Welcome to the Leadership Careers Club hub!

In the tabs on the left you will find a range of resources to support your monthly meetings, including a schedule and suggested discussion topics. Please take the time to familiarise yourself with this page and its contents.

THANK YOU for your commitment to supporting the career journeys of our Young Leaders!

Introduction

While you don’t need to prepare any materials for your sessions, we suggest that together you choose a topic ahead of time and take 10 minutes to consider the discussion points. It’s important that this is a collaborative process and that both you and your Young Leader are fully invested in the session.

On the next two tabs you will see suggested topics split by the young person’s employment status, each with a number of discussion points to help guide your mentoring.

As a general structure to your sessions, we suggest following the format below:

What are you proudest of in the last month?
What are the goals in the month to come?
What do you need to do to make progress towards your longer term aims?

Suggested topics - During Employment

Personal Brand

Discuss their personal brand – how can you tell how others perceive you?
Consider what skills or qualities they want to showcase – how can they communicate these? (e.g. online presence/joining internal committees/simply smiling more!)

Topic	Suggested discussion points
Being professional	Ask your mentee what characteristics does a ‘professional’ have? E.g. punctuality, trustworthiness. Do they embody all of these already? What language should you use at work? Is there a difference between language you use when emailing your manager compared to talking to a friend? Why does this matter? Do you need to keep being professional once you’ve made friends at work? Why might this matter?
Office Communication	Ask your mentee if they know how to write a professional email. What does this mean to them? Discuss how your email style might change depending on who you email. If your manager writes one line emails to you, for example, should you mirror their style? Discuss what ‘a timely manner’ is. How might you be perceived if you don’t reply in a timely manner? Does this affect other people’s trust in you? Discuss when and how to use an Out of Office reply, and why this is important.
Managing Feedback	Ask your mentee to recall some recent feedback (positive or negative!). Was it clear what their manager meant? How did they respond? Constructive criticism – what is the right way to take it? Discuss how to ask for more feedback. Why is this important?
Office social life	Discuss different workplace social cultures, and why socialising matters. Does your mentee get involved in the office social life? Are there barriers to them being involved? (e.g. an alcohol culture, expensive activities that are inaccessible to an apprentice) Think about the challenges of maintaining professional behaviour in a social setting. If there is a drinking culture, what is an appropriate way to manager this?
Mid-point review	Look back at the goals you made together in the first session – What progress have they made? Have their goals changed, or even been achieved? Revisit the goals together, either adapting to make them more achievable or creating new challenges for the next 6 months.
Networking	Think about some of the different ways to network, both within their organisation and externally. Are there any upcoming networking opportunities through LTSB? Come up with some practical ideas to build confidence when networking. Discuss the Do’s and Don’ts of following up (e.g. do write a brief message, don’t leave numerous voicemails asking for favours!).
Work/Life balance	Discuss the importance of a work/life/study balance. How do they fit in their academic study alongside work? Are they using their time efficiently? What are some of the ways to avoid burning out? Think about sleep, exercise, diet, and keeping up their personal interests.
Progression in the workplace	Try to find out what your young person’s career aspirations are. What are they currently doing to get there? Ask them to think of someone who they aspire to – whether in work, an LTSB alumni, or someone else. What is it about this person that they want to emulate? Share your experience of progression and promotion – both the highs and the lows. Think about managing expectations: it’s a marathon, not a sprint!
Make yourself indispensable	Identify somebody at their work who stands out – why? What is their reputation? What are your mentee’s personal strengths? How can they use these to support their wider team? Do they volunteer for extra tasks or work? Why is this important?
Final session	Look back at the goals you reviewed together 6 months ago – are they ready to be refreshed, or is there still progress to make? Share your highlights from the year and how you have seen your mentee develop Looking ahead, what can your young person do to continue their growth?

Click on the link to download the document.

LCC Training Deck

LCC Safeguarding and Protecting Young People Guidelines

Guide to making SMART goals

Mentor Questioning tips

For day-to-day issues regarding your mentee

Please contact their Careers Development Manager, details below.

