At Women On Top we believe in mentoring and we believe (a lot!) in the ability of our mentors to change the lives of their mentees for the better. That is why we are starting the new academic year with a series of training seminars around key topics related to this role, which will significantly increase the effectiveness of the guidance you can offer to your mentees, your colleagues or any woman you want to support!
These are 4 two-hour webinars, which will help you learn more about the basic principles of mentoring, and practice skills such as trust and active listening, unconscious biases, goal setting and self-confidence, as well as other important tools that will also maximize your own broader professional development.
3rd webinar: Managing unconscious biases
Facilitator: Stella Kasdagli
Guest Speaker: Sebenzile Dlamini
When: 8/12/2022 @ 17:00-19:00
The third webinar of the mentor training cycle is about managing unconscious biases. Here we will discuss how we can recognize the stereotypes that we carry within us, even without realizing it, and which can negatively affect cooperation in a mentoring relationship or in any other part of our lives. Together we will discover tools to help us manage the biases that influence our behavior and are an inhibitor to our ability to build meaningful and honest relationships.
A few words about the Guest Speaker:
Sebenzile Dlamini is the founder and director of Women in Trade and Development (WITAD), which is a non-profit organization that operates in Eswatini. In 2015, a year after legally incorporating WITAD, she and her husband used their personal income to provide humanitarian aid to a poor, vulnerable household in Malindza, and they built a house for them with assistance and donations from the local community. It became clear to Sebenzile that poverty is a complex phenomenon that can only be eradicated through multiple, integrated interventions at the household, national and global levels. In 2020, she developed a curriculum on income generation, wealth creation and purposeful living. WITAD used this curriculum to train 45 adolescents through in-person and online training workshops in 2020 and 2021. She left employment in March 2022 to focus on growing WITAD’s programs. In April 2022, WITAD trained 52 volunteers to assist the organization in building the capacity of Out-of-School Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) to create self-help projects and businesses and access education opportunities. Sebenzile also founded a business named 19-D (Pty) Ltd that trades as an eatery and a management consultancy. She shares stories about her business with the adolescent girls and young women to inspire them to start their own businesses. Previously she served as the Head of the Incubator at the Royal Science and Technology Park; Chief Economist at Swaziland Competition Commission; Director of Trade at Business Eswatini; Senior Trade Policy Analyst at Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade and Economist at the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. Sebenzile holds a Master of Science in Business Economics, Finance and Banking from Portsmouth University, a Post-graduate Diploma in Management Practice (Trade Law Specialization) from the University of Cape Town, a Post-graduate Diploma in Competition Law from Kings College London, and a Certificate on Intellectual Property from the World Intellectual Property Organization.
