IWEC MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME Dreams beyond Borders

1. IWEC MENTORSHIP PROGRAMMEDreams beyond Borders

2. THE PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAMME • Provide second stage entrepreneurs with support and growth initiatives promoting opportunities to extend the mentees business to the next level through goals identified by mentee at the beginning of the period. These may or may or may not include assisting the mentee to meet IWEC criteria. • To provide guidance and specific requirement in networking and strategic alliances to open doors in areas identified as requirement by the mentee. • To maintain and grow the networks and contacts made at IWEC.

3. WHY AN IWEC MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME The mission of IWEC is to develop a global business network for successful woman owners, helping them to gain and expand access to international markets. • A mentorship programme aligned with this vision would allow past awardees the privilege of cultivating new talent and a fresh pool of future awardees. • ‘grow’ the next generation of potential awardees. 

4. enable mentees to immerse themselves in the IWEC concept and culture - before the conference through non-executive Board mentoring - annually at conference where they would have access to shared resource, best practice, the power of the event whilst being inspired by current and past awardees. 

5. The ‘next generation’ will be inspired to grow themselves and their business and will aspire to being a future awardee.  • The IWEC family will grow. • IWEC influence will grow. • Our mission of developing global business networks will be achieved. • The programme will act as an international vehicle to meaningfully educate. • Lets call it DREAMS WITHOUT BORDERS

6. Mentoring magnifies success.  • Mentor someone and seek to learn yourself. • The result is a win-win.

7. WHAT IS A MENTOR • Been there, done that. • Learnt from their own and others' mistakes and successes. • To share with you lessons from their experience in the hopes that you can learn them a bit more quickly and easily. • Experienced businessperson. • Likely to have an extensive network and willing to open that network up to you which has different value than some casual networking acquaintance. • Offers senior decision-making perspective.

8. WHAT DOES A MENTOR DO • Teaches the mentee about a specific issue. • Coaches the mentee on a particular skill. • Facilitates the mentee’s growth by sharing resources and networks. • Challenges the mentee to move beyond his or her comfort zone. • Creates a safe learning environment for taking risks. • Focuses on the mentee’s total development.

9. MENTORS ENJOY MANY BENEFITS WHILST MENTORING • Gains insights from the mentee’s background and history that can be used in the mentor’s own professional and personal development. • Gains satisfaction in sharing expertise with others. • Re-energizes the mentor’s career.

10. MENTORING IS • Becoming increasing popular as its potential is realised. • Relationship based upon mutual trust and respect. • Developing specific skills and knowledge for personal and professional growth.

11. MENTORING DEFINITIONS • Someone who does not have a vested interest in the mentee. An important form of teaching that includes walking alongside the person you are learning from. • A process in which the mentor serves as a role model, trusted counsellor, or teacher who provides opportunities for development, growth, and support to less experienced individuals. • Not a friend. • Formal mentoring: for a LIMITED PERIOD and within a controlled environment. Rome was not built in a day, but it is up to the Mentor to take out of it as much as they can.

12. THE WORD MENTORSHIP A noun: 1. - a wise and trusted counselor or teacher. 2. - an influential senior sponsor or supporter.

13. WHERE DOES THE WORD MENTOR COME FROM • The word MENTOR comes from Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, goes to fight in the Trojan War and while he is away he leaves the care of his household, especially his son Telemachus to Mentor, who already serves as a teacher and overseer. After the war, Odysseus is condemned to wander for ten years as he tries to return to his home. • Telemachus grows up and goes off in search of his father and he is accompanied by the Goddess of War, Athena, who assumes the guise of Mentor. Eventually Odysseus and Telemachus are reunited and are able to remove the threat to his Kingdom.

14. Over time, the name Mentor has evolved into the concept of a wise and trusted advisor/teacher that we have today.

15. MENTOR ROLES • Teacher • Guide • Counsellor • Motivator • Sponsor • Advisor • Role Model • Referral Agent • Door Opener • Lead by example

16. EFFECTIVE MENTORING PRINCIPLESMENTORS

17. EFFECTIVE INTERACTIONS • Confidentiality is key • Listen - the key to unlocking success is to listen- Be quiet and 100% present in the conversation • Question • Give feedback • Keep an open mind

18. MENTORING GUIDELINES • Content confidential – every session. • This is essential to keep any sharedor secret information safe and to protect both parties in the relationship. • Progress report is submitted after every meeting, it remains a confidential document to be used by you and the organizers.

19. MENTORING GUIDELINES • Critical to keep the integrity of the program. • Conduct the meeting in a place convenient for both parties. • You are not there to be a friend rather to develop the mentee. • Respect each others time.

