Why a mentor could be your best (critical) friend in business
As our new Prime Minister takes office, I am wondering, in a non-political way, whether she has a mentor. The dictionary defines a mentor as “an experienced person who advises and helps somebody with less experience over a period of time” – I’m not sure in that case who would qualify to be the PM’s mentor, and how suitable the candidates might be; however, fortunately, that is not our problem.
A recent Harvard Business Review article explains why “the best mentorships help both people grow”, and that is both our view and our experience. In 2021 and 2022 I have mentored a number of business leaders via the UK Government’s Help to Grow: Management scheme, a business accelerator programme delivered locally via Oxford Brookes Business School. The diversity of businesses has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of the experience, with none being obviously directly in the retail or customer experience sectors; and yet in practice the business areas represented included: retail supply chain, retail marketing, tech-enabled customer experience, ecommerce, and hospitality.
It turned out that I knew much more about these businesses’ sectors and operations than I expected to know; and thus, through exploring their individual challenges, I grew. I also had faced (a version of) virtually every opportunity or dilemma presented by the mentees; and thus, with the benefit of my experience, they grew. All the mentees expressed fulsome gratitude for the benefits they had obtained through the programme; in fact probably the only participant surprised by how well the process had gone, was me!
I think I’d add another two parts to the dictionary definition of a mentor: first, it’s someone who can provide an external perspective; pointing out opportunities as well as the occasional elephant trap. Second, it’s someone who can hold their mentee accountable: it almost goes without saying that every business leader is a very busy person, and with the best will in the world, strategic objectives or new initiatives can fall by the wayside amid the day-to-day hurly-burly. The discipline of having someone to maintain the focus on those bigger-picture items can be worth its weight in gold. Of course, for both parties, developing a cordial and positive relationship helps to ensure that the mentor’s input is welcomed even when the going gets tough!
Mentoring is just one of a number of 1:1 services we offer. If you don’t have a specific project, but do know you need more value from your investment in resources, time and money, then our 1:1 sessions could help you decide how to move forward:
Discovery session – identify assets, opportunities, and goals
Mentoring sessions – work with a trusted mentor/critical friend for accountability and motivation
Use our decades of experience and objective viewpoint to see things more clearly
Sessions can be either in-person or remote. The first (online) session is free and without obligation.