What Is A Mentor?

While small businesses are of vital importance to our economy, many of them find that they lack sufficient expertise to grow in critical areas. Having access to the right networks of information and resources can make a big difference in helping small businesses succeed.

Small firms can benefit from the valuable business savvy and expertise of larger firms. Research has shown countless examples of how the practice of matching large and small firms and of cultivating these relationships can be mutually beneficial.

Mentoring is a business-to-business relationship that includes learning, information sharing, and networking among firms and intermediaries. These relationships can be essential to business success and a vital resource to help communities.

Partnering allows both companies and individual business professionals to bring their expertise and resources into these business-to-business collaborations to further their business objectives. A major objective is to encourage large businesses to partner with small businesses that have less access to resources.

Following are some characteristics of business-to-business relationships:

They are mutually beneficial; a "win-win" situation for both parties involved
They usually involve a long-term commitment
They rely on successful personal relationships and trust-building

We are looking to match the best business mentors with the business people who will actively benefit most from the relationships.

The successful mentor is someone who:

Devotes appropriate time to take a personal interest in others
Listens 'actively'
Questions and finds out what is important to others, exploring their skills, aptitudes and aspirations
Challenges assumptions and acts as a sounding board
Creates an open and candid relationship, to encourage the growth of trust and confidence, which assists the learning process
Regards everything that the mentee says as confidential
Helps someone less experienced to learn by allowing minor errors, but will endeavour to prevent them making major errors
Avoids mentoring those in a direct reporting line, and may influence, but does not 'step on the toes' of, other line managers
Brings a rigorously professional approach to the mentoring relationship
Uses imagination to overcome own limitations as well as those of the mentee
Recognises when the mentee should be identifying a need for other sources of help (such as from an institution, or other specialists)
Has appropriate training and experience for the role
Gains significant personal and career development from mentoring

If this is you - click here to complete an application form.

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