The decision to bring a mentor into your business can be a difficult one, especially if you’re in the habit of procrastinating or have an inner voice that holds you back. But I want to share with you four ways from experience that a mentor can have a really positive effect on your business and how you feel about it.
1. Confidence
Part of a mentor’s role is to help business owners execute tasks with motivation and confidence.
Many of us have doubts, we procrastinate and often talk ourselves out of doing what really needs to be done. Have you heard that the word fear can be an acronym of ‘false expectations appearing real’? Mentors help business owners to make actionable plans and coach them to take effective steps towards executing those plans with confidence by sparking the ideas or thoughts.
For example: I have helped many clients address their fears related to sales processes by sharing proven steps and tools which have improved their activity, with positive results.
Further reading on how FEAR can sap your confidence: Pushing your Business Comfort Zone
2. Decisions
Mentoring offers you a fresh pair of eyes and an unbiased external perspective. In a mentoring session, you may be asked questions, have your thought processes challenged and find a devil’s advocate.
A good mentor comes with real-life experience which they can share with you in partnership with robust business models to help you develop your thoughts and avoid those costly mistakes often made.
For example: I’ve recently helped a client reflect on their recruitment plans and analysed their thinking to make sure the role they were recruiting for was right for their business. On reflection they switched from a technical role to hire someone who would take on the things they didn’t enjoy doing themselves. As a result, we had a hire that had a measurable value-based impact, and the business owner was more content in their role.
There’s more on confidently making decisions in Using Trigger Points to Keep Your Business on Track
3. Execution
We can all have the best laid plans but if we don’t take action then nothing changes! To experience the step change needed for most businesses to significantly grow, you have to be motivated to execute those plans. A mentor may come armed with an action plan and a series of small well-considered steps. Having someone to help you breakdown the big picture helps execution by keeping focus, not procrastinating and avoiding those time-sapping distractions.
The accountability held to those committed actions by the mentor aids the proactive activity needed to execute.
For example: I encouraged a client to create a 90-day plan with diarised actions to take that fitted in with their day-to-day business activities. They recently said, ‘This is just what I need. Knowing that I’m reporting in with my progress keeps me focused and has built that momentum.’
Here’s how to plan 90 days on one page: The One-Page Business Plan
4. Strategy
Strategy is knowing what to do, why and when. A coach who is also a mentor can share their own business experience to help you visualise what you desire, support you to model your business plan, and when appropriate share with you their own solutions. They will fuel your thoughts and help you shape an effective strategy that is right for your business and the people within it.
For example: One of my clients was struggling to recruit talent to their business and as a result she started to change her own role in the business to cover the duties. I shared with her some team models used by others in her industry and as a result she changed her strategy, outsourced more and hired remote workers to complete those tasks that she couldn’t hire for in her local area.
If you’d like a conversation with an unbiased and positive mentor, I think I could find one to put you in touch with! Book some time with me and we can talk about any of these four topics in a free hour of business mentoring. Or we could talk about anything else you like.