Why the Power of Mentoring can Change the World | Shirley LIU | TEDxEDHECBusinessSchool

Summary

Shirley Liu's TEDx talk highlights the transformative power of mentoring, drawing from her personal experiences with two vastly different mentees. She underscores the impact mentoring can have on both mentors and mentees, showcasing stories of personal growth and societal contribution. Through her narratives, Liu shows how mentoring extends beyond formal knowledge transfer, emphasizing its role as an act of kindness and empowerment. She calls for a global scale-up of mentoring, likening it to a movement akin to recycling, to affect positive societal change.

Highlights

• Mentoring empowers both the mentor and the mentee by fostering mutual growth. 🌈
• Shirley mentored two women with very different backgrounds, highlighting the universal benefits of mentorship. 👭
• Mentoring is a kindness that can break cycles of disadvantage and empower individuals for societal betterment. 💖
• Shirley calls for a global mentoring movement, similar to the rise in recycling practices. 🌱
• Through mentorship, Shirley discovered deeper insights into herself and the individuals she worked with. 🎓

Key Takeaways

• Mentoring is more than knowledge transfer; it's an act of kindness and empowerment. 🌟
• Both mentors and mentees experience personal growth and transformation. 🌱
• Mentoring can help break cycles of disadvantage and empower individuals. 💪
• Scaling mentorship globally can lead to significant societal changes. 🌍
• Everyone has the potential to contribute positively through mentoring. 🤝

Overview

Shirley Liu dives into the profound power of mentoring in her TEDx talk, sharing personal stories of how mentorship can change lives. She recounts her experiences with two mentees, Ann and Sarah, each from vastly different backgrounds yet both benefiting immensely from the guidance provided. Liu emphasizes that mentoring is as much about learning and empathy as it is about teaching.

In her mentorship journey, Shirley recognized that true change happens when mentors approach relationships with openness and respect. She quickly learned that mentoring is not just about the mentor imparting knowledge but about a mutual exchange that often reshapes the mentor's own views and growth. Shirley's story is a testament to how mentoring can bridge gaps and help individuals overcome significant life challenges.

As Shirley argues, scaling mentorship programs globally could have a transformative impact akin to global environmental movements like recycling. She believes that such a movement would enable more people to access mentorship, fostering a culture where shared knowledge and support become commonplace. Shirley's call to action is clear: mentoring should be an integral part of our societal framework, with everyone playing a role in mentoring the next generation.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction to Mentoring The chapter introduces the concept of mentoring with an emphasis on the transformative power it holds. It suggests that to pursue extraordinary things, one must 'dream, dare, and do' alongside great mentors. Additionally, it highlights the introspective growth one can achieve by stepping into the role of a mentor.
• 01:30 - 09:00: Mentoring Experiences with Ann and Sarah In this chapter, the author discusses their mentoring experiences with Ann and Sarah. They reflect on their career, acknowledging the wisdom and growth gained from being mentored by amazing leaders. As a result of this guidance, they were able to build a meaningful career. One of the highlights of their corporate life has been mentoring not just their team but other talents within the company as well. Recently, they have decided to extend their mentoring skills beyond the corporate environment to benefit other areas of society.
• 09:00 - 13:00: Reflection on Mentoring Impact In the chapter titled 'Reflection on Mentoring Impact', the narrator discusses their experience of joining two social mentoring organizations. They meet two women, both aged 27, who, despite having diverse life backgrounds, skills, and needs, interestingly mirror each other. The narrator highlights the intriguing dynamic developed through mentoring these women. One of the women, Ann, is notably pursuing two master's degrees, one of which is at Harvard, showcasing her dedication and ambition. The chapter explores the positive impact these mentoring relationships have had on both the mentor and the mentees.
• 13:00 - 16:00: Call to Action for Mentorship A student from MIT, during her master's degree summer internship, was volunteering in Rwanda with a government agency. She was working as an advisor aiming to attract foreign investment. Despite communication issues, she managed to introduce herself and discuss her role.

