My name is Doug Lawrence, and I am the founder of TalentC® and proud co-founder of the International Mentoring Community (IMC). I have over 40 years of leadership and mentoring experience.

I have had a journey that has been truly inspiring for me. My journey is one that has shaped what has been referred to as my calling. My calling is the “gift of mentoring” and the desire and goal to make the world a better place to be. It is by working with people and organizations to create mentoring movements and a mentoring community that we will realize a dream come true. My vision was that the world could be a better place with everyone embracing the “gift of mentoring.” One person, one organization at a time. That vision included championing the paradigm shift for mentoring and realizing that with that shift we could make mentoring a deeper, richer experience.

Let Me Share My Story!

It all started with mentoring university students to assist them in getting into the work force upon graduating. I worked with a large number of graduates through one referral after the other. They would get into the workforce and then encounter a challenge that they did not know how to deal with. They reached out to me to guide them to the answer. My journey to better understand the power of mentoring had begun. Eventually they suggested that I should do this for a living. They didn’t have the money to pay me, but they thought someone would!

I did my market research and found that there were a lot of mentoring organizations offering a number of different services including certifications. What I didn’t find was an independent body that would oversee the certification of mentors. I continued my research and found that there were organizations out there that would provide independent certification services some of which was following ISO standards. In the fall of 2009 I began my journey full time.

Based on my continuous research in the practical application of mentoring concepts I realized that we needed to take the certification to the next level. We needed to create a certification for mentors based on competence. I embarked on a new certification relationship with the International Mentoring Community (IMC) in January of 2018. We worked to create a competency profile that addressed 69-72 action_outcome statements (competencies) at the Certificate of Achievement-Mentoring and the Certificate of Competence – Mentor level. 

We created the curriculum that would be delivered via on line training and in person that would facilitate the learning process on a path to certification. The International Mentoring Community would offer four certifications: Certificate of Recognition - Mentoring (Baseline), Certificate of Achievement - Mentoring, Certificate of Competence - Mentor and the Certificate of Competence - Journey Mentor. These certifications would be part of the International Mentoring Community’s value proposition that it brought to the mentoring community and to the vision I had created back in 2009/2010.

My experience with the new certification process, the enhanced educational requirements and the emphasis on competency of mentors has resulted in a deeper, richer mentoring experience for me. This has also translated into a deeper and richer experience for the people that I spend time with in a mentoring relationship/arrangement. It has provided the means to bring mentoring to the mental health, mental well-being and Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) where the mentor is serving as a mental health ally.