Mentoring

Having run several of my own businesses I know that it can be a lonely road. Waking up at three in the morning worrying about paying the mortgage or getting new leads can start to put a strain not just on personal relationships but those at work as well. 

If you are a company that has been trading for 12 months and are based within Lancashire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester there is help out there. Through Government funding and private sector sponsorship our Guardian Angel Entrepreneurs Network mentoring scheme is free. All our mentors are experienced, knowledgeable and skilled entrepreneurs who want to help local companies expand and succeed. They volunteer their time but are paid expenses in order to give something back and we screen them all and provide support for them through updates and thank you events . 


We also run free drop in days for businesses where a mentor will give their time to listening to your business concerns and challenges. 

So what is mentoring? 

Traditionally, mentoring is the long term passing on of support, guidance and advice. - CIPD

It is a form of supportive development focussing on helping individuals manage their career and improve their skills. Mentoring can have both organisational and individual goals. Like in an apprenticeship an inexperienced person can learn form a more experienced colleague or professional in an ongoing relationship which takes place in an informal way based on a contract between mentor and mentee. 

Mentoring takes a broad look at the person and is about passing on experience and expertise. The agenda is set by the mentored person and revolves around development of the mentee professionally. 

Various companies have used mentoring productively for some time. BAE gives its graduates a mentor for the first year of their training programme, M&G Asset Management uses mentoring to help develop its key talent and to assess and control risk. Other examples include Shell and the Civil Service. Almost every well known company has used mentoring as part of its development programme for leadership and within the field of leadership mentoring is well known to make more difference to companies than almost any other intervention. 

Increasingly mentoring is being used to develop productive relationships in society. From student careers to disadvantaged people through to ex-offenders, mentoring helps to build the capability and confidence. Indeed mentoring on issues like obesity and childhood alcohol is seen as a way forward by the health service which is using its National Institute for Health Research to fund such schemes.

So if you want more information and would either like to become a mentor or get a mentor and live in our region please contact us: guardians@cbpartners.org or on 01254505050

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