02 Jul Women’s Leadership Academy – A Mentor’s Journey

I have had the most beautiful and inspiring moments being a mentor for a group of women and five of the individual women in a short period of time during the U.S. ASEAN Women’s Leadership Academy for YSEALI in Jakarta. The women are all very driven and passionate with what they are doing, being their jobs or businesses. They need courage and support to be able to take the next step forward to drive and scale the business, and some of them needed advice and guidance to better manage the family and personal matters. I am glad that I was able to provide them the support they needed at that point in time.

I am very passionate about helping women and believing that women could do so much more by merely encouraging or giving them the power and opportunities. I tried to help them by providing various tools for monitoring and tracking the progress in one, three and six months time. I felt value added to the team by and large. In addition, I followed up with the women to see if they felt the solution proposed was useful and if they will follow through when they go back to their home country. I continue to be in contact with my mentee from Singapore and the Philippines, either by meeting up in person or via text messages, to encourage and motivate them further as they proceed with their next personal or career move.

Many of my mentee are already a leader today, and some are leaders in the making and in progress. By just listening to the mentees and going through the process – one has to learn and unlearn to improve. Life is a journey and it is so inspiring to listen and meet so many wonderful women that is smart and willing to do so much to the world. Many of them are willing to learn and give back to their communities and do good. It’s a good reminder of telling myself as well what I need to do & re-prioritise between work and life balance.

I’m grateful for meeting all the lovely young inspiring women. I am also learning myself, by benefiting from this journey of being a mentor.

Patricia Lim was a mentor at the U.S. ASEAN Women’s Leadership Academy for YSEALI in Jakarta, June 2019.