Business Mentoring
Internal Business Mentoring
Mentoring in the workplace occurs when a senior colleague, who may be seen as more knowledgeable and wise, gives advice and acts as a role model. Mentoring can also be from a person who is usually perceived as older and wiser, and sometimes involves wide ranging discussions that may not be limited to the work context. A mentor is a sponsor with great professional experience, usually, though not always, in their client’s field of work.
External Business Mentoring - One-to-One
This can be when someone has achieved what you wish to achieve, or something similar. For example, as an entrepreneur myself with 40 plus years of business and leadership experience, I can mentor other entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs.
The advice tends to be offered from a place of managerial and leadership experience with a recommended course of action, based on the discussions and the specific agreed needs of the mentee.
I have also been asked to work down through the hierarchy of an organisation, starting at the top with the Owner or Senior Management, down through the managerial levels, to Department Managers or other key personnel.
The advantage of this type of mentoring is that the discussions are confidential and it allows the mentees to say things they might not feel comfortable or safe to say to their bosses. This can be very helpful in revealing the true picture of a company's morale and cohesiveness, plus the various people's understanding of the company's objectives and policies.
Group Mentoring
The obvious advantage of group mentoring is that there is a big time saving when compared to individual mentoring.
The second benefit is that the mentees can also bounce off each other. Somebody else may ask a question that you hadn't thought of, but everyone gets to hear the answers. You can also brainstorm the solutions to problems, whereby everyone learns together and this is called masterminding.
On occasion I have been asked to mentor a team within an organisation, which makes it very cost effective for the business owner.
I also run my own regular small business mentoring sessions in my local area of Kalamunda in Perth, and I have also run them online via video calls, which overcomes any geographical hurdles.
For more information about the current group sessions, click here.
