match these people with a suitable mentor.
What is mentoring?
Mentoring is a relationship between two people focused solely on supporting the mentee to reach their developmental goals. Our mentors act as the “guide on the side, not the sage on the stage”. They openly share lessons learnt along the way in their careers, providing a sounding board, guidance, motivation, emotional support, and role modeling. Our mentors help with exploring careers, setting goals, developing contacts, and identifying untapped resources. Our mentees benefit from these relationships by being shown different perspectives, being challenged on their world views, testing their ideas and experiemtning with new approaches.
Why Pay it Forward?
We all know that the world is a much better place when we actively practice kindness. Most successful people have had at least one ‘mentor’ that has supported them on their career journey. Our mentors see this as an opportunity to pay it forward as an act of generosity and kindness. For our mentees, once they have experienced the mentoring relationship, we invite them to also consider paying it forward and becoming a mentor themselves.
How does it work?
Mentors make a commitment for around 12 months to be available to mentor one person. When we receive a request for a mentor we match suitable people together and put them in contact with one another. After this initial contact, it is up to the mentee to arrange a meeting with the mentor. The ongoing mentoring relationship is then driven by the mentee and their needs. If either person does not feel that they are a suitable match we suggest another mentor. We provde support adn traingin aling the way to ensure our mentors and mentess feel equipped and are growing their skills.
What’s in it for us?
Joy! Pure Joy! This is a probono offer. We see this as a “hat tip” to the mentors we have in our lives and a valuable way to pay it forward to the community we work in.