Liz Hall
Delegating and dealing with boundaries when employing friends were issues in common between two mentoring relationships with young entrepreneurs in Lebanon.
Employing friends is more common in the Middle East than in northern European countries, causing boundary issues in some cases while many entrepreneurs do not have anyone to turn to for support in a fast-changing region, concluded Switzerland-based coach Kerstin Potter and UK-based coach Carol Whittaker. They shared their experiences of mentoring as volunteers on a 12 month programme organised by not-for-profit organisation Mowgli.They were presenting at the European Mentoring & Coaching Council conference on 17-19 November in Paris.
Whittaker’s mentee found the relationship helped her make more effective use of her time and manage conflict better while Kerstin’s mentee improved his ability to show empathy. Both built their businesses further. Across the whole programme’s six mentoring relationships, 19 new jobs were created by mentees. All the mentees said they would recommend mentoring to others and that the relationship had been beneficial to them and their business.
Whittaker said it was important for the mentees to have someone applaud their success:
“Do celebrate success – the mentees didn’t have anyone to pat them on the back,” she said, adding that although it is important to agree goals, it was best note to be wedded to these as being entrepreneurs, they will change.
She said it would have been helpful for there to have been more supervision for the mentors, three of whom had coaching backgrounds and none of whom knew each other beforehand.
The six mentees were tired of politics- Lebanon has not been directly affected by the Arab Spring but is obviously affected indirectly through its proximity to other countries while the nation is still unstable. Whittaker said outside its capital Beirut, the mentors passed through many military checkpoints. The mentees all loved their country and dreamt of creating work opportunities for young Lebanese. They also wanted to show that the Lebanese can carry out high technology work as well as trade although they are pragmatic about this.
Whittaker and Potter’s dos and don’ts of distance mentoring
Do
- fix technology in advance
- get feedback
- agree an agenda
- agree goals
- celebrate success
Don’t
- Have your own agenda
- Give too much advice
- Avoid challenge
- Be impatient
Coaching at Work, Volume 7, Issue 1