The business world is brutal, rewarding, difficult, exciting, and can pretty much be considered a rollercoaster of emotions. Having someone to coach you through it and guide you through the maze of challenges is extremely valuable. I’ve been fortunate to have some amazing mentors in my life, and equally as fortunate to mentor some other leaders. Here are some tips that can lead to a successful mentorship relationship.
1. Know What You’re Looking For in a Mentor:
The first step in finding a mentor is knowing what you want in a mentor. Ken Oboh, co-founder of new startups in the music scene (Umix and Remix), spoke with me about their initial search for a business coach/mentor.
“Before we met Dush, Chris and I had a long-term vision of where we wanted to go, but we needed a mentor to connect our vision/strategy to actionable steps,” Oboh said. “We wanted to get connected to the key people within our industries, the guidance of an expert who had built several businesses and helped others do the same to guide us through the process, to track our progress, as well as keep the relationships with all these key people growing and flourishing at all times. This is exactly the powerful role that our coach and mentor Dush has been playing ever since we met.”
2. Find a Mentor Who Is Active in the Industry
Oboh also offered this great advice: “Our very best tip is to look for a business mentor/coach from within the industry you’re operating in or aspiring to join — and particularly within organizations/companies you already work with or would like to work with in the future. Even if you can’t have a direct formal relationship with someone in this position, his or her industry-specific knowledge, contacts, key relationships, and overall experience/business savvy will prove very valuable and powerful as you build your business in that industry.”
3. Make Your Smartest Friend Your Mentor
Matt Wilson, co-founder of Under30CEO and Under30Experiences, has had mentors and mentored others himself. He gave some great advice about what to do when you’re struggling to find a mentor.
“Find your smartest friend and make them your accountability partner,” Wilson said. “Schedule a weekly call, and keep each other on track. Make this a priority, and make sure you have an agenda for this call.”
4. Make Your Travel Buddies Your Mentors
Wilson believes the friends you travel with can be the most valuable mentors: “Finding retreats like Under30Experiences allows you to form real bonds with like-minded people and start building the co-mentor relationship. When it comes to mentorship, there is nothing better than building a non-transactional friendship formed over amazing experiences. True friendship is the best mentorship of all.”
5. Understand the Mentor’s Style
A mentor’s knowledge in the industry is important, as is the compatibility of their style to your own. Kelli Richards, CEO of The All Access Group and a trusted consultant, coach and mentor to start-ups, had some advice on finding the right mentor match.
“It’s helpful to get a sense for the mentor's philosophy and style,” Richards said. “How open-minded are they? How worldly? How do they speak, write, and present themself as a professional? But really the most important things to assess are fit and trust. Does it feel good to interact with the mentor? Have they achieved things that can accelerate the entrepreneur's path? Can they impart wisdom that will make a lasting difference to the person being mentored?”
6. Know the Difference Between a Mentor and a Coach
Richards has been both a mentor and a coach in the past, and there is a big difference in the type of relationship for the mentee. “Mentoring is largely reactive, whereas coaching can be proactive as often as reactive,” Richards said.
“I have worked both as a mentor and a coach to different startups and management teams. When I'm approached to work with a client I determine early on which relationship makes the most sense given the circumstances, and I educate the client as to what structure I think will serve them the best and make the best contribution towards the results and goals they say they want to achieve.”
If your potential mentor is more comfortable in a coaching setting, there may be another option for you and your startup!
The Challenge:
Use Your Experiences Being Mentored to Become a Mentor
Kelli is a great example of a hybrid — someone who has been mentored and is now a mentor herself.
“It's my own experiences of being mentored by two world-class mentors that has really inspired me to become a strong mentor myself,” she said.
“I have been lucky enough to be mentored by Alan Cohen and Alan Weiss — the former a leader in the personal growth movement and a best-selling author many times over, and the latter being one of the most sought-after consultants in the world and himself a best-selling author.”
Kelli can easily pull on her experiences as a mentee to know how to most effectively mentor others.
As a fellow hybrid mentor/mentee, I agree with Kelli that it is extremely gratifying and actually very valuable to my business. The more people I mentor, the more I learn about my business and myself. Mentoring people helps me understand the challenges I may face when I start my next company and keeps me in tune with the latest trends. So here’s my challenge for each of you: find a mentor, then be a mentor.
John Hall is the CEO of Influence & Co., a company that assists individuals and brands in growing their influence through thought leadership and content marketing programs. Influence & Co., one of the leading providers of high quality expert content to the world’s top publications, is the creator of Contributor Weekly. Connect with John on Twitter or Google+.
