Frequently Asked Questions
There is a lot of technical literature on mentoring and its differences from coaching, and many nuances- but to keep it simple, this is what our mentors bring to the table.
Our mentors bring a depth of expertise (functional, domain etc) and experience to the ‘mentoring’ relationship. They understand the professional and personal context of the ‘mentee’ and bring their decades of leadership experience and professional insight to help the mentee in being at their best.
They could suggest options, help explore alternative approaches, they could connect the mentee to others in the industry to spur new ideas and insights, they could share their own experiences and learnings, help the mentee reflect on issues and ‘peel the onion’- in fact they could be a sounding board and an experienced partner who could inspire and guide the mentee towards being at their best. Mentoring is development oriented, and has a longer term focus, beyond the current role.
We believe that what is needed for success at the CXO level is not just functional excellence, but a broader strategic and enterprise wide perspective, as well as significant influencing skills to mobilise commitment across diverse stakeholders.
Our insight, based on observing the development of many CXOs, is that executives at this level could benefit from more than one mentor, for relevant ‘cross functional’ mentoring- who we call as cross mentors. Therefore, we would have a lead mentor who drives the mentoring relationship- but supported by 1 or 2 cross mentors where needed, to facilitate holistic development.
For instance, suppose we have a lead mentor who has been a CEO of a large organisation, mentoring a newly minted CEO. As they go through the mentoring journey, one of the key challenges the CEO mentions is how to prioritise capital allocation. The lead mentor may pull in an ex CFO as a cross mentor to help with that perspective. Also we could have instances of cross sector or cross industry mentors to help bring a different perspective. You never walk alone!
We would first start with an ‘insight’ stage- having deep conversations with the ‘mentee’ and key stakeholders to identify focus areas for mentoring. Once that is done, we build the ‘mentoring agenda’ together- identifying the business challenges, and the perspectives, skills and mindset to work on. We believe in co-creating the mentoring agenda so that it is aligned with the business context and aspirations of the mentee. The mentoring is rooted in the context of the business situation, and its challenges. Where needed, the lead mentor may pull in another ‘cross mentor’ to help with providing a cross functional perspective. For example, while mentoring a CEO, the lead mentor may pull in a cross mentor who is an expert in innovation and sustainability to build in new perspectives on the innovation strategy.
Our process ensures regular reviews and feedback to ensure that the mentoring relationship truly facilitates development.
These are not one-off meetings, and for true development the engagement needs to be for a certain period of time. However, all these are personalised - to the individual and the context.
Yes of course, anyone who is a CXO or aspiring to be a CXO can sign up for mentoring.