Mentoring for Change – A Catalyst for Sustainable Transformation
Article by Vlad Duțescu - EMCC România President
Mentoring is the most effective way to learn, in my opinion! because It brings together three essential, necessary and complementary elements: a successful role model that shows possibility, expertise tailored to the development needs, and the flexibility to choose the path to take. Development mentoring defined by EMCC Global aims to provide the mentee with inspiration and support through wisdom, experience and supportive capabilities of a professional mentor. The mentor in turn is willing to learn from the experience of the relationship with the mentee. Modern mentorship differs from traditional mentorship, where there is a master and an apprentice, in a relationship marked by power asymmetry and a unidirectional learning process - only the apprentice learns, and only what and how the master tells him to do.
The famous Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi is perhaps the first to metaphorically note the limits of traditional mentorship by refusing to work alongside Rodin "nothing grows under the shade of great trees".
Our EMCC Global Mentoring Conference is an umbrella for mixed debate with leaders and mentors from across the world, to keep us at the forefront of changes and challenges, to leverage each other’s experience, and to form life-long connections. From AI for mentoring, to Diversity & Inclusion, we are looking to learn about good practices for professional mentoring and the ripple effect. For all participants, the conference is a cornerstone to be ahead of transformation and change, contributing to and modeling future design. The main theme is around change and mentoring as a catalyst for sustainable transformation. The speed of political, societal, economic, and technological changes presents opportunities and challenges to our professional practice as well as to the mentees who look up to us to help navigate a path. Our mentees look up to us to support them navigate a path, they expect us to be prepared, to remain vigilant. They value our agility and curiosity. The main challenge for me and for all participants is about: How are we placed to be a catalyst of sustainable transformation?
Development mentorship emphasizes the situation, the contextual approach, and learning based on complex adaptive systems, providing a framework for reflective practice and non-prescriptive critical thinking. In other words, it helps the mentee shift from autopilot to an anticipatory self-leadership style that provides perspective, ownership and accountability. It also provides emotional support and compassion, which increases the ability to make correct decisions in a short time, under pressure, by supporting resilience. Additionally, at the organizational level, it increases collective intelligence, the degree of relational and psychological maturity, reducing wasteful and unnecessary disorder. With a calibrated aim and a plan, a person is able to accomplish a great deal. People tend to worry too much about the future and loose the present. To not trust the present and look towards the future. Not to learn from the past and lose both the present and the future. A professional mentor provides guidance, inspiration and support, challenge and accountability.
I consider the traditional way of mentoring ineffective, because it does not help the development of the whole person, does not provide wisdom, and is rather tasks’ limited. I consider reciprocal mentoring the most effective one because of the generational changes that make us look rather for peers. Once we learn to deal with diversity and inclusion, we grow our relational and psychological maturity, I do think that the most effective way will be reverse mentoring, and the one that is developing transversal capabilities – critical thinking, leadership, resilience, and so on. This is because those are the kind of mentorship that will challenge most and provide the best opportunities to learn and grow, for both mentoring partners who develop better ways of thinking, sensing and doing. We learn less from the same people and much more from the opposite people. And in this way we can develop our broad and meta wisdom.
There are several mentoring programs I was involved with which provide a great learning ecosystem, and a few of them will be present to the conference. However, I think the MOZAIC Reciprocal Mentoring Program from EMCC Romania is going to have a significant impact at all systemic levels. First of all, is a program developed to support the growth of our members. Participants benefit from interpersonal development as well as from interpersonal development because they work with colleagues and with actual clients. Then is about organizational development and improvement of relational, ethical, and psychological maturity, with an impact on operational excellence. Think that we are not a 500 Fortune company, but a small national NGO that already has participants from 14 countries speaking nine different languages. It is a huge cross-culture and geographical leap that we succeed in doing based on our knowledge, expertise, standards, and capabilities to manage team dynamics effectively. We are also looking at the impact we generate for the clients of our participants. And for all our stakeholders while we model good practice at a global level. Participants from top corporations with substantial budget invested in similar programs appreciated it as the best structured and most professional mentoring program that they encountered so far. A new edition will start in January 2025, and we aim to double the number of participants and step by step to promote the good practices and standards for successful mentoring programs.
All organizations which succeed in having effective mentoring programs realized few things. First of all, professional and personal growth and sustainable transformation work together. The clarity of the purpose is a cornerstone of any mentoring program. It will motivate the management team, the participants, and the stakeholders. The second most important thing is to have well-trained professional mentors, and the mentees also need to learn what is and how is done the developmental mentoring. This will bring all participants on the same page regarding the expectations from the mentorship and the program. No mentoring is effective without autonomy, ownership, and accountability. Clear objectives with clear measurements of accomplishment are also essential. And last but not least is about what not to do. Just following the fashion, ticking the box – “we also have a mentoring program!”, and doing it during the lunch break or in a short break between two meetings is not doable. I know I might be subjective in recommending an external consultant and I also know a few very effective programs that were 100% developed internally, but I am convinced that a very good mentoring program needs mixed team management, that have both internal and external support and know-how.
Modern mentoring is not just telling someone what to do and how to do it (traditional way, old style, and limited effectiveness) but to develop and support the growth of the whole person – it is about becoming wise and capable in dynamic and uncertain times.
To be a professional mentor means you still learn and develop yourself as well.
Mentoring is the most effective learning way because it provides possibilities, expertise and ownership for choices.
Mentoring programs are effective if they respect the professional standards, other way they are just a fashion that consume resources without any sustainable effect.
Be the change or you will be changed.
Vlad Duțescu, PhD, EIA Senior Practitioner, ITCA Practitioner, is the President of EMCC Romania, is expert in business coaching, leadership development, sales management and team development. He represents Romania on the EMCC Global General Council. As a volunteer, Vlad is also involved in supporting patients and is a co-founder of the Coaching & Mentoring Festival initiative. His goal is to contribute everything he knows and can to education, healthcare, innovation, entrepreneurship and career development. Being a free spirit free of prejudices, he enjoys listening, learning, challenging and exploring new territories, seeking to be a role model and a trailblazer. He can be followed on LinkedIn and other social networks.
Vlad graduated from the University of Medicine and worked for 15 years in sales and marketing in pharmaceuticals. Since 2004 he has had a business focusing on people and organizational development, his main focus being on organizational development and job performance. In 2008 he joined Sandler Training, the biggest worldwide provider of sales management methodology and leadership training, coaching, and mentoring. He is an EMCC Global accredited coach, mentor, and team coach and has represented Romania as a member of the EMCC Global Council since 2022.
