A Business Mentor serves many roles in their relationship with a business leader or manager who recognises the need to continually grow and develop.Their widespread experience and knowledge can be applied to a range of situations, allowing them to meet the needs of each client. Those in ownership, GM or SME positions can often feel isolated in their role, under pressure to succeed and know what to do. For these people, a business mentor can be extremely useful for confidentially voicing concerns, gaining clarity and offering suggestions for how to achieve their goals better.

Some of the key roles of a business mentor include:

• Feedback. A primary role of a business mentor’s is to observe and provide feedback on the way in which you operate your business, manage staff and prioritise your day. They don’t have an agenda – instead they offer their neutral, outsider’s perspective on the effectiveness of your current systems.
• Evaluation. With this feedback, the business mentor will work with you to evaluate and identify areas of strength, weaknesses and opportunities to improve.. Together you can identify areas which offer the greatest opportunity for improved personal and business performance.
• Guidance. After evaluation, the business mentor will help you identify specific solutions that could solve or improve performance in these areas. Because you get one-on-one guidance, they can tailor advice and create practical step-by-step plans to put it into motion. They’ll help you set realistic goals and determine how to achieve them.
• Clarity. Sometimes, a business mentor is an essential outside source to help you assess your priorities and make sure you’re spending time in the best or most useful way. In a position of leadership, it can be possible to get caught up in small day-to-day tasks and forget about the larger picture.
• Counselling. Being in a leadership position puts a great deal of stress on an individual. Stress, anxiety, worry and other negative emotions can be overwhelming. A business mentor isn’t a therapist, but they will often understand your feelings, and can offer advice on where they’re coming from and how you can fix them.

A business mentor plays a number of key roles for their client, and provides a range of experience-based device to help them grow personally, flourish their business and cope with the stresses of a leadership position.