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Mentorship Podcast TTT Season 3 Strategic Change Yvonne Thevenot

Season 3 Episode 48: Yvonne Thevenot on Mentorship Within a Changing Global World

Yvonne Thevenot

Welcome to Tea Toast & Trivia.

Thank you for listening in.

I am your host, Rebecca Budd, and I am looking forward to sharing this moment with you.  

Yvonne Thevenot (Photo Credit Sarah Jamal)

I am delighted and thrilled that my friend and Business Strategist, Yvonne Thevenot and I are connecting Toronto and Vancouver to discuss change management and mentorship within an evolving business world that spans the globe.

Yvonne is a certified change expert and business transformation specialist who employs a client-focused, and people-centric approach to strategic change.  As an executive mentor and thought partner, she creates a space that invites a rich and fulfilling dialogue. She is a passionate change agent whose work creates more confident and capable employees. Her goal is to foster a creative and innovative spirit vital to thrive within a dynamic environment

I invite you to put the kettle on and add to this exciting conversation on Tea Toast & Trivia.

Thank you for joining Yvonne and me on Tea Toast & Trivia.

And a special thank you, Yvonne, for sharing your thoughts on mentorship, change management and work/life balance.   You have inspired me, and I know that you have inspired others to participate confidently, with compassion, within a world that needs creativity and innovative thinking. 

Listeners, I invite you to meet up with Yvonne on her on LinkedIn.

Until next time, dear friends, keep safe and be well.

Yvonne Thevenot on Mentorship Within a Changing Global World – Tea. Toast. & Trivia.

By Rebecca Budd

Blogger, Visual Storyteller, Podcaster, Traveler and Life-long Learner

44 replies on “Season 3 Episode 48: Yvonne Thevenot on Mentorship Within a Changing Global World”

You are a wonderful friend, Holly. Your encouragement and thoughtfulness is very much appreciated. Yvonne always gives a lift to my day. Her compassion/commitment to others, especially young people establishing their careers, is truly remarkable. I am delighted that you listened in! Sending hugs your way.

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Thank you, Yvonne and Rebecca, for this inspiring, challenging and encouraging conversation. I am inspired by the respect shown to those being mentored! Yvonne’s being able to understand and connect on a personal level with each of those asking advise is impressive! Work environments, and especially during this recent pandemic, or having to make an unexpected move in a difficult situation is never easy. A helping hand and a listening ear is very valuable! I appreciated the closing paragraphs where time was taken for a review of the information discussed. I am looking forward to the next conversation.

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Rebecca, I finally got a chance to listen to this podcast after a few days of the busy-ness and pace of change you and Yvonne discussed. 🙂 Very wise words and advice from Yvonne on mentorship and its two-way nature, how being ultra-busy at times can be a good thing rather than an alarming thing, etc. It sounds like any person or business would benefit from being a client of Yvonne’s.

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Thank you so much for listening in, Dave. Yvonne has a marvelous way of inviting deeper conversations. What I am interested in exploring is the question: why is there a separation between business thinking/mentorship with what we consider personal and outside of our careers. Because we need to “make a living” we spend most of our time within a business environment with benchmarks that measure productivity and valuation. Do those “business” benchmarks infiltrate our personal benchmarks. Something to think about.

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I had the same reaction, Dave. I’ve never worked for an organization that managed change well, which ended up with lost productivity, power grabs, and resignations. Each of these organizations would have benefitted greatly from Yvonne’s wisdom and guiding hand.

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I knew that you would enjoy Yvonne, Liz. I met Yvonne through my connection with Dalhousie University. Her LinkedIn posts are heartfelt and honest. I appreciated her thoughts on feedback – that authentic feed back was rare and on reflection – that reflection is also a vital activity for moving forward. I am delighted you listened in.

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Indeed, Liz. I guess owners of companies/heads of organizations often have very different ideas about what makes a good leader than employees do. I think the employees’ ideas about that are better. 🙂 Owners tend to prefer leaders who will grovel to those above them, do things on the cheap to save the owners money, etc. Ability, intelligence, and treating employees well are frequently not at or near the top of the list. 😦

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I agree with Dave, Liz – accurate more than cynical. There is a time to “name” the concerns that come out of working within any environment, whether it be corporate, non-profit, or community endeavours. Organizations are made up of people who must choose how to engage with each other. Whatever the mission or end goal of an organization, it is the activities of the people that will make it happen. We are seeing some very interesting outcomes that have been introduced since the Covid-19 disruptions that are challenging every organizational entity to navigate the ripple effects of the pandemic and evaluate how to retain talent. The Great Resignation, which Yvonne mentioned in her discussion, began before the pandemic and is still evolving. Benchmarks of “success” that have been entrenched within society are not longer as enticing. A few years ago, I was introduced to the work of Mary Parker Follett, who advocated a “pull” rather than “push” approach to employee motivation. She differentiated between “power over” and “power with”. I had never heard of her before, which I found fascinating, but I digress. Her ideas on negotiation, conflict resolution and power sharing resonated with me. “Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.” Thank you, Liz and Dave, for adding your profound and insightful comments. I love our discussions!!

