Skip to main content

Mentor: Anita Gibson, Deputy Director, MCSP (Maternal and Child Survival Program)


Another feature of this blog is bringing you advice and perspectives from people who mentor, by answering 3 questions.

Here are Anita Gibson's responses:

 What are mentees looking for?
A sense of different paths one can take in international health and strategies to reach both personal and professional goals. 


What 1 piece of advice do you give every mentee you work with?
Solid field experience is invaluable. Learning how to work effectively with multiple stakeholders and colleagues with varying world views is not straightforward.  These skills come with experience - particularly field experience.   


Why are you interested in mentoring?
Admittedly, I haven't sought out mentoring opportunities; rather, I sort of fell into them, particularly with more junior colleagues with whom I work.  After years of advancing my career while raising a family in the US and overseas, I find that colleagues are quite interested in how to achieve both job satisfaction and work-life balance.  I certainly don't have all of the answers but am encouraged if my experience and perspective can help others assess and pursue their interests and priorities.   

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 10, 2017 at 10:41:00 AM EDT

    From the vantage point of 30 years in global health, I find Anita's comments about the need for field experience very important. That is because the culture and viewpoint from one Agency (or Department) headquarters is so different than the multi-culture, diverse and non-vertical situation found in the circles of development and government cooperation. A strategic approach to achieving alignment behind initiatives of government is essential, and managing the myriad "HQ initiatives" to avoid competing with host government plans is essential. This takes perception as well as patience. As Anita also notes, achieving work-life balance can be challenging, especially in the context of a foreign mission where there are many layers of duty calling and escapes from the "diplomatic bubble" may be hard to find.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SueMentorsMay 17, 2017 at 3:48:00 PM EDT

      Thanks for your comment and perspective - such important reminders! Appreciate you taking the time to comment. Sue

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mentor: Barbara Rawlins, Monitoring and Evaluation Team Leader, Maternal and Child Survival Program

Another feature of this blog is bringing you advice and perspectives from people who mentor, by answering 3 questions. Here are  Barbara Rawlins ’  responses: What are mentees looking for? ·  Career guidance ·  Technical advice ·  Moral support ·  Advice on how to negotiate politically-sensitive or controversial situation What 1 piece of advice do you give every mentee you work with? Figure out what they want to do (in the long term) and what steps they can take to get there Why are you interested in mentoring? To support younger colleagues, especially women, to help attain their career goals
7 comments
Read more

Expanding Mentoring Help from SueMentors: A New Webinar

I enjoy the individual mentoring that I do for organizations and for personal clients. For several years, I’ve wanted to make mentoring help more widely available. Writing my blog was a start at that. But my mentor-mentee interactions have reinforced that mentees want – and need – real-time examples of advice that addresses their issues. So I am pleased to be partnering with my graduate alma mater, the Tulane University Office of Alumni Relations, to initiate a monthly Mentoring Help webinar, with the first webinar in May 2018. The 30-minute format will include 3 sections:          A brief review of the mentoring topic for the month          A case example of the mentoring topic with a mentee and mentor working through the mentee's issue in real time          SueMentor’s Question Time (aka answering questions submitted in advance of the webinar). This form solicits information from you about your interest in attending the webinars, identification
5 comments
Read more

Guidance on Mentoring: What is Mentoring?

This brief guide focuses on defining different aspects of mentoring, whether for an individual or for a team, and includes selected reference resources. It is critical that the mentee and mentor both approach their interaction with the same understanding of the nature and scope of the advising that will be offered. This brief guide can serve as a reference for both parties in arriving at that mutual understanding. Before delving into mentoring, it ’s important to be aware that s ome times  the terms “mentoring” and “coaching” are used interchangeably  despite important differences between them . There are many resources on mentoring and coaching – and almost as many different definitions for each as well as the similarities and overlap between the two  (such as shown in the articles on coaching in the resource list below).   Also, m ost people agree that mentoring is NOT training although a mentor or coach may recommend that a mentee obtain additional training. W hat i
4 comments
Read more