Best Mentoring Practices

Yesterday, I moderated a mentoring panel for the TechWomen Mentor Kickoff event (hosted by SurveyMonkey in San Francisco). The experienced and inspiring panelists were:

• Mentorship Advice: Katy Dickinson, Mentoring Standard
• Professional Mentor: Roojuta Lalani, Salesforce
• Impact Coach: Kiko Smith, Twitter
• Cultural Mentor: Jennifer Gieber, Glassdoor

Some of our advice:

• Katy: Look for long term success, this is a personal relationship in a professional setting
• Roojuta: Be flexible, make introductions, find people to help
• Jennifer: Create handouts for events, give good directions with pictures, be flexible, reach out to other mentors
• Kiko: Provide resources, help the group find value in each other, encourage teamwork, stay focused, show up and listen

I also offered my five best questions:

1. What problem are you solving? (define the challenge)
2. How do you know when you are done? (success/completion metrics)
3. Who is your customer? (target audience)
4. What is your data? (quantification)
5. What difference will it make? (impact)

These are on my Mentoring Standard website

I was proud to attend this event with my Co-Mentor and daughter, Jessica Dickinson Goodman. She is a Country Coach for Palestine and I am a Country Coach for Algeria this year.

Just for fun – some of my collection of magnets from the 22 TechWomen countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia:

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Images Copyright 2019 by Katy Dickinson – with thanks to Jessica Dickinson Goodman.

Arts and Crafts in Sierra Leone

In addition to meeting new people and mentoring, style, fashion, and exploring local markets have been some of my great joys during many trips to Africa. The recent TechWomen Delegation to Sierra Leone was no exception. This is an update on my 2017 blog post Fabric Arts and Crafts in Sierra Leone. Having shopped in Sierra Leone before, my daughter Jessica and I arrived with clear ideas on what we wanted to bring home this time.

An unexpected delight was that TechWomen Fellow, Engineer, and fashion entrepreneur Michelle Sesay (of House of Cordelia in Freetown) generously offered to have clothes made to order for the TechWomen mentors. She brought fabric and some made-up samples, took our measures and design ideas, and delivered wonders. Her tailor is amazing! Jessica and I and most of the TechWomen wore our new outfits to the final dinner.

In addition, Jessica and I brought home bolts of fabric, batik, and wood carvings as presents and to decorate our homes. After experiencing the design and color flair in West Africa, the San Francisco Bay Area is visually boring.

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Images Copyright 2019 by Katy Dickinson –  with thanks to TechWomen for the group photo!

TechWomen Delegation to Sierra Leone

I recently returned from the TechWomen Delegation to Sierra Leone and am still catching up with all of my work and homework. I was happy to be able to travel with my daughter, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, who was also a Delegation Member and who posted excellent daily blogs during the trip. We met with hundreds of girls and boys, entrepreneurs and leaders, schools and organizations, and came home inspired by the energetic and welcoming people of Sierra Leone.

Jessica and I had a long layover in London, so we were able to see an excellent all-female cast of Richard II at the Globe Theater. Once our flight arrived in Sierra Leone, we took the boat between Lungi and Freetown. The next day, we started visiting initiatives around Freetown developed by the creative and dedicated TechWomen Fellows of Sierra Leone, and participating in other events, including

• The Services Secondary School, Juba
• Reception by US Ambassador Maria E. Brewer
• STEM Career Day with secondary students at British Council, Tower Hill
• Fourah Bay College STEM students
• Women’s Leadership Forum at Radisson Blu Hotel
• Connecting the Future networking event and reception at Sierra Lighthouse
• Women in #Techpreneurship at Family Kingdom Resort
• Pitch Night and Startup Exhibition at Toma Boutique Hotel
• Reduce-Reuse-Recycle at Saint Edward’s Primary School
• Hands-on STEM Experience with Students at Buxton Memorial Methodist Church

I gave a keynote on Networking, and Jessica gave a talk on Finding Funding, and we joined all of the Delegation members to help present workshops and activities. Of course, Jessica and I passed out our Notable Women in Computing cards and posters. After the delegation ended, many of us took a bus to visit Families Without Borders in Makeni. Even after a 42 hour trip home, it was a remarkable and fulfilling experience.

Updated 23 March 2019

Photos Copyright 2019 by Katy Dickinson – Thanks to TechWomen for the Pitch Night photo!
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TechWomen Team Morocco – Connect to Impact

I have been proud to team up with Mercedes Soria and Fatema Kothari for a third year as TechWomen impact coaches, to work with five remarkable leaders from Morocco: Safaa Boubia, Nisrine Oukacha, Fatima Zzahra Meziane, Fatima Zahra Oumenni, and Imane Nassif. We have been working together since the ladies arrived in September to create Connect to Impact – a new online platform offering resources for nonprofits in Morocco to showcase their actions plans, increase their awareness and access to donors, and in time, improve their skills through fit-for-purpose training. Connect to Impact will provide a bilateral matchmaking algorithm between donors and nonprofit organizations.

Team Morocco presented about Connect to Impact at TechWomen Pitch Day yesterday. We find out at the Community Event on Monday, 22 October 2018, which of the twenty country teams won.

What is TechWomen?
TechWomen empowers, connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East by providing them the access and opportunity needed to advance their careers, pursue their dreams, and inspire women and girls in their communities.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). TechWomen, launched in 2011, supports the United States’ global commitment toward advancing the rights and participation of women and girls around the world by enabling them to reach their full potential in the tech industry.

