I’ve just wound up a year-long mentoring project. Last summer I started volunteering with The Cranfield Trust who provide consultancy and mentoring support to charities, free of charge. It’s an incredible service – and I wish I’d known about it when I started my first charity management role. I signed up as a volunteer to begin testing the waters of whether I wanted to go freelance. In the end, I launched into freelancing much quicker than I expected and volunteering became a bonus addition to run alongside work. I turned down a couple of volunteer consultancy projects because of capacity in the early days and mentoring was a better fit for my availability. It was pitched as a monthly session, running for 9 months, able to be done over the phone, which felt flexible enough to fit around work, family and life.  

I’ve just completed a mentoring assignment, so what are my reflections?

Charity Management is Hard, Hard Work

Running a charity is flipping hard work. I know, I’ve done it – and I was exhausted without being in a CEO role. There’s a selflessness that’s needed to keep ploughing on when times get tough, a complexity in balancing funders, trustees, regulators, clients and supporters and for most smaller charities an agility to be lots of functions per role, particularly when wages don’t match other sectors. It was hard and wonderful to listen and try to support someone else going through some of those tough bits.

Everyone Needs an Outlet

Sometimes you just need to say the crazy thing, to spitball and see where you land. But when you’re a small team, it’s nearly impossible – not just from a capacity point of view but because sometimes the real value is having someone objective. As a mentor you don’t have a vested interest in any particular option or course of action – you can simply help someone to explore what’s feasible, what the implications are, what the best fit might be. It’s

Getting the Balance Right is Key

Small teams don’t always offer you enough balance. My mentee’s creativity meant he was full of incredible ideas he wanted to chase and not enough time to follow them all through. My pragmatism and love of a plan meant we fit together well – balancing each together to find a happy middle point. Too much spontaneity and nothing would have progressed, too much structure would have extinguished his spark. There were qualities we admired in each other – like all the best relationships, there was respect, compromise and learning on both sides.

I Underestimated My Value

While Cranfield Trust were very complimentary when they took me on, I wasn’t sure how much value I’d be able to offer. Mentoring sometimes feels like something someone at the peak (and/or end) of their career offers so they can dispense all their accumulated wisdom. I didn’t really fit that profile. But as we got established, I was able to recognise how much knowledge and experience I had built up in all my roles. I’d also hugely under-estimated that angle of being simply being an objective listening ear.

Don’t Underestimate the Responsibility

It’s important to recognise that being a mentor is a privilege and a responsibility. You get a deep insight into someone’s life/work and you’re privy to some sensitive details and information, as well as their thoughts and emotions. You get to hold up a mirror to what’s going on, to give them insights they hadn’t considered yet, but you need to navigate that with sensitivity and care.

Conclusion

We started as (professional) opposites matched through the mentoring coordinators, and we’ve ended a year later as friends. I can’t wait to have a coffee in real life with him, to give him a hug, enjoy some more laughs and see after a year of phonecalls see if either of us look anything like we imagine!

For more information on volunteering with Cranfield Trust, check out their volunteering opportunities.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash