Coaching-based mentorship & entrepreneurial leadership
| Universidad Nacional de Jaén, Peru

As part of the Club de Mentores DIE-UNJ 2025 initiative at Universidad Nacional de Jaén in Peru, I participated as a guest lecturer and facilitator of the workshop series “Mentoría con Impacto: Del Consejo a la Transformación con Herramientas de Coaching” (“Mentoring with Impact: Moving from Advice to Transformation Through Coaching Tools”) in a mentor training program designed to strengthen the university’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem.

The program, led by the Dirección de Incubadora de Empresas (Business Incubator Office), brought together professionals from different industries and areas of expertise to prepare them to mentor entrepreneurs, students, and early-stage startup founders through structured, high-impact mentorship processes.

My contribution focused on the integration of coaching methodologies into entrepreneurial mentoring through the workshop series:

“Mentoría con Impacto: Del Consejo a la Transformación con Herramientas de Coaching”  

During the sessions, we explored how coaching principles can help mentors move beyond giving advice and instead facilitate deeper reflection, autonomy, accountability, and strategic decision-making in entrepreneurship contexts.

Key topics included:

• The difference between mentoring and coaching

• Coaching-based mentoring methodologies

• The GROW coaching model for entrepreneurial mentoring

• Goal-setting and accountability frameworks

• Powerful questioning techniques

• Conscious listening and communication barriers

• Leadership conversations in startup ecosystems

• Mentor-mentee relationship building

• Entrepreneurial decision-making and self-awareness

• Practical coaching tools for incubators and innovation programs

The workshops combined coaching frameworks with real startup and incubation scenarios, helping mentors apply these tools directly to conversations with entrepreneurs and founders.    

The broader Club de Mentores DIE-UNJ 2025 program was designed to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the university by building a structured mentorship network capable of supporting innovation, business model validation, startup acceleration, and entrepreneurial leadership development across the region.

The initiative also connected mentors with incubators, funding entities, innovation ecosystems, and entrepreneurship development programs in Peru. The program included virtual mentor training, supervised mentoring practice, in-person facilitation, and collaboration with startup incubators and accelerators.

As part of the program, I facilitated "Mentoring with Impact: Moving from Advice to Transformation Through Coaching Tools" and training sessions focused on integrating mentoring and coaching methodologies to support entrepreneurs more effectively throughout the incubation process. In my sessions, I explored how mentors can move beyond simply giving advice to also developing listening skills, strategic questioning, self-awareness, communication, and reflective leadership practices that help entrepreneurs strengthen decision-making, adaptability, and long-term growth.

Drawing from my international experience in executive coaching, organizational development, leadership, and talent strategy across Latin America and globally, I brought a cross-cultural and human-centered perspective to entrepreneurial mentorship, helping participants understand how to support founders not only at the business level, but also through the personal and leadership challenges that often emerge while building and scaling new ventures.