Mentoring? A Turning Point in Your Life

There is a story of an old Cherokee Indian who was telling his grandson about the great battle that takes place every day within us. ‘This is the battle of two wolves. One is the bad wolf: angry, jealous, self-absorbed, sad, arrogant, lying, spiteful, envious. It is our Ego. The other is the good one: cheerful, serene, happy, humble, kind, trusting, loving, calm, empathic. It is our Spirit. 

 The boy listened in silence, pondered and asked: “Grandfather, which of the two wolves wins?”

The old man answered: “The one you take care of, the one you feed”.

No matter how much we wish to feed only the Spirit-wolf within us, it is unlikely we will manage to do it without external help. The mentors of the PWN Mentoring program support their mentees in taking care of their good side, in nurturing their spirit so that they become who they want to be professionally and achieve success the way they want it.

The PWN Global mentors are both men and women who volunteer their time to support the development of women in the global business environment.

According to a survey published in January 2020 by Catalyst in the US:

• 5.8% of the S&P 500 companies have female CEOs
• Only 21.2% of the board positions are held by women
• 26.5% executives and senior managers are women

These percentages are not terribly encouraging.

In an interview published last year in the French edition of Elle magazine, Christina Lagarde, president of the International Monetary Fund, was saying that involving women more in the economic life will lead to an increase in productivity, which will in turn lead to an increase in salaries.

Women at all levels need support.

The role of the mentoring programs of PWN Global is to support the mentees, whether they are employees of a company or entrepreneurs. We try to show women that it’s worth it to pursue their dreams, to look for support around them in the form of mentors – be they men or women. After all, someone once said ‘Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth’.

Having a metaphoric place to stand, having a network of significant people around, building alliances, relationships, all this is crucial in the professional world. At the same time, they say it takes two to tango. So, the success of a mentoring relationship depends on the degree of involvement and accountability of both parties concerned.

Asked how they would define the mentoring programs, mentors and mentees alike use words such as: inspiration, learning, strong relationships, trust, discovery, experience, energy, friendship, curiosity, openness. To sum up, here is the testimony of a mentee who has gone through this program:

‘The mentoring program was the turning point that my present life needed for a complete redefinition’.

If you would like to get involved with our mentoring program as a mentor or a mentee, we'd love to hear from you.  

About the Author: Georgeta Dendrino, VP Mentoring, PWN Global 

 In addition to her volunteer Board role as VP Mentoring with PWN Global, Georgeta is also Board member of the Association for Values in Education, and CEO of Interact Business Communication.

Experienced owner with a demonstrated history of working in the professional training and coaching industry. Business coach, Cartier Women's initiative Awards; skilled in Executive Development, Performance Improvement, Career Development, HR Consulting and Strategy Development. Strong entrepreneurship professional graduated from Insead. Passionate about writing, personal and professional development, mentoring, executive coaching, education and gender balanced leadership.

PWN Global offers one-on-one mentoring, team mentoring, reverse mentoring, both face to face and remotely. We have a pool of highly skilled and experienced mentors in 30 City Networks that can offer support for professional women. In times we crisis, we all need support, we need perspective. Our mentors are able to provide guidance for professionals, managers or individual contributors to navigate during these turbulent times.

Author: Georgeta Dendrino, VP Mentoring, PWN Global

Date: April 2020