Non-government organisations (NGOs) rarely have enough money. There’s constant pressure to prove that every penny is ‘put to good use’, which translates into donor and public pressure to reduce running costs. The knock-on effect often squeezes staffing levels to the bare minimum, resulting in impossible expectations and insufficient support. Too many NGO workers are then left to sink or swim.
Which of the following statements more closely matches your experience in NGOs?
A. “We hired you to do XYZ, so we expect you to be able to do it – get on with it!”
B. “We hired you to do XYZ, but we know it’ll be challenging, so how can we support you to do it to the best possible standard whilst prioritising your wellbeing?”
If you answered A, it sounds like maybe you work(ed) with organisations that have a sink-or-swim approach to their staff. Keep reading!
Why is ‘sink-or-swim’ so common in NGOs?
When I started working for Enabling Education Network (EENET) it was based within the University of Manchester. I was paid through the university payroll, although all our income came from NGO donations and grants, so we had a tiny budget. One year, there was a university pay review and my role was included. The university HR department asked to see my job description, so we sent it over. The response came back quickly:
HR: “That is not one person’s job description. Please edit it to show what this one staff member does. We don’t need to see what the whole of EENET does.”
Me: “That is what I do.”
HR: “It can’t be. One person can’t do that job description, especially not at that low level of pay.”
Me: “Yeah, right, tell me about it!”
This little anecdote has stuck in my mind because it was my first real insight into how crazy an NGO staff member’s workload might seem to people from other sectors. In NGOs, we routinely take on roles that employers in other sectors might divide between two or three people.
So why does our sector end up with so many impossible job descriptions? I guess it’s often because of a mismatch between a donor’s expectations for the scale or speed of a project and the amount of money available. Sometimes, the NGOs themselves are over-ambitious – determined and driven to achieve goals for their stakeholder group even though they lack the capacity to reach that far or move that fast.
What does this have to do with mentoring?
Hang on, I’m getting there….
Many NGOs operate at full throttle the whole time. There’s never an opportunity to slow down and let the engine tick over for a while. Too many NGO staff are constantly under pressure not only to do more but to be more.
As a consultant, I regularly browse job and consultancy vacancy lists. Most days, I’ll read a job description or terms of reference (ToR) that makes me shout, “You must be joking!”. This might be a ToR that expects the consultant to deliver 40 days of work within 40 calendar days (just let that sink in). Or it might be a job description that expects the staff member to be a project manager, administrator, finance clerk, technical expert, IT guru and professional writer, preferably in at least two languages.
I’m not disputing that our sector has thousands of highly skilled and multi-talented workers capable of being more than just one thing. Nevertheless, too many job descriptions/ToRs read like dream wish lists rather than accurate appraisals of what the NGO can realistically (and healthily) expect one person to be and do.
Disappointment ensues! The NGO/manager feels disappointed that no applicant fully matches their requirements. The new staff member is disillusioned when their cool new job turns into a nightmare of impossible expectations and constant feelings of being left behind. And all their colleagues seem to face the same challenges, so there’s no one to turn to for help.
When workers are constantly overloaded, the chance of them sinking is pretty high.
This is where mentoring comes in!
Maybe you can’t quickly re-educate donors to understand that paying for more staff, so that each worker carries less workload, would lead to better outcomes and impact long term. (Although we should all keep trying to influence our donors.) Maybe you can’t magically create bigger budgets to increase the workforce and fix the problem of overloaded job descriptions and high-pressure expectations.
However, every NGO could, relatively easily and cost-effectively, use mentoring to support workers who are facing these challenges.
How can mentoring help in these situations?
Mentoring can help overloaded NGOs in so many ways! This is not an exhaustive list, but a snapshot of the benefits I’ve seen, both as a mentor and mentee in busy, pressured NGOs. These are benefits that workers may not be able to get simply from their day-to-day interactions with colleagues.
Practical help
The mentor could:
- help the mentee think through how to organise and prioritise a huge, seemingly impossible workload;
- help break tasks down into more manageable steps;
- help identify opportunities to delegate or ask for help from colleagues or external sources (and reassure the mentee that it is absolutely OK to ask for help).
Technical help
The mentor could:
- provide ideas or share their own experiences and knowledge relating to a specific technical issue;
- help the mentee reflect on and develop or practise specific skills.
Emotional help
The mentor could:
- support the mentee to build their self-awareness, confidence and motivation;
- be an independent and confidential listener when the mentee needs to share their worries and concerns;
- help the mentee identify stressors and think of ways to manage stress and practise self-care (this often includes developing the confidence to challenge unreasonable expectations from managers/donors).
Strategic help
The mentor could:
- be a critical friend who asks questions to help the mentee challenge assumptions and bias and think through difficult decisions from all angles;
- help the mentee think about longer-term goals, whether for their career or for their project/organisation;
- connect the mentee with wider networks or individuals who could help make their work easier, more enjoyable, or more effective.
Can you afford mentoring?
I think a better question is, can you afford not to use mentoring?
Mentoring might involve some costs if you can’t access a network of voluntary mentors, but it may not be an impossible expense.
A mentoring programme might offer the mentee just an hour with their mentor per month, for a period of a few months or on an ongoing basis. An intensive hour spent one-to-one with someone who is totally focused on understanding you and your needs can have a big impact.
It can be more cost-effective than sending staff on expensive training courses that might offer only generic information rather than personalised, one-to-one support. The support offered through mentoring could even help reduce staff turnover and thus recruitment costs and lost time, saving the NGO money in the long term!
If you think you or your staff/colleagues could benefit from mentoring, get in touch and we can discuss options.