Why every employee needs a mentor. An interview with Chinonye Ngwobia

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Can you briefly introduce yourself?

My name is Chinonye Yukay Ngwobia, a senior partner at Karis Advisory. I am a soft skills coach, a mindset mastery and mentoring consultant. I am quite passionate about mentoring.

Your profile is interesting. I would love to learn more about it. How did it all start?

Immediately after graduation, I got a job in the banking sector. I was so excited as that was the exact job I prayed for and the exact bank too.

I was clueless about my career. I was too focused celebrating my job and that was what I ever had…A Job, it never got to be a career.

I faced so many challenges and I kept wondering how to make it through as I envisaged at the beginning. The more I tried the harder it got. 

To find fulfilment I started enrolling in other ventures e.g. information technology, project management, procurement and supply…I became Jack of all trades and master at none.

I didn’t even know it was a mentor that I needed. I was living a life of trial and error until the break came. 

By this time, I had resigned from the banking sector and I saw someone talking about mentoring online, I almost cried because that was my missing link all along.

I started studying about mentoring and asking people to mentor me but all I got were excuses or no response. 

When I eventually found out I was going about it the wrong way, I made my corrections and boom. I got my first mentor and then more. I have seen a lot of changes, progress and success in my life since then.

That’s really a great journey. I am happy you found the missing piece in your puzzle. I came across your profile online and I discovered you have published some books. Can you share more about your books?

I have always known or maybe by reason of working in the bank for about 8years, I have seen the heart desire of many employees such as desire for productivity at work, desire to gain their employer’s trust, desire to transit jobs, even the desire to have other sources of income and answering questions (as I see them as a problem) has been what I have been doing for about 4 years now.

The first book I ever published was the ’Millionaire Employee’ and that book was a guide to employees on avenues to create other sources of income while they are building their careers.

I also know there are many professionals out there who desire to progress in their career but do not know how to go about it, they are not even in the right network, their weekend is a time to rest, to gain strength for the following week which is valid but they don’t know that they hurt their future by not building networks.

These are the things having a mentor will expose them to because no mentor wants a mentee that is not goal-oriented.

For employees to get the push they need, the social network and expertise they need, the sounding board and psychological permission they need and the progress they desire in life they must find, attract, nurture and maximize their mentoring relationship. 

This has led to this second book: ’On The Shoulders of Giants.’

Standing alone limits us, standing together strengthens us and standing on the shoulders of Giants makes us see further than others.

I will definitely love to read the book. What’s your latest book all about?

The latest book which is – ’On The Shoulders of Giants’ is an ultimate guide to help employees find, attract, nurture and maximize their mentoring relationship. 

Many successful people attribute their success to mentors. Hence, most people agree that mentoring is necessary for success in life but they do not know how to find and attract these mentors nor nurture and get the best from the relationship when they get into such relationships.

Many have become frustrated by the constant rejections they face each time they ask a successful person to mentor them.

People have given up on the idea of mentoring because they feel these successful people don’t want to mentor others or they don’t have their time. But this is so far from the truth.

For many years I was groping in the dark, I didn’t even know I needed a mentor. I saw the challenges I faced as one that could be solved but I didn’t know what to do. I later realized what I needed was mentoring, I knew i needed someone to help me gain focus and clarity. 

The thing is that I had the wrong mindset about mentoring and went about finding a mentor the wrong way, then, I gave up.

Few years later, I found exactly what I missed while seeking a mentor and today, I have more than one.

Mentoring is underutilized in our society, many people are lost and groping for success yet they neglect mentors.

I shared in this book, how you can find, attract, nurture and get the best from a mentoring relationship and above all start making progress in your life.

Where can all your books be found?

My first book was initially sold on my website but will be going on Amazon soon.

’On The Shoulders of Giants’ is on Amazon at a price that is next to nothing, it will be out on the 17th of January using the link: https://Amazon.com/dp/B083TG8DYR and the next two mentoring books that will be released in February and March of this year will be on Amazon too.

What problem do you intend to tackle in the next five years?

Wow, I really like this question. 

Mentoring is an untapped and undiscovered treasure in Africa. To grow as a people we must get to the grass root through mentoring.

Africa is green, many foreign investors are coming in their numbers, just a few months ago the CEOs of Twitter Jack Dorsey, Alibaba Jack Ma and many others came to Nigeria and visited other African countries too. Many Asian countries have been here, what do you think?

What are they seeing or rather what are they seeing that we are not seeing. 

Every great business man thinks of profit so I must tell You, they have seen a goldmine. If you look closely you would too.

If our people are not prepared to lead in our growth, then we will be forced to give up a major share of our profit.

From our families to our schools, our churches, our offices, our community to our nation, we must be prepared to lead this growth. We must not shy away from this growth.

Mentoring does not end in our workplace or business, we must take it further and that is where I am going to.

Mentoring is a great way to create leaders who would take us to our next level of growth and success. Mentorship is the next Leadership.

In five years from now, I am working towards integrating mentorship in our workplaces and schools. We will make progress from there.

What have been your major challenges so far?

The major challenge so far is the fact that just like me, many are not aware of the goldmine in mentoring and again the misconception people have had about mentoring.

Some people view mentoring as coaching, others as teaching or having a sponsor.

The mindset of people when it comes to mentoring has been filled with the wrong view, especially, in our climate.

Someone would ask you to mentor them just because you are perceived as a “big shot” and other mentees are too entitled to do anything, they want to ride on the connections and success of their mentor without bringing anything to the table, that is  without being resourceful. 

Another challenge is that many organizations claim to have mentoring programs in place but they don’t, all they have is a training school. They don’t know how their staff is hurting without having quality mentors in place.  I have always said, “an organization that gives back to its employees only with a paycheck has failed their human capital and as a result, have lost out in their own profitability.”

Organizations as well as schools and churches should start embracing mentorship.

That seems like a global problem. What should we expect from you in the next five years?

In the next five years, we hope to create a sustainable platform, where focused mentees would meet quality mentors from all over Africa.

We have started working on developing mentoring software to help create mentoring programs for organizations, churches and schools. 

We hope to take our platform to more African countries using digital media.

How can the audience reading this contact you?

I have a telegram (MentorAfrica) and WhatsApp group:

Thank you for your time.

It is a total pleasure. Thank you for having me.

And finally, our book is ready to launch our book today. Kindly use the details below to advertise to your audience.

Here is the link here.

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Thank you.