Nana Magomola believes making yourself available for mentorship is ‘almost a civic duty”.
‘Your mentee can learn from both your successes and your failures, but most importantly from your support in times of need,” she says.
For Magomola, mentoring provides an opportunity for individuals to develop in their careers and everyday life situations by learning from someone other than their immediate superior. She says the process creates a non-threatening learning opportunity, where the individual feels free to ask questions and pose problems without fear of undesired repercussions.
Her process for effective mentoring is underpinned by five principles:
- the mentor and mentee must have a common understanding of the objective;
- they must set ground rules on the scope of the mentoring and what is out of scope;
- they must ensure there is no mismatch between mentor and mentee;
- they must agree on the frequency and duration of the mentoring; and
- as mentors are by virtue of their positions very busy and their time is tied, the mentee must take the imitative of making contact once the relationship has commenced.
‘In my opinion mentoring is not as time consuming as it is made out to be. One can mentor more than one person at a time. How one manages the relationship will have an effect on the time spent.
‘It is an honour and a privilege to mentor someone. One gets chosen by someone in need of development, who admires and respects your professional standing.”
Magomola is involved in the strategic leadership programme of the International Women’s Forum of South Africa (IWFSA). As a founder member of the forum in 2000 she, together with others from South African universities, conceptualised and designed the strategic leadership programme, with special emphasis on mentoring.
‘I understood the importance of not only providing academic and practical experience but also the key role that mentorship will play in developing these young, dynamic women. Part of the reason these young executives choose our programme above others is the opportunity to be mentored by the high calibre of women who are members of IWFSA.
‘By the time I retired from the board I had proudly seen more than 90 women graduate successfully from this programme. Most of them have either moved up in their various companies or have moved on to senior positions elsewhere.”
These days, Magomola is, along with Gauteng Minister for Local Government Qedani Mahlangu, involved in a mentoring programme for women councillors in the province.
She believes that women’s empowerment is no longer an issue to be debated, as it is a business and societal imperative.
‘In this fast developing economy and [because of] globalisation, no country will compete effectively if it chooses to neglect 50% of its human capital.”
In this regard, she says, the South African government has taken the lead in women’s empowerment.
‘Sadly though, business is dragging its feet. Currently it empowers women only in so far as they need to win government contracts. Otherwise it continues to be business as usual.”