20. FORMAL DEFINITION • Informal: where the Mentor may never know they are one • Informal: where the Mentor is aware they are a Mentor but there is no formal structure • Formal internal: where individuals offer a mentoring program to assist people development and knowledge share

21. FORMAL DEFINITION • Formal external: where individuals participate in a program with people from a different company and industry by individuals with experience and not the same industry • Group: where people learn and develop their share knowledge together • Incubator: large company will offer incubator support to a small emerging company within the same sector

22. HOW WILL WE DO THISVIRTUAL / NON-EXECUTIVE BOARD PAST AWARDEES • Maximum 5 board members will be required and no less than 3. • To be made up of past awardees who do AND do not have knowledge of the mentees business industry. • Mentoring is traditionally confidential and an NDA will be crucial to ensure confidential disclosure without which the programme will be meaningless.

23. WHAT DO WE WANT FROM YOU • IWEC has 100 Awardees so effectively we now have 100 Past Awardees • Past awardees will select amongst themselves who will best suit the mentee in order to make up the board.  The participating Chamber will have the final decision on board members. • Past awardees will know business and women who are potential mentees for the programme. • This is a personal voluntary commitment. • As this is a formal program, you will be obliged to remain committed to the process with diary priority – postponing must be avoided at all cost.

24. 90 minutes every second month for 10 months. • Process to be completed by next IWEC Conference. • Two emails per non-executive board member per month. • 2 phone calls per month. 

25. ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT • At organizational level, it is adopted by IWEC as the education vehicle required for IWEC to act as a Foundation. • Chamber level will provide structured support and education at the level of commerce. • Past Awardee level will act in the capacity of a non-executive / virtual board, focused at supporting second stage business that have already reached a certain measure of success but need areas of improvement to facilitate growth.

26. MEASURABLES AND DELIVERABLES • This programme is a business development initiative so a baseline survey of the business before the programme begins will be conducted and again between 6 and 12 months after the conclusion of the programme.  • Feedback at the end of each session will be completed by board and the mentee • Parameters and expectations will be determined at the first meeting with clearly defined measurables based on the mentees strategic challenge.

27. Each board will document their expectations of the mentee and the mentee of the board, using the specific strategic areas of challenge identified prior to the process by the board.   • The challenges of the mentee and milestones over the period will be documented at each meeting. • The mentee will provide a written report after each meeting as well as at the conclusion of the programme detailing growth, benefits and short comings of the process to IWEC Advisory Council, ensuring historical reporting and improvement. 

28. The Council will report annually on the success of the programme at conference which ultimately will be determined by the mentee attaining awardee criteria through growth of her organization and ultimately becoming a future awardee.

29. CHAMBER INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROGRAMME • Personal development to the entrepreneur will be made available through various programmes offered by the various Chambers i.e., CCDI courses, export readiness, international trade delegations, doing business programmes, Incoterms and ISO courses and Introduction to Exporter programme and ISO.  All education from the Chamber will be geographically specific and what is available from the regional Chamber.

30. PAST AWARDEE INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROJECT • The mentee is a willing participant in the process and will present 1 tangible strategic issue that she requires assistance with to grow her business, chosen from a list on the Baseline Survey. • Past Awardees will nominate a co-ordinator per country to drive the process and report back to the Advisory Council.  • The programme will be facilitated by past awardees who will act in the capacity of a non-executive board/ virtual board assisting the mentee.

31. For the period of 1 year to meet the specific strategic support requested by the mentee.  • Past awardees will do this by using their established voice, experience and contact base.  • May assist in annually financially supporting or partially supporting one mentee to attend the IWEC conference for a further educational process. • Past awardees: use their voice and experience to benefit mentees their local business community and the IWEC mentee programme and in this way contribute to a global educational programme of value.

32. HOW DO YOU MENTOR A BUSINESS WOMAN WHO HAS ALREADY ACHIEVED A MEASURE OF SUCCESS

33. Support structures for this level of business are not prolific. • Often not successful. • Nor well received by the entrepreneur as it may be perceived as a slight on the success the mentee has already achieved.   • This can be overcome by the way the programme is positioned and the message to the mentee should be "Growth initiatives promote opportunity."

34. The premise from inception must be a willing mentee and a willing mentor. • The vehicle to be used will be a virtual / non-executive board acting as a sounding mechanism for a mentee by providing guidance, expertise and introduction in strategic areas of challenge, determined by the mentee. 

35. SUCCESS FACTORS: MENTORING • Most successful leaders point to the value of key mentoring relationships over the course of their careers. • Formal and informal relationships. • Nearly anyone can be an effective mentor. • A Mentoring relationship must be voluntary on both sides. • A Mentorship programme benefits the larger community and can be viewed as a Social Responsibility which will benefit your company.