Nathan, North London: nathan@leadershipthroughsport.org

Pete, East London: pete.ward@leadershipthroughsport.org

Cat, NatWest Digital cohort: cat.wyard@leadershipthroughsport.org

Debs, London Digital cohort: debs.barlow@leadershipthroughsport.org

Danya, Birmingham: danya@leadershipthroughsport.org

Shamaine, Manchester: shamaine@leadershipthroughsport.org

Chris, Liverpool: chris.oliver@leadershipthroughsport.org

For safeguarding concerns regarding a Young Leader

Please contact Pete Ward on Pete.ward@leadershipthroughsport.org

For general enquiries about Leadership Careers Club

Please contact Cat Wyard on cat.wyard@leadershipthroughsport.org

What do I do if I am really busy and don't have time to arrange a meeting?

We ask that you make every effort to find a time that suits you both to meet for your monthly hourly meeting, as this is the most effective way of building a strong and trusting relationship. In the rare case that this is impossible, we advise scheduling a video call to have your session. Please ensure that this happens no more than twice in the year.

I am concerned about a Safeguarding issue. What should I do?

If your mentee has disclosed information that raises concerns surrounding their safety, you must contact LTSB’s Safeguarding Officer, Pete Ward, immediately on 07850166465 or by email on Pete.ward@leadershipthroughsport.org

Do we need to use the suggested topics every session?

We have compiled the suggested topics because these address issues that we know frequently affect our Young Leaders from our experience.

However, the aim of Leadership Careers Club is to support the individual, so it is perfectly fine to spend longer on one topic, or to come up with a completely separate idea as long as it remains strictly professional. If you follow the advised meeting structure (in ‘Schedule’), you can ensure your meetings remain focused and purposeful.

Can I meet up with my mentee outside of our monthly meetings?

We recommend monthly meetings to ensure regular contact between both parties without putting too much strain on both your schedules, and there is no expectation for you to meet more than once a month. However, if there is a professional event that you think would be really beneficial, or you want to meet to do a mock interview, for example, we would fully support this.

Please refer to the Safeguarding guidelines and the ‘Dos and Don’ts’ in the training deck if you have any doubt.

There's a job going in my organisation. Can I encourage my mentee to apply?

The LTSB Employment Team will endeavour to get every Young Leader placed as quickly as possible while they are on the programme, and there is no cut-off point for this. However, for some it can take longer to find the right role and we encourage everybody who isn’t placed to play an active part in searching for roles. If there is a suitable role at your workplace, please do discuss with your mentee and make sure they feed this information back to the Employment Team so we can support them with the application and to negotiate the terms of the role.

If you think your organisation might be looking to hire LTSB Young Leaders in the future, we would love to hear from you! Please contact Employment Director Debs Barlow on debs.barlow@leadershipthroughsport.org

Can I invite my mentee into the office for work experience?

Absolutely! This is a fantastic way to broaden their insight into other companies and maybe even other industries. While it may be obvious to you, please do ensure they have cleared the time off with their current employer to avoid any issues.

Please let us know if you plan to do this as we would love to hear examples of some great mentoring outcomes.

Topic	Suggested discussion points
Getting to know one another	This is an informal session to get to know more about your mentee so you can begin building a trusting relationship. It should be a two-way session, so try to be open about yourself and why you chose to join the Leadership Careers Club.
Goal setting	Find out what their big picture goals are, linking back to why they first chose this route Narrow these down to maximum 5 achievable ‘SMART’ goals over the next 12 months Encourage your mentee to note down their goals – you’ll be revisiting them!
Staying Motivated	What are they doing to keep their CV up to date? E.g. volunteering, part-time work, study Are they actively looking for roles and sharing their progress with their cohort manager? Share your job-searching tips. How can they use their LinkedIn profile to best showcase themselves?
Preparing for Interview	Evaluate recent interviews (real or mock) – what went well? What needs practice? Give some insight as to what the interview process is at your workplace. Mock interviews – if time allows, this could be a great way to practice the tricky questions they’ve identified.
Commercial Awareness	Discuss the importance of commercial awareness for the workplace. Which sources are most useful for keeping updated? (Newspapers? Social media?) How can this knowledge be used in interview? What will impress a potential employer?
Commercial Awareness 2	Are their career goals realistic? E.g. If they say they want to be an auditor, do they actually know what an auditor does? Can they rationalise their career goals? E.g. If they want to work for a “Big 4” firm, why? Discuss how to keep an open mind – don’t close options off without proper research!
Preparing for the first day	Discuss what experience you’ve had of ‘first days’ – what have you learned in your career? Discuss what a checklist might include: planning their route, deciding what to wear, bringing a notebook, bringing any ID documents etc.

Welcome