Mowgli Mentoring has partnered with Safaricom to bring corporate mentoring into the organisation as one of its key initiatives to increase the female representation within its management to 50% by 2020.
The initial programs, which are part of Safaricom’s inclusivity and diversity objective, will empower a strong pool of women leaders across senior and middle management levels through 360 degree mentoring, which supports both professional and personal growth. To enable this, Safaricom’s senior female leaders will be trained and capacity built as 360 degree mentors before each being matched with two female mentees, sourced from the organisation’s pool of Future Leaders. Each matched mentor-mentee pairing will be supported through a 6-months structured program to support the foundation setting for the relationship to continue throughout and beyond the program.
This investment in mentoring also supports Safaricom’s 100% Human at Work initiative which seeks to create a workplace where employees can enjoy a sense of balance between their personal and professional desires and are supported to unlock their potential and become the best versions of themselves.
Speaking on this program and the importance of mentoring in Safaricom’s workplace, Paul Kasimu, Safaricom Director for Resources noted, “We aim to build a human centric and inclusive leadership culture in the organization that gives equal opportunities to all and supports our employees to be at their best. Our Women in Leadership program supports our goal of achieving diversity in leadership. In addition, it helps enhance capacity building for our women as we prepare the women leadership pipeline for the 50:50 senior management gender representation agenda by FY 2020,” said Mr. Kasimu
Over the past 10 years, Mowgli Mentoring has successfully built a case for 360 degree mentoring as a vital and cost effective tool of developing human capital to increase economic growth, drive social change, business performance for organisational development and personal fulfilment.
Mowgli Mentoring’s CEO Kathleen Bury shared her enthusiasm on the partnership and the program stating that “Over 70% of Fortune 500 companies use mentoring as part of their talent and organizational development strategies. We’re thrilled to be kicking off our first mentoring project in Kenya with Safaricom, who is leading the way by creatively investing in embedding mentoring with their organisational culture and addressing two of its main objectives. The mentoring programs will nurture leadership and talent development, support succession planning and increase innovation, cohesion, knowledge/experience sharing through reverse mentoring, which ultimately drive productivity and performance. 360 degree mentoring provides the trusted space for this transformational professional and personal growth, and for many people, it is the difference between success and failure, promotion or staying stagnant, living the life they determine for themselves or the life others have planned for them.”
As a recognised leader in the field of mentoring, Mowgli Mentoring has facilitated over 100 mentoring programs across the Middle East, UK and Africa using their European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) accredited syllabus that provides a supportive framework for the development of both mentors and mentees.
The Safaricom Mentoring Programs will see Mowgli Mentoring train 15 female Safaricom leaders, who have the business and technical expertise and experience, in the skill and art of personal mentoring so that they develop as impactful mentors. These mentors will be capacity built and matched with two mentees over a period of a year, totalling 30 Future Leaders.
