Thursday 25 September 2014

Walk your Talk


The power of a simple walk in the park... 

One of highlights of the Fortune Program was the morning I met Gerry Laybourne and was introduced to the Global Mentoring Walk - an initiative which convenes established women leaders and emerging women leaders to walk together in their communities across the globe, with the intention to build a Mentoring relationship - such a simple, yet impactful concept. I was appalled to learn that despite the Fortune Program hosting South African mentees since 2006, South Africa was yet to be part of the list of over 24 countries participating in this Global movement. The minute I stepped out of Gerry’s apartment, I was determined to change that and bring the event home. 

As soon as I returned to South Africa, one of my immediate follow-ups was emailing the Vital Voices staff to find out how do I get involved. I submitted an application and was successfully selected to be the Flag Bearer for the Debut South African Mentoring Walk at the end of September 2013.Despite the short lead time and minimal funding, but with much passion, plenty support from family and friends, and of course a fantastic selection of Mentors and Mentees alike, we successfully hosted the first ever Global Mentoring Walk in South Africa on 16th November 2013. 

Debut Mentoring Walk South Africa 2013 featured on Morning Live

At the end of January 2014, Vital Voices notified the Flag Bearers of the prospect to host an International Women’s Day Mentoring Walk on 8 March 2014. Being the opportunist that I am, I jumped at the opportunity (despite having a flight to India departing on the evening of the proposed event!) and once again hosted an incredibly impactful event, already vastly improved from the first event based on feedback and requests from the Mentors and Mentees that attended. The event was a resounding success and I was left more inspired than ever to continue with the project. 

International Women's Day Mentoring Walk 2014

Seeing the value and impact that the event has had, and realising that November 2014 was too long to wait to have the next event, we celebrated Nelson Mandela’s birthday by hosting a Mandela Day Mentoring Walk, this time in partnership with Careers for a Powerful You (C4U) at the symbolic Union Bulidings in Pretoria. Our Mentors gave their 67 Minutes of Service by mentoring 67 Mentees. 

So after a third hugely successful event within 9 months, I saw a clear “demand” for more events, and as a result of the powerful Mentorship Workshop and activities designed around the “Walk” component of the event, have also seen an exponential increase in the demand for services in the Mentorship space, another huge driver for founding The Passionate Professional

So in order to really Walk my Talk in wanting to pay it forward, and have the power and impact of the Mentoring Walk event extend as far and wide as possible, I have officially created a brand around the Mentoring Walk under The Passionate Professional. This has enable me to take the event beyond just the global annual event to more frequent and specifically themed events. 

The intention of the Mentoring Walk as a brand is to:

Expand to various cities across South Africa
The aim is to host the next Global Mentoring Walk South Africa in Johannesburg and Cape Town (and potentially Durban too)

Host themed Mentoring Walks beyond the November event
Future Mentoring Walks already in the pipeline are as follows 

  • International Women’s Day (March 2015)
  • Freedom Day (April 2015)
  • Youth Month (June 2015)
  • Mandela Day (July 2015)
  • South African Women’s Month (August 2015)
  • and upon request/invite from various companies/NGOs as CSI and/or internal Mentoring Programs

So here we go, full steam ahead to incubating leaders through Mentorship, with a simple Walk in the Park. 

Note: Applications for the 2014 Global Mentoring Walk South Africa will be opening on the 28th September. For more updates follow The Passionate Professional Facebook Page

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