Aboard an Airlink flight recently, my attention was caught by an article titled ‘Mentoring is Good for Business’ carried in their in-flight magazine SkyWays. The author, Catherine Hodgson, made the powerful observation that mentorship is the way of the future for organizations that want to ensure sustainability. Organisations that do not offer mentorship may not only find it more difficult to grow, but also challenging to attract the right talent or fill its leadership pipeline. I couldn’t agree more.
In my short leadership journey, I have found that there are many of us who have great latent potential to be highly successful leaders. Some even get opportunities to become leaders at various levels in the community, corporate, or public sectors. We often take such opportunities with great zeal and passion to fulfill our mandate. Whereas some have delivered on the promise, several have struggled, while others have performed dismally. Reason – they just did not know what to do.
It is often wrongly assumed that an astute professional will automatically make a great leader. Not quite. The skillset required, say to be an excellent accountant, are completely different from those needed to lead a thriving large accounting enterprise. Thus, a successful accountant needs to be nurtured into becoming a leader in a top-tier accounting firm. This calls for an intentional mentorship program.
A good mentorship program should sharpen the mind, open the eyes, skill the hands, and nimble the feet. According to Forbes 2019, one of the most impressive things about an effective mentoring program is how far the positive ripple effects reach. Mentoring benefits the organisation by improving job satisfaction and retention, and aids in personal and professional development of the mentee. A study by Sun Microsystems reports that mentees are promoted five times more than those not in any such program. Furthermore, according to Accountemps, 96% of executives say mentoring is an important development tool and 75% say mentoring played a key role in their career growth and development.
That is why at The Catalead we have positioned ourselves as catalysts for wholistic leadership development. We are focused on grooming and mentoring executives to deliver on their mandate and nurture them to become high impact leaders that transform not only their organisations but society at large.
Our two flagship programs, the High Impact Leader and the Cutting-Edge Leader, are group mentorship programs designed to equip leaders with practical tools for high impact leadership. Unlike ad hoc leadership workshops, these programs ensure that participants develop their leadership skills in a very systematic and practical manner. The idea is to make learning simple and practical but rooted on strong foundational theories of leadership. Set in the context of peers from diverse sectors – banking, NGO, judiciary, government, religious, finance, etc – there is a consistent infusion of knowledge, cross pollination of ideas, and honest sharing of experiences that is truly life transforming.
It has been deeply heartening to receive feedback from many of the participants on how their lives and leadership have been transformed. A senior HR Manager recently told me, “I have participated in many leadership programs, but this is the most practical and life transforming leadership program I have ever attended.” Another participant commented, “This has totally transformed my life and leadership. People have been asking me in the office what has happened to me.” A pastor quipped, “I wish I knew these things years ago. I have squandered so many opportunities!”
At The Catalead mentorship is all about spicing the leadership experience. We are in total agreement with Hodgson that mentoring is not just a fad or nice to have; it is a must have for any organisation that wants to survive. We spice it up.
Join the journey!