Part of the joy of TechWomen is its large and supportive community. My daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman is also a TechWomen mentor, again coaching Team Palestine, which also gave an excellent pitch yesterday.  During the intermission, we got to see videos from TechWomen Fellows of prior years, including Solve24, created by our own 2017 Team Lebanon. Wish us luck in winning the pitch competition!

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Photos Copyright 2018 by Katy Dickinson

Thanks, TechWomen!

Thanks to the TechWomen program for the recent Tweet quoting me:

Behind every successful woman is a tribe of women supporting her, like TechWomen

It is my honor to have helped design TechWomen – and to have been a TechWomen mentor and enthusiastic supporter since the program started:

TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East together with their professional counterparts in the United States for a mentorship and exchange program. TechWomen provides participants access to networks, resources, and knowledge to empower them to reach their full potential.

During the five-week program, participants engage in project-based mentorships at leading companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, participate in professional development workshops and networking events, and travel to Washington, DC. for targeted meetings and special events to conclude the program.

Over the past seven years, more than 500 women from Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Yemen and Zimbabwe have participated in TechWomen.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). TechWomen, launched in 2011, supports the United States’ global commitment toward advancing the rights and participation of women and girls around the world by enabling them to reach their full potential in the tech industry.

TechWomen is managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE).
More: https://www.techwomen.org/

More about my company, Mentoring Standard: http://www.mentoringstandard.com/

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Refugees in Bunia, Congo

Last month, I posted a disturbing story and images: Help Needed for Displaced in Congo. The number of internal refugees who have settled in Bunia, Congo, continues to grow.  The camp now holds over 86,000 people, many of whom are women and children who have traveled for weeks under very dangerous circumstances.  The Congo Network of the Episcopal and Anglican churches gets regular updates from the Reverend Bisoke Balikenga who lives and works in Bunia, DRC.  The Congo Network is chaired by the Rev. Canon Dr. Isaac Kawuki Mukasa (Africa Relations, Episcopal Church).  The US media is reporting very little on this massive humanitarian crisis. I asked the Rev. Bisoke to send the Congo Network photos so that we could help tell the story.

Particularly disturbing were the photos of the girl Rachel and her little sister.  The Rev. Bisoke wrote with the photo below: “Rachel sister just come from the hospital, her left arm was cut by the rebel and Rachel was cut in the head and the mother was killed. Rachel is not in a good condition you can see her head. Please pray for them because the life which they have now it is not the good one.”  The Rev. Bisoke has taken 30 refugees into his own home, in addition to his family of 8.  He is getting some help from friends.  If you would like to help displaced people in the Congo, please donate to Episcopal Relief and Development (designate your donation to DRC). Your money will go toward food, clothing, shelter and assistance with trauma.

 

Recent news stories include:

• “Congo crisis worsening, EU says, as government shuns aid conference” 25 March 2018 in Reuters
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-eu/congo-crisis-worsening-eu-says-as-government-shuns-aid-conference-idUSKBN1H10PK?il=0
• “UN: $1.7 Billion Needed for DRC Humanitarian Crisis” 19 March 2018 in VOA News 
  https://www.voanews.com/a/un-says-almost-2-billion-dollars-needed-for-drc-humanitarian-crisis/4305877.html
  
• “DRC Violence: This Time It’s Different” 16 March 2018 in Fair Observer
  https://www.fairobserver.com/region/africa/joseph-kabila-democratic-republic-congo-violence-conflict-africa-news-headlines-76540/
• “Ethnic Violence in DRC’s Northeast Displaces at Least 60 000” 18 March 2018 in​ News24
  https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/ethnic-violence-in-drcs-northeast-displaces-at-least-60-000-20180318
• “Uganda Cholera Outbreak Slows, But Violence in DRC Complicates Recovery” 10 March 2018 in​ ​Devex
  https://www.devex.com/news/uganda-cholera-outbreak-slows-but-violence-in-drc-complicates-recovery-92344
• “Militias are Burning Villages in Congo” ​8 March 2018 in New York Times – Visual Investigations​
  ​ https://nyti.ms/2G43nk5​
• “How We Identified Burned Villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo” 8 March 2018 in New York Times
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/insider/burned-villages-democratic-republic-congo.html
• ​”DRC: Thousands Flee Amid Surge in ‘Horrific Violence” 21 February 2018 in Al Jazeera
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/thousands-flee-atrocities-south-eastern-drc-180220143919759.html​

Photos copyright 2018 by the Rev. Bisoke Balikenga – used with permission.
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Crafts and Souvenirs from Egypt

During the TechWomen Delegation to Egypt there was very little time for shopping but I did manage to find some presents and souvenirs.  Before our Professional Development Sessions with Alwan wa Awtar – AWA – Youth in Cairo, we bought bags, necklaces, and scarves from a young woman who started an embroidery craft and sewing business with her mother.  We also stopped by a Carrefour on the way to a meeting, where I found an excellent selection of lovely cotton scarves – not surprising in a country where colorful and well-designed scarves are worn by so many women.

We had time on the day we left to walk through Muizz Street and the shops of the old city in Cairo.  I was pleased to purchase a large black shawl with Egyptian hand embroidery, and a Ramadan tablecloth in a colorful primary color pattern we had seen many times as we traveled.  I even found some alabaster lamps which will be appreciated as presents, plus a pair of silver earrings for myself.  Thanks to 2015 Fellow Doaa ElEraqy of Egypt who was our patient guide and negotiator in the souq.

In addition to these treasures I bought, we Mentors received many kind gifts from the TechWomen Fellows of Egypt. I was also touched and honored to be given souvenirs from Palestine and Lebanon – presents from TechWomen mentees.

 

 

 

 

 

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Photos Copyright 2018 by Katy Dickinson.