I\u2019ve 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\u2019s an incredible service \u2013 and I wish I\u2019d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve just completed a mentoring assignment, so what are my reflections?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Running a charity is flipping hard work. I know, I\u2019ve done it \u2013 and I was exhausted without being in a CEO role. There\u2019s a selflessness that\u2019s 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\u2019t match other sectors. It was hard and wonderful to listen and try to support someone else going through some of those tough bits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes you just need to say the crazy thing, to spitball and see where you land. But when you\u2019re a small team, it\u2019s nearly impossible \u2013 not just from a capacity point of view but because sometimes the real value is having someone objective. As a mentor you don\u2019t have a vested interest in any particular option or course of action \u2013 you can simply help someone to explore what\u2019s feasible, what the implications are, what the best fit might be. It\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Small teams don\u2019t always offer you enough balance. My mentee\u2019s 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 \u2013 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 \u2013 like all the best relationships, there was respect, compromise and learning on both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Cranfield Trust were very complimentary when they took me on, I wasn\u2019t sure how much value I\u2019d 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\u2019t 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\u2019d also hugely under-estimated that angle of being simply being an objective listening ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important to recognise that being a mentor is a privilege and a responsibility. You get a deep insight into someone\u2019s life\/work and you\u2019re privy to some sensitive details and information, as well as their thoughts and emotions. You get to hold up a mirror to what\u2019s going on, to give them insights they hadn\u2019t considered yet, but you need to navigate that with sensitivity and care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We started as (professional) opposites matched through the mentoring coordinators, and we\u2019ve ended a year later as friends. I can\u2019t 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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information on volunteering with Cranfield Trust, check out their volunteering opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo by Jon Tyson<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve 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\u2019s an incredible service \u2013 and I wish I\u2019d known about it when I started my first charity management role. I signed up as a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[45],"tags":[13,12,21,25,10],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentoring","tag-charity","tag-freelance","tag-non-profit","tag-self-employment","tag-start-up-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t