Find a mentor – 12-month programme
Over the course of 12 months, Be the Business Mentoring will help you develop your business strategy and build personal leadership skills under the guidance of an experienced mentor. This programme has been structured to provide support and advice on long-term business growth and strategy.
Access to relevant skills, new experiences and fresh perspectives is key to long-term business improvement. Based on these foundations, Be the Business Mentoring matches leaders from small and medium-sized businesses with expert mentors from some of the UK’s leading companies.
This choice is relevant if you...
- Want to gain an impartial advisor and sounding board
- Are interested in developing your leadership skills
- Are open to exploring new business strategies and ideas
- See value in joining a national network of like-minded business leaders
How it works
- Mentors are sourced from some of Britain's leading firms
- A rigorous matching process is conducted to ensure the right compatibility
- You'll meet regularly to discuss business challenges and develop your leadership skills
- Access to online resources and support will help your make your connection a success
Mentee do's
- Take a proactive role in shaping the relationship
- Understand what you want from the relationship and communicate this
- Balance a personal and professional relationship with your mentor
- Set aside time for the process and keep scheduled appointments
- Come to your meetings with planned topics for discussion
- Treat your mentor's time with respect – they are also a busy professional
- Be open and honest with your mentor about your challenges and goals
- Keep everything your mentor discusses with you confidential
Mentee don'ts
- Ask for advice on everything. Have a purpose in each request
- Blame your mentor if their advice doesn't work out
- Expect your mentor to know all the answers
- Expect your mentor to take decisions for you
- Commit yourself to obligations you cannot keep
- Cancel meetings/visits with your mentor at the last minute
Frequently asked questions
The mentors on our programme represent some of the very best business minds working today. They are either senior leaders within leading firms, or an experienced business leader of a small business themselves. This programme is recommended for business leaders of UK businesses with at least one year of trading and three full time employees, including the owner. If you need a sounding board or impartial guidance to help guide your business strategy, this is the programme for you.
First, complete your profile to help the team understand what you’re looking to gain out of a mentoring relationship and what business challenges you wish to address. Then familiarise yourself with the platform and support available over your first couple of days. Our intelligent system will then match you with a suitable mentor based on the mentor’s experience and skills. You will be matched a few days after joining us, provided we have someone of the skills and experience you need available.
In our experience, and the experience of previous mentors and mentees on this programme, sector should not play a part in choosing a mentor. A mentor from another sector brings a fresh perspective that is beneficial to your mentoring, allowing you to focus on the fundamentals of your challenge and goals.
A good match depends on skills, experience and chemistry. We encourage our mentors and mentees to set a first meeting and get to know each other. If, after the first meeting, you decide that the chemistry is not right between you, then let us know and an alternative match will be made.
We ask our mentors to make commitments of at least 12 months. This is to ensure that you both have time to understand your business goals and help your strategy evolve.
A mentor acts as a neutral sounding board for difficult decisions and offers support in the development of suitable strategies for the future. A mentor does not conduct business or work on your behalf. They direct you towards solutions, not tell you what to do. Their role as a mentor is to listen and give you fresh perspectives. They will create a safe space in which you can share both challenges and concerns and thrive as you move towards your 12-month goals.
Mentoring is not a prescriptive process. Each relationship will vary in the schedule and approach to sessions. The mentoring relationship is driven by the goals that the mentee sets. You, as a mentee, are in the driving seat. We provide tools to support you as you contract and set goals for the relationship, as well as a Connection plan - which is your route map to your mentoring journey. Use this connection plan, together with the guidance we provide, to conduct your mentoring in a way that suits you.
A relationship that is not working is not valuable to you or your mentor. We advise letting your mentor know about the situation and contacting a programme administrator as soon as possible. We will provide our full support to resolve the situation in a positive and satisfactory manner.
Alec Anderson
MD, Koolmill
“Be the Business Mentoring has given my business access to high-quality expertise that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Having an independent, emotionally-detached view of what is happening helps you to drill down on the important stuff.”
