Benefits of Mentoring
Catherine found she was addressing two common issues; self confidence; and self esteem. She discovered her real passion is to help people overcome these.
Imposter syndrome is the commonest problem
At the core of these issues is something called Imposter syndrome. In short people think they don’t deserve to be where they are. This, of course, isn’t true. Catherine finds people need to understand what holds them back before she can help them move on. She generally does lots of work on limiting beliefs. Catherine works with people on their strengths, this makes them affirm why they are so good.
One of Catherine’s techniques is to take folk back to successes they have had in life, analyse the successes, and appreciate the strengths that made it happen.
What makes for a successful mentoring relationship?
A successful mentoring relationship is all about developing trust. This starts with a chemistry call of about 30 minutes. That’s where trust first established, but builds over time.
Mentoring is always confidential. The mentors job is to actively listen and be a sounding board. It’s as much about the mentee realising they can get to their own answer as it is supplying the answer.
The mentor needs lots of energy, being present in the conversation is vitally important. Catherine finds she must be in right frame of mind for every mentoring call so can’t do lots back to back. She gets into the right mindset by maintaining the right balance in her life. Yoga, walking and some kind of personal mental or physical activity every day get her in the right place. This way she can turn up in every session as the best version of herself.
Mentoring for CFOs. How does it work?
What does mentoring for CFOs look like? How does it work?
Catherine likes to have a flexible arrangement that can be tailored to the needs of the individual CFO. Mentoring for CFOs will usually happen across 6 or 12 sessions. These sessions usually take place monthly.
Catherine has a structure, but prefers to work on what is affecting the CFO at the time. She works from current issues, but using a toolbox of things that can be adapted to the situation. Its a very practical hands on way of giving support.
What key issues crop up?
CFOs often believe they can’t ask for support, so turning to a mentor for help doesn’t feel natural. Often the CFO feels isolated, and therefore might need reassurance. The mentors job is to support and validate the CFOs thinking. For example the CFO checking a strategy process is being driven in the right way.
One big challenge is the amount of new stuff the CFO needs to quickly develop expertise in. The development route of most CFOs doesn’t help. It’s quite common for CFO to rise through financial controller and head of finance roles. The boardroom needs a whole different set of skills. The world changes at board level and a whole load of new stuff comes along. Stuff you never needed to know to pass professional exams, and nothing prepares you for the new role.
Suddenly you need to be a boardroom leader, an influential leader, not just a functional team leader. There are people looking up to you wanting to be inspired. You need to look outwards customers supplier investors, not just the finance team.
You will need gravitas to present new stuff to a new audience. This may need a huge change in style. Often its not what you say but how you say it and what your body language gives away. You need to give people faith that all is ok, or under control.
Catherine loves seeing CFOs rise to these new challenges. People transform, and it can happen quickly once they see the light!
https://www.growcfo.net/podcast/5-mentoring-for-cfos-with-catherine-clark/