The Many Faces of Mentorship

Friday 25 October 2024

National Mentoring Day in the UK was founded by Kerry Dorman, Chief Ambassador of the Association of Business Mentors. She spoke recently at the Celebration of Mentors Conference in Belfast, led by Michelle Lestas, the current Chair of the Association of Business Mentors Ireland and a Women in Business Ambassador.

So, who has a mentor or feels they have one in their life they should celebrate?

Let’s celebrate the mentors in our lives. Or maybe you’re ready to become one yourself! Even if you haven’t had a formal or professional mentor, it’s likely you’ve had an informal or peer mentor.

Mentoring is a significant part of Women in Business, and whether you’re self-employed or in a career, it can help provide direction, support, purpose, and a sense of achievement.

Mentoring others is incredibly rewarding too - it could be as simple as giving an hour of your time over a coffee to share your knowledge, connections, or experience. When I’ve asked women to mentor others, they often comment on how much they learn from their mentee too!

Mentoring takes many forms and is a great way to organise your thoughts, gain accountability, and benefit from a fresh perspective. Often, we’re so close to a problem, caught up in “doing”, that we forget to reflect, plan, or challenge ourselves.

Informal Mentoring – Your line manager might coach and support you by helping to set objectives, review achievements, and tackle challenges.

Peer Mentoring – Meeting regularly with someone or a group to discuss your challenges can be invaluable. At Women in Business, we use this approach with our entrepreneurs, focusing on sharing WINS, addressing Challenges, and Setting Intentions. You could try this with a few like-minded people monthly. Just agree on a format and timing, as it’s easy to get chatting without staying focused on business issues!

Paid or Professional Mentoring – In designing and delivering training programmes, I find one-to-one mentoring particularly effective. It’s an opportunity to apply learning from workshops or masterclasses to real-world business. A professional mentor should bring structure to meetings, record key points, agree on actions, and clarify the time you’ll spend together. Paid mentors may offer to connect you with others or provide helpful resources, but they don’t usually do the work for you.

Reverse Mentoring – Here, a younger person mentors a more senior colleague, often due to specific knowledge or skill, such as social media. At Women in Business, we’re very grateful for the social media expertise of our younger colleagues, and I’d happily have them mentor me any time!

Group Mentoring – Common in educational settings and workplaces, group mentoring offers fresh perspectives, rapport-building, and brainstorming, and it’s highly time-effective. However, it’s important to ensure everyone is heard and quieter voices are encouraged to contribute.

Mentoring should build confidence and help you progress with less stress and more clarity. Professional mentoring, in particular, should aim for pre-agreed outcomes.

Sometimes, a particular mentor may not be the right fit due to mismatched skills, knowledge, or personalities - don’t let this put you off! Simply find another one.

Remember, you don’t need a specific issue to benefit from mentoring. It’s something everyone can gain from at any time. Someone once told me, “I didn’t realise I needed a mentor, but once I had a good one, I wished I’d found them years ago!”

Here’s what our members have to say about their mentoring experiences:

Centre of Learning 121 volunteer mentor programme

“The mentoring programme is fantastic. Ellie has a wealth of invaluable knowledge and is a great person to bounce ideas off. I can’t believe it’s been nine months already—I couldn’t have been paired with a better mentor.” – Ciara Lappin

Grow It Peer group mentoring

“Our group mentoring sessions were far more beneficial than I expected. Everyone offered great insights, encouragement, and support. They were so successful that we decided to continue meeting once a month!” – Pauline Clarke, Kookee

Explore It 121 paid mentoring

“I’ve learnt so much from my two mentors, Rosemary and Ashleigh. They brought fantastic ideas and helped boost my confidence, connections, and business growth.” – Cathy Davey, Ambest

Techstart volunteer mentoring

“After winning the Techstart funding competition, I was paired with a volunteer mentor in IT and education. Her advice was instrumental in helping redirect my strategy and priorities.” – Nicole O’Connor, Learning Me

By Roisin McDermott, Business Mentor since 1996 - and Mummy Mentor since 2006. (Mums are mentors too!)

Friday 25 October 2024