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Mentoring Program:
Goal
To match a business owner with a seasoned business mentor
to facilitate coaching, knowledge transfer, and the creation
of contacts, among other things.
Components
- Structure that includes a well-planned orientation with
discussion of expectations, goals, time commitment and effective
communication processes
- Participants who are familiar with and embrace the concept
of mentoring
- Promotion that consists of word-of-mouth and direct recruitment
efforts
Mentor Characteristics
- Listens carefully and asks a lot of questions.
- Brings a wealth of knowledge to bear in conversations
with his advisees.
- Encourages people and helps them believe in themselves.
(A Peter Drucker truism: a good mentor or manager builds
on people's strengths and helps them make their weaknesses
irrelevant.)
- E Teaches people how to use their strengths so that they
can fulfill their responsibility to contribute to a world
that needs them
- Works only with those who take his/her counsel seriously
and act on it
One Call
Some describe such mentor/mentee pairings as "one call"
relationships, as in: What's the one call you would make (excluding
your spouse) if you were in trouble?
And by "trouble," we mean trouble of a particular
kind, not purely business trouble. If you're a CEO whose company
faces some sort of tactical problem, you probably know to turn
to your lawyer, banker, key supplier, or board member, depending
on the kind of advice required. The problems and questions that
mentors and mentees discuss are bigger than that. They're personal.
They have to do with balancing ambition with health, work with
family, duty to others with responsibility to self. They're
about how to grow as a CEO. They're about how to lead a good
entrepreneurial life.
In other words, they're the sorts of questions most business
owners scarcely have time to think about, let alone get help
dealing with (which is why the effect can be so powerful when
real help is there to be had).
Program Details (being developed)
The LSBC mentoring program seeks to match you to an experienced
business person or mentor who has been screened and assessed
by Leaders Serving Beaver County.
This mentor will be available to your business for at least
10 hours over a 12-month period to help you develop strategies
to overcome a business hurdle or pursue an identified business
opportunity or market, etc.
Your mentor can act as a sounding board to test or bounce ideas
off. Your mentor can help you focus on the "big picture"
issues that face your business, a task which is difficult when
you are busy running a company.
What the mentor does not offer is professional advice or consulting
services.
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.
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.
Qualified applicants can apply to be considered as a Mentee
or Mentor with LSBC. The parties then enter into an LSBC-approved
mentor-mentee agreement.
The LSBC mentoring agreement:
- Must be in writing
- Must specify that the Mentor will provide assistance
to the mentee for at least one year
- Must include an assessment of the Mentee’s needs
- Must include a description of the specific assistance
that the Mentor will provide to address those needs
- Must provide for the termination of the agreement with
30 days advance notice to the other party (and to LSBC)
If you have an interest in applying to become a Mentor or Mentee,
please send an e-mail indicating your interest to mentoring@startwithfaith.com
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