Mentoring

If you need professional relationship with an experienced person to assist you for developing specific business skills and knowledge that will enhance your professional and personal growth, then IDEMESIS can help you. Contact our experts in the Consultants section.

• Set clear objectives for yourself in your business growth. Decide exactly what it is you need mentoring on before you start thinking of the ideal person to work with. A successful financial executive probably isn’t a good mentor for building and executing a great marketing strategy.

• You should lead the discussion. Your mentor should not be driving your business, or expected to provide critical feedback on actions taken or missed. It’s most effective if the entrepreneur proposes the agenda and drives for specific insights, but never forgets to press the mentor for broader or related implications.

• Execute continually to solidify the guidance. The very best mentors are the most interested in helping someone who is willing to learn and grow quickly. That doesn’t mean you should accept any guidance blindly, but it does mean no time making excuses, and an honest effort to understand and implement action items.

• Ask for the right time. The best mentors are busy people, and they may be opposed to someone trying to take up a lot of their time. The best approach is to ask for small focused blocks of time, maybe just ten minutes, in private, be prepared with real issues to discuss.

• Keep in the loop to communicate progress. There is nothing that makes a potential mentor more open to helping you than your making it clear that you are following through, and the help is doing you some good. This is also a good way to hand out and follow up on assignments to your mentor.

• Keep the relationship positive and productive. If a mentor proves to be unresponsive or on a different wavelength, bow out of the relationship immediately. Be aware that mentors are usually in a business position that can hurt you as well as help you, so don’t waste their time or antagonize them.

• Mentor is not a friend, or coach. Expect a mentor to tell you what you need to hear, not like a friend who may tell you what you want to hear. A business coach is focused on helping you with generic skills, whereas a mentor’s aim is to teach you based on specific situations.