Lyda for mentoring at Reload Greece | Interview

Mentoring is a key component of our entrepreneur training here at Reload Greece. We have a broad range of mentors in our team, working in both entrepreneurial start-ups as well as large global corporations. Lyda Modiano has been mentoring for Reload Greece for several years; we spoke to Lyda about what mentoring means to her.

Sharing your experience and multiplying its impact

“Mentoring young entrepreneurs is one of the most fulfilling activities in my life; it means a lot to me because it covers many needs professionals have. Mentors are usually established professionals who have moved up the corporate ladder, reaching senior managerial positions. Their professional journey has taught them so many things about business, the market, human relations, how to cope with the dynamics of power and success; and I bet that for most of them, it has not been an easy ride. All the professionals that act as mentors must have given a lot of sweat in their careers to reach success. So they want to share their effort and make their experience more valuable and impactful by helping other people – young people who are just starting their own professional journey.”

Challenging your business perspective

Lyda has found many personal benefits of mentoring; it’s a mutually beneficial experience – “being challenged on your perspective about business consequently enables you to progress it. The mentor-mentee relationship is very dynamic; the younger generation’s approach to business values, business operational mode and employee relations can be very different from ours, one reason being, if I may add, rapid technological evolution. So, through our dialogue with aspiring entrepreneurs, we as mentors also learn how to think differently too; we ‘re-boot’ our perspective about business development, work-life balance, and many other things.”A personal vision“Last but not least in my case, there is another trigger point that drives me as a mentor; it is a sort of personal vision: bridging established corporations with startups. As a corporate professional, I enjoyed the ‘safety net’ of a well – catered working environment. I operated within an efficient structure, which enabled all challenges to be met. Working in large corporations was like living in a palace, surrounded by heavy walls, feeling secure and well structured.WithWith startups, however, it is a different ball game: you feel insecure, there is no ‘safety net’ to back you up; you feel the fear of failure in every decision you take, big or small. Yet you wake up every morning and you have this drive, this energy in you, that keeps you going. Starting up a business does not have protective walls; it is wall-free; this freedom to create, to fail and succeed, again and again, is a unique driving force that moves everyone and everything forward, together. Starting up a venture is like getting an overdose of fresh air.This comparison makes me wonder: how can we helpThis comparison makes me wonder: how can we help a business reach the best of the two worlds? How can big scale companies preserve the spirit of a small startup? How can corporate walls open a window for fresh air to get in? And how can startups, on the other hand, reconcile their agility and dynamism with the wisdom of the processes and structures that established corporations are offering as their legacy? In a way, this is how I see mentoring: a tiny contribution to this effort and direction.”When asked whether the Reload Greece’s mentoring program was unique, Lyda responded:“In the last couple of years, I was privileged to work with several accelerators in Athens and London, acting as a mentor. They are all well organized and structured, providing mentors with guidelines, asking us to fill-in relevant forms and questionnaires to monitor our work and record the results and our impact. Reload Greece’s mentoring program certainly does all of that but it also has an extra advantage: it generates this strong community spirit among mentors and mentees, integrating us all as Reloaders. We feel part of a very energetic community and we feel united by serving RG’s mission. It is a very soothing feeling especially when you are a member of the Diaspora!”