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VERY wise words, Rebecca! And “Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those led” is a fantastic quote.

I’m thrilled at “The Great Resignation,” and how employees are taking back a tiny bit of power. Hope that will make some employers rethink their attitudes, pay scales, and working conditions. If that happens, it might be only temporary until things swing back 100% in employers’ favor rather than the current 98% or 99%, but…

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Hi Rebecca, an interesting discussion with Yvonne. My firm has a mentoring programme. I had a mentor once, but I never received any help or guidance from her. I somehow, always ended up walking alone and having to work out what needed to be done in my work on my own too. I am a bit of a loner when it comes to work so maybe that was really my preference and choice, even if it was not deliberate at the time. I think there are benefits to mentoring and being a mentee provided the mentee understands that they also need to put work in to obtain benefit from the relationship. I think these relationships are being abused in our current world, but that could be a local phenomenon and not worldwide. Peoples decision and choices are always in their own hands and they have to fight for their own knowledge and learnings.

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Thank you, Robbie, for adding depth and breadth to this conversation. The definition of mentor – “an experienced and trusted adviser” suggests that the mentor is enthusiastic about the success of another and will work diligently, side by side, to bring the best to that person. I especially appreciated Yvonne’s discussion around coaching, which is more in line within the corporate structures. A coach position another to win and thereby will, in some sense, receive reflected glory. My most influential mentor was my father, who guided me all of my life – and still does, even though he has passed some 10 years ago. The words remain firmly entrenched and I call upon them in times of need. I wholeheartedly agree that we must strive and fight to increase our knowledge. Learning is hard work and comes through effort. The blogging/writing community has a wonderful understanding of how to encourage mentorship. I have seen evidence of extraordinary mentoring that builds and inspires. We do our best when, as you said so well, the “I” becomes “WE.”

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Hi, Rebecca. Your comments to Robbie really struck a chord with me. My father was my most influential mentor as well. I’m still constantly quoting him. At one point at a prior college, a new dean changed academic advisors to academic coaches, which most of us strongly objected to. Academic advising is about mentorship of the whole person, not pushing people across the diploma finish line.

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Hi Rebecca, your father sounds like a wonderful man. You may be right about the difference between a mentor and a coach, although the term mentor is used loosely. I have mentored three young ladies who embraced learning from me and it was a most fulfilling experience all around. These ladies have all gone on to achieve excellent positions elsewhere and I am still in touch with them on social media and track their progress. My most recent two attempts haven’t gone as well and I put it down to a different attitude from the mentee. Perhaps such relationships are special though and you don’t find them all the time. There is a lot of support in many parts of the writing community. It is really quite an amazing thing, given how most competitive fields work.

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Isn’t it wonderful to be connected to those who have enriched our lives!! Mentorship is an awesome task, but as you and Yvonne have said, the work is done by the mentees. They must decide, even as we have had to decide. I continue to learn and learn and learn….

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My husband and I greatly enjoyed this rich and thought-provoking Tea, Toast and Trivia conversation. I particularly appreciated Yvonne’s acknowledgement of your mentoring role with your Tea, Toast and Trivia audience.

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I am delighted you enjoyed this conversation, Liz. When I look back, I more clearly understand how important mentors were in my personal journey. In fact, many times I never recognized that I was being mentored until many years later. How precious those times were. Thank you so much for your lovely comment about TTT. I’m looking forward to your return visit in 2022. So many more conversations waiting for our arrival.

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Hi Rebecca, you are very fortunate to have had mentors in your life. I never had anyone at work who played a role like that. My learning was more of an individual adventure and I helped to break new regulation in a number of areas in my field. I do have mentors in the blogosphere, people who I have learned from and aspired to emulate.

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The world of blogging and writing is much more fulfilling for me than the corporate world which is driven largely by what makes money. Most writers have other jobs to help pay the bills and yet they are prepared to offer so much support to others. Maybe it is because writing is a passion. PS Michael and I made our first 30 Christmas charity crackers today.

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For most of my career, my boss refereed to me as an agent of change, but most of the changes I introduced, or tried to introduce, were met with resistance. I think that when change is forced upon people, it’s much less likely to be successful than when people are guided to accepting change that works for them.

I like the reminder you offered that choice implies responsibility, and Yvonne’s inclusion of the “choice to do something or not do something.” Too often, people don’t see “not doing something” as a choice.

Balance is an interesting subject, and one that is moving under the microscope these days.

Some of my most rewarding experiences while working were the times I served as a mentor at a local State University. I think I came close to what Yvonne is expressing in her definition of the role of a mentor.

Guided self-discovery is difficult. I think it’s because, as she says, you need to listen. Many people in teaching/mentoring/guiding fail to listen.

This was a great conversation, Rebecca and I agree with Yvonne in that you should feel very good about the mentorship you offer through this series.

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