What is business mentoring?

Business Mentoring is a term that is becoming more widely used across a variety of functions.  Most frequently it is deemed to be a development tool of some description, whether that is in terms of personal development, organisational development or skills development.  But despite the use of the term there is still some confusion in the business community about what business mentoring actually is, how it works  and why it might be of benefit.  This article therefore, is the start of a brand new series for the Mowgli blog which will be all about business mentoring and what it can offer to the employee, the employer and the entrepreneur.First of all though we need to clear up some misunderstandings about what exactly a ‘business’ mentor is, as opposed to any other type of mentor you may come across.

Over the last few months I’ve written about the roles a mentor may adopt and you can read more about those mentor roles in the relevant blog posts.  Essentially a business mentor needs to adopt some or all of these roles too, but it will almost certainly be with a specific focus in mind – that of growing and developing the whole, or a part of a business or organisation.

A business mentor may come in many different guises and the relationship can be formal, in other words organised by the company as a specific tool for organisational development.  Or it can be informal, for instance in the relationship that exists between one who is taken on as a protege by a senior manager and their boss.  It may also be part of a buddy system that allows a new start in a business or department to get to know the ethics, values and structures that are to be adopted.

Typically though, the business mentor will be someone who has experience across a range of areas that are important either to the company or to the individual.  The good business mentor is always going to be a great example of ‘been there, done that and got the tee-shirt‘ in practice in the workplace.

However, a business mentor is not the person you go to for information (although they may impart a little knowledge along the way).  Any one can get that from a wide variety of resources, that include industry analysts, websites, periodicals, magazines and colleagues.

Rather a mentor is some one you approach for wisdom, about how they might apply their knowledge and experience in a range of different situations and it is someone with whom you can explore the potential opportunities and pitfalls of possible courses of action.  They will almost certainly be someone who has in-depth experience in your market sector or area of interest.   Their insight is not the sort of standard information you can happen across because it is never written down and is almost always about the application of knowledge rather than it’s gathering.

Typically, a business mentor will ask the questions you know need to be answered, but would prefer not to face.  Questions like

• what’s working and what’s not
• what value does something provide?
• how are you going to measure effectiveness of changes and developments?
• how will this contribute to profit margins
• what are the next steps that will have the greatest impact

They won’t give you answers, although they may have some suggestions to make.  Instead, they will help reach an appropriate decision about the actions you need to take and the resources you need to work with.  They will, in other words guide you to a place where you feel confident in what you are doing and why are doing it.