Mentoring

The word Mentor originated as the name of a character in Homer’s Odyssey and is now used more generally to refer to a trusted advisor, friend, teacher and wise person.  

Business Mentoring

Your Mentor will work closely with you to help meet your business objectives, largely through advice and guidance, based on your mentor’s experience, expertise and insights. The sessions are confidential and are structured around your specific needs but will often focus on exploring the opportunities and challenges that you are currently facing, as well as on longer term strategies. During these sessions, your mentor may also use coaching and other management techniques to enrich the session and enhance the outcome.

What is the difference between a business mentor and a business coach?

To help distinguish between mentoring and coaching we would say that ‘a mentor has insightful answers for your questions whereas a coach has insightful questions for your answers’.  

Please call or email us to find out how we can help you, or arrange a free trial session to see if Mentoring is for you.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Business Mentoring

An independent mentor may offer a lower cost service, but may not provide the quality experience and robust, proven processes that you’re looking for. Mentoring is not a regulated industry, so the variation in quality and style can be high. By working with a reputable company based in the UK, you can select a mentor that you know has been carefully vetted. You can also rest assured that an alternative mentor will be available if anything’s not right.

Mentors tend to charge per session with sessions often monthly. An upfront payment may be requested. At Catalyst we work on a monthly retainer which includes your mentoring sessions, a list of focused activities from each session, ongoing monthly support and weekly leadership and management insights. We ask you to pay monthly and you can cancel at any time with a month’s notice.

This is up to you to agree with your mentor and it will vary depending on your needs. We tend to create a monthly program which includes a monthly mentoring session, a list of bespoke and focused activities, ongoing telephone or email support, and the weekly insights mentioned above. Our aim is to help you continually develop your thinking and further your business learning.

If you’re looking for a business mentor in London or across the UK, it’s a good ideas to ask colleagues and connections for recommendations. You can also search online by looking for mentors with good recommendations and reviews. A good place to start looking online is Linkedin, where you can find out more about a mentor and the services they offer. You can also see how highly they are rated.

You can approach businesses and ask questions to test their quality and their suitability for your business. You can query their experience working with businesses similar to yours. You can ask them about the styles of their coaches and request some case studies of recent successes. It’s also perfectly acceptable to ask for referees. If you’re facing a particular issue, you might want to share this to get their thoughts on how they might be able to support you through it.

There are no set qualifications in the mentoring industry. A good mentor will have relevant business qualifications and experience but it is key that there is also good chemistry and trust between you.  You should feel comfortable in their presence.   Alan Aldridge, a top mentor at Catalyst, has a successful 10-year career in management consulting with PwC and a track record of leading and growing businesses which spans over two decades.

It’s now possible to work with mentors online, because our modern communication technology allows this. Many experienced mentors will work both online and face-to-face.

A mentor can help you to unlock potential by finding answers to questions you’ve previously been unable to answer. The mentoring process can help you to grow the potential of your business and improve performance, prioritise better and reduce your stress level. If you want to work with someone to help you find solutions and new ways of working then our mentoring service will definitely help you.

A good mentor will help you to develop new business practices, implement new ways of working, and help you to solve business problems. It will improve your sales performance, your customer service and your profitability. 100% of Catalyst’s clients have reported a definite improvement in business performance, so if you’re looking for business improvement and ways of effectively managing change, mentoring will be helpful to you.
You can calculate this by looking at the costs that would apply if you didn’t hire a mentor and allowed business problems to continue. You can also look at the cost benefits of the increased productivity, increased profits and improved business relationships that will result from your mentoring experience. 100% of catalyst’s clients reported that executive coaching and mentoring met or exceeded their expectations.

To have a chat about how mentoring can help you and your business, get in touch. Find out more about our mentoring programmes.