Mentoring is hugely enjoyable if you like helping others. Being on the receiving end is also very valuable too.
Mentoring involves listening with empathy, sharing experience, the benefit of hindsight, professional friendship, developing insights through reflection, being a sounding board for the other person and most importantly, encouraging them.
Helping Others
Mentoring gives the opportunity to help the other person with expertise and experience. A mentor is great for a start up business as it prevents very expensive mistakes and unnecessary spending.
It is sometimes hard not to voice an opinion, but offer hindsight and a good brainstorming session around a particular issue or business challenge. Often the answer is within easy reach but it’s the whole process itself, of talking it through, dissecting it, exploring new possibilities, which usually highlights the answer. It helps the other person feel that they are fully prepared to make the right decision.
Even the mentor needs a mentor! We all need people we can talk to, value and respect, trust their judgement and take heed of what they have to say.
Brainstorm Ideas
I personally value the fact that I can brainstorm my new ideas with my trusted colleagues. I think it’s vitally important that every business owner has somebody to talk to.
But what if you don’t have somebody to talk to? It can make you feel isolated on your own. Think about setting up a peer group to help each other, just active listening, sharing the benefit of hindsight, giving guidance where it’s needed and signposting the person in the right direction. It also means not passing judgement of how they want to run their own business (after all its their decision in the end).
The relationship with a Mentee is often lengthy but will always have a natural conclusion and closure, when they feel the time is right, to go it alone.
Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in Employee to Entrepreneur, Mentors & Business Coaches, Resources Library, Strategy & Planning
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