“Nine-tenths of wisdom consists of being wise in time”
Teddy Roosevelt
When Sylvia Philips first approached me and asked me to write an article on mentoring for our own website, I wondered what I could write. How could I put down in plain, concise English what it feels like, from both sides of the table, in that very personal yet professional situation.
Before I start let me backtrack a bit. I started my ‘mentoring life’ working with a group of women from Mosaic, on a project organised by Bolton College. Few of us knew what mentoring was but we were very interested and wanted to learn more. The workshop introduced us to areas like;
- what mentoring is - and what it isn’t
- understanding how people learn, their styles
- what skills are required
- how mentoring could achieve results.
I thoroughly enjoyed and was intrigued by the subject. The combination of interpersonal skills and business acumen engaged me totally. A new career was about to be born.
The next major development for me was to become a schools’ mentor working with the Education Business Partnership, mentoring a young person at high school. To say I was nervous was an understatement. How could it be useful bringing my understanding and knowledge of the business world, to a potential truant or thug? Trying to inspire and motivate a 14 year old to achieve better grades at school and help them understand why we conform to certain standards set down by society, would not be the easiest thing to do. This would surely test me to the limit. To say that I have enjoyed and learnt from every session would be a bigger understatement. The rewards are tremendous, enabling a young person to ‘see the light’ and to know why it is good to learn and plan, is well worth the effort.
So now back to what I am supposed to be writing about.
My involvement with Bolton Business Ventures started as a business mentor. An unpaid role, centring on empowering someone to achieve his or her goals.
“A dynamic interpersonal relationship”
I was fortunate to be included in a business mentoring workshop organised by BBV and I gained valuable insight and knowledge, at a much deeper lever than before. It also opened my eyes to what other people perceived mentoring to be and how this skill should be used. It still confuses me totally as to why we view mentoring as an unpaid role and business consultancy or advice, as a service worthy of financial recompense.
The clients that I was referred to at first were fairly lightweight. Usually referrals from an enterprise centre after they had passed the two year threshold. They didn’t appear to have any particular issues or problems but benefited from having someone to talk with and check out new ideas.
Maybe my clients changed or maybe I did. Learning from them, details of their businesses and backgrounds plus applying my own counselling skills, seemed to open new doors and many avenues for improvement for them and their companies. So now here I am, not only working for BBV as a business mentor but also working with their Women in Business project as an adviser.
For me, though I cannot divide the two roles. Working with a client, helping them to develop their own strengths and weaknesses, values and goals, to identify what could be holding them back and what baggage they may be dragging with them.
I have had many clients now, who were originally referred to me for assistance with a simple, identifiable problem like recruitment or website improvement, but after talking in some depth about the company and how they see themselves positioned within their company, other more relevant issues have surfaced. Barriers which have been holding them back have been lifted or worked around.
I’m not saying that all business women either want or should have large business empires, but having the ability to truly find out where you want to go and what you have to do to get there, is very important. So for me applying my mentoring skills is the best bit.
How can we help people to succeed, if we don’t know what makes them tick?
Jenny Matthews
