The value of mentors

Let’s talk about mentors in your work life. Now these mentors can be official or unofficial, and they contribute to your knowledge and add undeniable value to your professional life. Of course, these mentors can also be on a personal level - but that conversation can be left for another day.

Before I started my business, I had many coffee catch ups (and I stress “many”) with some very smart people who were successful in their own right. They were kind enough to offer me guidance then and continue to do so along my business journey.

I had been a Branch Manager for 15 years in an established organisation. I had never started a business before, and I definitely didn’t need to put the basic foundations in place as they were already there. I had whole divisions to support me and set me up for success. Starting a business was new territory to me, and my mentor’s advice guided me and helped me set up these foundations. They were open, honest, and knowledgeable, and were kind enough to share their time.

I started my business in late 2019 (yep, that’s right, just before Covid hit our lives) and this meant the permanent recruitment side of my business could continue to operate but it was difficult to develop the HR services part of my business. This is where we go into a business and support their HR needs, however, we had to be careful with contact in 2020. Needless to say, this year I decided that I had to get better with my branding, so that businesses were aware of our support services available.

Now, as sales and branding have never been my gift (although I have managed people in my teams who excelled at it), I decided I needed a sales mentor. One of the first people I spoke to when I was thinking about starting my own business had local, regional, and national branding and sales experience. He is brilliant at that stuff (you know who you are). By now I am sure you know where I am going with this, and you would be correct - I asked him for a coffee. To cut a long story short, I asked him if he would consider being my mentor and his response was “I would be honoured” (his words not mine). Great leaders enjoy supporting others, sometimes you just need to ask.

As I have said for many years, if you want to be successful at something, ask someone who is for a coffee. Don’t be afraid and don’t forget to shout for help. Happy networking readers!