"Me and the Job"-The "Relationship" at the "Work-place"

Yesterday, I attended an interview with Susan Mwangi (another participant in the World of Work 2007 team) at the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (AICC). I believe the interview went quite well and I would be really happy if we could both be employed at the AICC.
Apart from the common features of an interview, I noticed that a single thing is common to all types of interviews. In this regard, you need to be clear of how you can contribute to the organisation or the company that you are applying for, what value you can add to it and at the same time what you expect to gain out of this experience.
I have been asked this type of question many times, but only now I start seeing that this is indeed a very important theme of the job-application process, both for yourself and for the organisation (the company) that you are applying for.
In fact, one needs to be aware that it is not solely just about you getting this job and your monthly salary, but about your relationship to the work itself, your relationship to your company and team-mates (colleagues) and, above all, how you value this relationship.
In other words, one needs to understand that this is a process in which you have to give your best on the road of working with your team-mates towards the same goal and agenda. In short, you need to be clear about your own position in the company, how you can contribute to the organisation and ultimately what you expect to gain out of it.
As one of the interviewers illustrated very well yesterday, you need to know what you expect to “have in your pocket when you walk out of this building” (ie. when your job ends). You also need to be clear of what you need to do in order to fit in with the organisation’s mission, its values, principles and goals.
Therefore, I am asking all the participants in the 2007 World of Work training programme to think carefully around those themes and make the right decisions when they chose their jobs!

Good luck, guys!

"Express Your Opinion!" or "Why Mentoring?

Since the two workshops on “mentoring” that I attended lately, a single thought has kept my mind constantly busy. In fact, what I have been thinking about in the last few days has been a discussion around the purpose, nature and use of "mentoring" “inside” and “outside” the work-place.
More precisely, I have been concerned with what indeed is the single ultimate thing that makes “mentoring” worthy and useful for both the “mentor” and the “mentee”. Throughout this particular blog, I will reveal how I think “mentoring” is useful for the “mentee” in particular.

Thus, I remember that one of our speakers mentioned that a single thing that makes “mentoring” useful is to teach one how to “express his (her) opinion”. In fact, I believe that this is extremely important skill that people need to develop nowadays. “Expressing your own opinion” could be sometimes dangerous today, since you have to deal with social stereotypes and commonly-accepted rules and norms in a given (particular) society. In this regard, individuality and independence could be often judged from a particular cultural perspective, which could often lead to a mis-perception of who this person really is and what his (her) values, goals, and principles are.
And yet, how do you overcome this “cultural divide” and stand up brave to “express your own opinion”? In fact, I think this should be really the essential part and purpose of the process of “mentoring”. In one of my previous comments on Ijeoma’s blog on “mentoring”, I stated that the ultimate purpose of “mentoring” is indeed to establish a close relationship between the “mentor” and the “mentee” in an informal and non-conventional way.
In fact, I believe that this relationship should develop far beyond the professional, academic or university-oriented domain and bring both persons to a relationship where they both know each others’ likes, dislikes, goals and interests. I still remember what my supervisor at Honours level in International Relations said once before. He mentioned that throughout the teaching process, I and he should be related as if he was my “parent” and I was his “child”. And indeed, the process of “mentoring”, “coaching”, “teaching” or “supervising” should involve a close collaboration between both the “mentor” and the “mentee”, and them working together towards the same goal and end.
Above all, your “mentor” should not just be your practical guider or coach, but your adviser in life-oriented matters and decisions, your navigator in choices that shape your future and lead you towards the execution of your dreams, goals and actions. In short, your “mentor” is the one that gives you direction in life and maintains this direction throughout the process of your up-grading and development.
Your “mentor” is also your navigator in the process of your intellectual and professional development; he provides you with knowledge and assists you in the quest of applying this knowledge to the "world of work" and other various practical tasks. Your “mentor” is also the one that guides you in the process of drawing conclusions about life after you have acquired the knowledge you needed about yourself and the “world out there”. Thus, your “mentor” is the one that assists you in the process of formulating your opinion and expressing it in a given situation afterwards. Therefore, he (she) is also the one that teaches you skills that remain with you forever and thus he (she) performs a leading role in the process of your personality development.
In other words, “expressing one’s opinion or the skill of “assertiveness” should be an essential part of the process of “mentoring”. At the end of the day, the "mentee" should be able to face the awards and challenges of expressing his (her) opinion to the wider audience "out there". And this is what I believe the process of "mentoring" is all about!