36. SUCCESS FACTORS: MENTORING • Mentors don’t provide solutions, They facilitate Learning. • Mentors can only exist in an organization imbued with integrity. • Mentoring relationships are not permanent. • Mentoring is gratifying and it is a privilege to cultivate talent. • Allow the mentee to use her own leadership style – her value and vision will set the course. • Results happen when action is taken.  • Encourage action as steps towards achieving the mentee goals.

37. Methods to Achieving a Successful Interaction • Identify the Mentees Goals • Find out where they are now • What are their challenges? • What are the barriers? • Agree a path to follow • Agree a time to achieving positive outcomes • Deliver on your promises and your role as a Mentor • Use different types of question styles to get the mentee to disclose information. Don’t use a ‘telling’ style

38. CRITICAL PHASES OF AN ENTREPRENEUR’S LIFE AND THE IMPACT OF A MENTOR • On every entrepreneurial journey, the business the entrepreneur is nurturing will have a lifetime of development. • Overseen, guided and lived by the entrepreneur themselves. • Because of this, entrepreneurial learning often goes through several distinct phases of growth and development along with the business.

39. The first learning point of entrepreneurial development aligns with business growth phase 1: - from business conceptions to ‘breaking even’; moving towards the critical ‘start-up phase’ sometimes christened “the hockey stick” 1. • The second learning point is experience by an entrepreneur as a business moves from ‘breaking even’ towards sustainable growth. This is called ‘growth’ or ‘second phase’.

40. The third learning point charts a rarely discussed phase in the entrepreneurial journey. This is the phase as which the successful entrepreneur, (in fact, rarely reached probably with the exception in this room) after overcoming the previous two phases (as many do not), can- if not checked- reach the ‘hubristic’ phase. • This can occur after the growth phases have been positively navigated and the business is at the top of its game.

41. Can occur when an entrepreneur ‘presumes to know’ rather than ‘presumes to question’, they will often begin to complacently neglect their businesses, refuse to innovate, to become undisciplined in the ‘pursuit of more’. • This can end in an entrepreneur ultimately overreaching themselves, neglecting the development needs of their business, and ignoring risks. • What is probably is boredom – geographically incorrect.

42. HOW A MENTOR HELPS AT THE ‘SUCCESS STAGE’ • Those who are successful and avoid both the personal and professional downfalls of hubris and boredom have, sometimes instinctively, chosen to do the opposite of achieving solitary euphoria. • Instead, they have surrounded themselves with people.

43. Richard Branson, the famous British serial entrepreneur and multimillionaire, takes every opportunity to acknowledge the people around him- supporting staff, family, and mentors- emphasizing that the idea of the entrepreneur as a ‘lone wolf’ is a myth, and that an entrepreneur is more like a Formula 1 racing driver with a support team in the pit: “An entrepreneur does not succeed alone”. • Humility, one of the qualities which underpin true greatness, can be achieved through this realization and through the grounding effect of speaking with others, particularly a mentor who can be trusted.

44. The danger to an entrepreneur’s business in the hubristic stage can be avoided by accepting that there will always be learning to be done, even when your dreams have been. • A mentor, by offering both constructive criticism and a neutral space in which the entrepreneur has no need to pretend to be invincible, can both help an entrepreneur identify opportunities to learn, and provide an antidote to ‘euphoria’. • Therefore believes that mentoring can continue to add value to the entrepreneurial learning journey not only at the early stages of startup and growth, but in the later stages of an entrepreneurial career.

45. MENTEE CRITERIA • The criteria is that the mentee is already a Second stage entrepreneur, not a start up, who has the intention to import / export products / services. • The mentee may not meet the full IWEC criteria in terms of revenue, may not be import / export ready but should meet shareholding requirement.

46. BENEFITS TO A MENTEE • Gains from the mentor’s expertise. • Receives critical feedback in key areas, such as communications, interpersonal relationships, technical abilities, change management and leadership skills. • Develops a sharper focus on what is needed to grow professionally. (a friendly ear with which to share frustrations as well as successes.)

47. ARE MENTORING AND COACHING IDENTICAL • No. • People often confuse mentoring and coaching. Though related, they are not the same. • A mentor may coach, but a coach is not a mentor. • Mentoring is “relational,” while coaching is “functional.”

48. MENTORING CONTRACT Allows for formal agreement of expectations • Offers a clear structure to the process • Removes potential obstacles • Creates agreed understanding of protocols

49. IWEC MENTOR PROGRAMME FORMS

50. IWEC ADVISORY COUNCIL MENTEE PROGRAMME MENTEE OBLIGATIONS AND APPLICATION FORM  Name : __________________________________ Company : __________________________________ Designation : __________________________________ Contact details: Email : __________________________________ Mobile : __________________________________ Landline : __________________________________ • Do you have any specific mentoring requirements? 1 strategic challenge relating to C21 in the Baseline survey under business skills should be chosen with one of the areas that the mentee most wants to work on in the next 12 months. Briefly expand on this. _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________