Mentoring

I know that in my career there were plenty of times when I said to myself, “I need a different perspective on this.” But getting someone in-house was not the thing to do. My boss had an agenda that wasn’t mine, and my friends and family, as well intentioned as they were, didn’t know the business enough to offer meaningful guidance.  I needed a “disinterested third party” who wouldn’t be afraid to tell me what I was doing wrong or right and show me some of the options I had in front of me. What I needed was a Professional Mentor.

Like you, I tried to find a mentor from my professional organization. All I can say is that you get what you pay for. That’s not detracting from what is a fine attempt at supporting each other in the nonprofit world. But these people have full time jobs — which by necessity come first. They’re also not career professionals, so they probably aren’t aware of the ways to move ahead a career that sometimes are not obvious or may be counter-intuitive.

Professional Mentoring is for you if you are a development officer or nonprofit leader who needs objective, third party guidance on any aspect of your career or even day–to–day work.

This is a free-form coaching experience where the agenda (and the schedule) is set by you, the client. Although you will have access to the full experience and knowledge of a top fundraising professional, you will be encouraged and guided to develop your own tailored solutions to meet your own unique objectives.

What you get:

• a schedule (set by you) of personal coaching sessions from one-half to one hour in length — by phone, or if mutually convenient, in person;
• unlimited e-mail contact;
• unlimited “mini-calls” (15 minutes or less) to touch base on important issues between regular sessions.

You can sign up for as much or as little as you want, in one hour increments. Simply contact me for more details.

If you’re not yet ready for mentoring, I suggest signing up to receive my newsletter, Career Action Steps. Signing up also gives you access to a number of valuable resources to jump-start your job search.