Why the Power of Mentoring can Change the World | Shirley LIU | TEDxEDHECBusinessSchool Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 if you want something dream dare do if you want something extraordinary dream dare do with great mentors if you want to learn a powerful lesson about yourself become a mentor I've been
• 00:30 - 01:00 blessed in my career to be mentored by amazing leaders who gave me a lot of wisdom and growth through hard work and their precious guidance I built a meaningful career then one of the joys in my corporate life is to mentor people not only my team but also talents within the company last year I decided to take those skillsets forward and try to apply them in other parts of society so I
• 01:00 - 01:30 signed up to two different social mentoring organizations and as luck would have it two fascinating women entered my life both 27 they have absolutely completely different life backgrounds life circumstances skill sets and needs and yet there were perfect mirror of each other meet and and is doing two master's degree simultaneously one from Harvard the
• 01:30 - 02:00 other one from MIT she called me while she was in the first year summer internship in her master's degree she called me from Rwanda Africa and I couldn't we couldn't hear each other too well but we introduced each other and she told me that she was volunteering in a government level agency working as an advisor to attract foreign investment
• 02:00 - 02:30 into the Rwanda economy I was so impressed she's 27 and I thought oh my god I'm not doing at 20 doing this when I was at 27 what more can I offer you I should be doing what she's doing as we started to work together we discussed her life ambitions her career goals her five purpose ten-year visions and how to save the world and appreciated the value of mentoring
• 02:30 - 03:00 she was diligent she's self disciplined she finishes every reading assignment that I assigned to her before our mentoring call she's the job she's the one who's driving the relationship here meet Sarah sarah has very different life circumstances we were matched through a nonprofit organization in France called led by her a fantastic organization that helps women suffers of abuse and help
• 03:00 - 03:30 them rebuild their life and financial dignity through entrepreneurship Sarah married very young she escaped her violent ex-husband she doesn't have higher education and she has no family in France mentoring Sarah was a very different experience for me versus the corporate mentees or academic mentees in the first two months I couldn't get hold of Sarah or to come in and engage in a
• 03:30 - 04:00 regular mentoring schedule I was the one always urging her to make mentoring appointments with me then one day over Christmas as Sarah missed another mentoring appointment with me I felt so frustrated so I called her to see what happened she picked up the phone and her voice was shaken she said I can't pay my rent that was a bucket of
• 04:00 - 04:30 water on my fire it really puts things into perspective and I was determined not to let her down every month I would invite Sarah to come into the office where I would book a empty guest conference room after work and we will work on her mentoring sessions together the first time I gave her a tour around the office the global headquarters of the number one cosmetics company in the world I explained to her
• 04:30 - 05:00 this might feel a little bit intimate it might feel like this part of society it's a little bit far away from you and from your daily experiences but I said to her month after month when we continue to meet here one day this will become your routine this will become your familiarity and this will become your workspace because I believe in society people have different statuses
• 05:00 - 05:30 due to different life circumstances but that doesn't mean people's innate ORS are any different and over the next couple of months as these two women generously led me into their lives and as I had continued to explore their beautiful minds I was in all of the similarities between these two fascinating women despite their life circumstances one on each side of the
• 05:30 - 06:00 spectrum they were strikingly similar at their core both were fantastic good quality Souls both were intelligent both were courageous and both share the same hopes in their lives they also shared the same fears as well they share the same doubts insecurities anxieties about themselves and about the future and you know what yes with a Harvard MIT double
• 06:00 - 06:30 masters you still have those anxieties and you know what their anxieties are not so different from those of mine or yours I learned firsthand that at the heart of it human beings we all share the same emotions inside we all have the same fears and hopes in life I also started to understand and see for myself firsthand the impact and the importance of education and because she's had the
• 06:30 - 07:00 benefit of education and training has a high level of strategic thinking she's able to make good decisions after good decisions and go on to a positive cycle Sarah on the other hand doesn't have the Ben of the same training or analytical skills so she tends to risk take the risks of making less than ideal choices after less than ideal choices that spiral into a more difficult situation
• 07:00 - 07:30 and as we know life is the result of the daily choices that we make Ann has gained abundant skillsets to carry on creating a career a brilliant career and also a self-sufficient future her worries are more long-term and I am less worried about her Sarah on the other hand are more restricted by her current set of skill sets and her worries are
• 07:30 - 08:00 more immediate she worries about food shelter and basic transportation so we worked out that by the month it takes about seven and a hundred and fifty euros to survive in Paris that amount seemed like a fortune to Sarah and I bought her great anxiety so we tried a different technique which is breaking it down by the day by the day it means 25 euros and that's all we're gonna focus on so we put together a concrete action
