Proud to be a mentor for Nurshaim Tilenbaeva

Nurshaim Tilenbaeva was my second mentee under the Global Change Leaders Programme. Mentoring Nurshaim, I embarked on a learning journey about about Kyrgyzstan, where Nurshaim lives. I do hope I'll get a chance to travel there! 

Photograph by Kusekhaya

There was one day when I was moved to tears by Nurshaim's honesty in describing difficulties she was facing at the time, at a different work place. Reading her narrative of that conversation now, I remember interviews I have carried out as part of a recent study on gender policies and practice in four German organisations. A couple of persons told me about a leader in their organisation shedding tears in public - which they described as a display of emotional intelligence and an empathetic form of leadership. Interesting! Meanwhile, as I have accumulated more experience in mentoring and coaching, I have learned to empathise differently - but I still get visibly moved when a mentee tells me about her success! And here are Nurshaim's answers to my questions: 

Proud to be a mentor for Kateryna Kravchuk

Five years ago, the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (Canada) contacted me with a request to mentor a woman who had just graduated from its Global Change Leaders Programme (GCL). The idea was that we would have a one-hour Skype call every two weeks over a six-month period, to support the graduate in her efforts to translate learning from GCL into practice at home. I loved the idea! My first mentee was Kateryna Kravchuk from Ukraine, very close to my home time zone in Berlin.

Mentorships are great learning processes for everyone involved, I believe. I have happily agreed to mentor further GCL graduates since that first experience. Some mentees have answered a short set of questions to present themselves on my blog. I will post a mini-series of menteesin the coming weeks, starting today with my first GCL mentee, in her own words: 

Photograph by Andriy Maksymov

Kateryna Kravchuk - the economist, cultural researcher, focused in strategy, monitoring and evaluation of the projects aimed at improving the quality of life. Her main areas of expertise are community development, responsible entrepreneurship, cultural and creative industries, and cross-sector cooperation. 

(1) What is the main issue - or are the two or three main issues - that you are currently working on?

Currently I am busy with three projects: Creative Enterprise Ukraine (workshops and mentring for young entrepreneurs; keynote speaker for the Gender equality in culture and creative industries research), the evaluation of the UNDP/ADA project “Sustainable local development in rural areas” (two regions in Ukraine) and strategy development for Ivan Honchar Museum – centre for traditional culture in Kyiv. The main issues that are calling me since my childhood and more or less predefine everything I do are: