Developing Global Leaders: Perspectives of Mentees

The purpose of this session within the Global Leadership Mentoring Community symposium is to relate the experiences and outcomes for participating mentees. Mentees will present their experiences as a panel presentation. The goal of the Community was to develop a sustainable process of mentoring for global leadership development. The mentees were identified as emerging leaders in their own settings who could prepare for leadership in the STTI organization and in global nursing. Mentees held monthly conversations or connections with their assigned mentor. Following these virtual meetings mentees submitted "Connection Notes" to the online site so the contents of the session were documented. These submissions along with a survey to mentees are used to describe the benefits and challenges of participating in an international community of this nature. For example, mentees will describe their exchanges between seasoned leaders in nursing and other peer emerging leaders. They will give examples of opportunities to apply suggestions and coaching to nursing issues in the professional experiences of the mentee. They will relate how documentation activities, international phone calls, and virtual communications were essential components of professional exchanges. Mentees will also describe challenges of mentor-mentee relationships, including developing intercultural communication competence as a process and style in exchanges between persons in different world countries. Mentees will share getting the "right fit" as mentor-mentee pairs were identified, scheduling across time zones, matching expectations of mentors and mentees, and using The Circle Workgroup effectively. For all mentees, the process of participating in submitting an abstract to STTI for any conference was a first-time experience. All were encouraged to attend the November 2017 conference but some voiced financial concerns which represents another type of challenge and area of coaching as to how a professional perhaps "pieces" together financing from a variety of affiliations one has available. The mentees will also present statements of personal growth, contributions made to their chapters, and other activities that stemmed from the mentor-mentee relationship. Recommendations for a sustainable process will come from the lessons learned in this first-year experience in the Global Leadership Mentoring Community based on surveys and mentee feedback.