• 08:00 - 08:30 plan for Sarah to find hourly jobs and enable her to find an earn 25 euros a day and regain her stability first and she does that day by day humbly but proudly through her own effort and with good people around her Sarah gain color in her cheeks her head a little higher her voice a little more confident and her eye contact a little steadier I was also impressed by her
• 08:30 - 09:00 intelligence and her fast capability to evolve as I see her take our coaching techniques session after session I see her reinventing herself as a young woman from a very difficult life situation to a woman who is rebuilding her life with strength with courage and slowly but surely she is rewriting her self-identity through Sarah I saw the
• 09:00 - 09:30 possibility of human potential and the inspiration was incredible a lot of people think mentoring is formal transmission of knowledge I think and I believe that mentoring really is an act of kindness that needs to happen on a daily basis and scaled across more society to benefit more people research shows that 55 percent of young
• 09:30 - 10:00 people who come from low-income societies who have Mentors go on to higher education sixty-five percent of the people who come from unemployed communities who have mentors go on to secure employment and seventy-five percent of executives say that mentors play a key part in their careers I can certainly attest to that now while mentoring is a very commonly known unheard-of concept in our era let's take
• 10:00 - 10:30 the u.s. for example which is one of the countries that is more most popular and widely practice in the concept of mentoring according to Statistics only 1% of the people are actively engaged in a mentoring collaboration isn't a strange to think that this is something we hear about every day and in practice the numbers tells us that mentoring is actually niche in practice and it needs
• 10:30 - 11:00 to be scaled across the world and there's still a lot to do it's kind of like recycling 25 years ago 25 years ago 30 years ago recycling was something we have heard of but at the time not many people have actually participated in it and over time over the decades with continues advocacy and effort many people nowadays including governments are actively recycling for the environment now imagine if we if
• 11:00 - 11:30 mentoring is also goes through the same transformation and the same cycle where you're transforms from a herd of concept into a mainstream daily action that everyone does that would be amazing collectively we could make a fantastic change to the world 1% imagine if we take the 1% mentorship ratio of the US and applied it to extrapolated to the 7 current world population of seven point
• 11:30 - 12:00 six billion if we did that that would mean that every single person in a country the size of France would receive mentorship guidance and if we bump that number up to 2% we'd be looking at the entire population of Russia the 9th most populated country in the world imagine that if we can do that we would be applying and activating direct impactful
• 12:00 - 12:30 positive change together to the world to the next generation and this is the duty of educated global citizens like us so what where's my two mentors now and what's happening to them and is applying for jobs as she waits for graduation this June I have no doubt she will go on to build a fantastic career and very soon she will also become an inspiring change agent herself she dreams she
• 12:30 - 13:00 dares and she does it Sarah is building her entrepreneur business plan for her textile business cashmere with the support of led by her she will continue to rebuild her life and regain her financial independence she has courage she has conviction and she's ready to do it and me surely I continue to serve as their mentors and
• 13:00 - 13:30 stand closely by their sides mentoring really is a two-way healing process there is great power in serving and helping others and when two people come together at the of contact when one flame lights another both people end up shining a little brighter when I thought my role was to be teaching my mentees knowledge in fact they taught me profound wisdom from them
• 13:30 - 14:00 I learned about stereotypes both for people who are more fortunate and less fortunate in society I thought I was in compassionate non-judgmental person well it turns out I still need to work on some of my judgments and I do have prejudgment I thought I was a humble person turns out I still have to tame my ego the life goes on and the journey and
• 14:00 - 14:30 the learning goes on for them and for me I also started appreciating even more in my career and thanks to the organization's the schools and the companies that had nurtured me and given me all of these skill sets to become a change agent in society before meeting Sarah I hadn't realized that I had grown to this powerful change agent and through my knowledge and my skill sets that I had learned through corporate and education training I'm now able to apply
• 14:30 - 15:00 it to the society and make contributions as one single individual ultimately I realized that at the end of our lives there's no bigger moment of truth than that it's one single conversation of us versus us asking ourselves am i proud of the way that I used my life did I live to my fullest potential do I like myself we're still young and we don't know how
• 15:00 - 15:30 life is going to play out in front of us years decades hopefully but I know one thing for sure for me personally I want that final answer to be positive and I know for me joy comes from service lifting others as I continue to build my career through mentoring is one of the many many good accessible ways to do that so next time another person come up to
• 15:30 - 16:00 you reaches out and ask you about a question about life about career about their insecurities and hopes I hope that you'll remember my story of the two mentees that changed my life perspective and I hope that you will give in a little bit of your time and your service watch both of your lives transform and watch both of you shine a little brighter and one by one as we all advocate and act to make mentoring a
• 16:00 - 16:30 wild a mainstream activity collectively we would be making enormous impact to the world and the next generation thank you [Applause]