Hi SLN Members –

I wanted to follow up Barbara’s announcement last month (March 22nd) about the Mentorship Program with further information for all of you to keep your interest.

First off Barbara has asked me to take on the role of Director of Smart Mentoring . I’m very excited to be leading the Mentor/Mentee program of work and have the opportunity to work with many of you.

To expand on Barbara’s original high level strategy, I’ve been working on a program plan with the next level of detail. The program plan consists of mapping the high level strategy to an operating working model along with organizational work streams, deliverables, timelines, and communications mechanisms.

I’ll be kicking off the Pilot Mentorship Program June 1st. To gain early interest I’m sharing details as Barbara and I are in the planning phase.

2011 “Pilot” Mentoring Program Activities:

• Strategic planning & Program Setup (April/May)
• Recruit Volunteers (April-December; Ongoing)
• Kick off “Pilot” Program (June 1st)
• Create reference materials, guidelines and coaching strategies (June 15 – August 15)
• Design website & DB (data & metrics) (June 15 – August 30)
• Identify and adopt charity campaigns (June 15 – August 30)
• Mentor/Mentee matches assigned (August 20)
• Run the “Pilot” (September 1 – December 31)
• Pilot Lessons Learned (September 1 – December 31)
• Kick off “Live” Chargeable Mentorship Program (January 2012)

In the next few weeks I’ll be working further on the operating and organizational model. As of today we’ll need subject area experts to lead the following functional areas.

Marketing – External marketing materials, coaching guidelines, tools, social media, newsletters, webinar recruitment and more

Operations – Website and DB management, lessons learned, knowledge base, metrics and continuous improvement and more

Human Resources – Coaching strategies, people goals, mentor & mentee matches, developmental tools and more

Strategic Philanthropy – Media campaigns, global outreach program, host workshops with community interest groups and more

Charitable Programs – Selection, setup and measurement inclusive of success criteria in partnership with Strategic Philanthropy team. Recruit sponsors for SLN and more

If you interested or would like to know more details behind the functional areas please send me a message via LinkedIn or yvonne@smartleadersnetwork.com and please include your email address so I can follow up with you.

I came accross this list and knew that is should be shared with Smart Leaders Network.
Simple? Yes. Timeless? Yes. Relevant? Yes again!     

1. Compete to win but respect the enemy. Forget all the politically correct BS – business is about winning. And yes, it is a zero-sum game. It’s all about market share. But that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t respect your competitors.
2. Success is about managing and mentoring people. The way chefs move up is by hiring talented cooks and training them to be sous chefs so they can someday run one of their many restaurants. It’s the same as climbing the corporate ladder.
3. Results are all that matter. It’s what the customer thinks of the product and service that counts. That’s what creates repeat business and loyal customers. You may think you’ve come up with a brilliant dish, but if the folks don’t like it, you failed.
4. You’ve got to know the business. Steve Jobs isn’t just a brilliant marketer. Warren Buffet isn’t just a smart investor. Bill Gates wasn’t just a great software coder. Just like these iconic leaders, every great chef has a head for the business.
5. It’s not who you know but what you know. Don’t let anyone tell you success is about who you know. That’s just an excuse for whiners who can’t cut it. Great chefs know everything there is to know about making a restaurant business successful. Period.
6. Experience is overrated. Even young chefs like Sanchez and Bobby Flay – when he was first starting out – exude such instincts and passion for what they do that you know in a heartbeat they’re going to be successful. That’s why people follow them.
7. Learn from failure and move on. Failure is how we learn and grow. Failure teaches us how to do things differently. How to do things better. Great chefs don’t dwell on their mistakes. They suck it up and do better next time. After all, there’s always another meal.
8. Focus on core strengths. Great chefs grow their business around their core strengths. For Flay it’s southwestern. Paul Prudhomme is a Cajun master. You can probably guess Mario Batali’s specialty. There are lots of ways to diversify without going too far afield.
9. Smarts matter. Nobody has ever been successful in the restaurant or cooking business by just doing the same stuff as everyone else. Sure, execution is critical, but innovation and creativity are also requirements for success. Like it or not, smarts matter.
10. Work hard, play hard. Even while competing at an extraordinarily high level, these chefs never lose their sense of humor and, when it’s over, they party and congratulate each other on a job well done. That’s how it should be.

This list is part of article by Steve Tobak.