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An Outline on Business Mentoring

We have captured our experiences in the form of a 4-page outline and have included some thoughts on the lessons we have learned.

I am attaching this paper now and hope that you might find something of value.

If you have questions, or if you wish to discuss anything with me, please do not hesitate to contact me

Prof. Jamaluddin Husain, Ph.D.

Director, Entrepreneurship Center

Purdue University Calumet

2200 169th Street,

Hammond, IN 46323-2094

[email protected]

Tel: 219-989-2100

Cell: 773-531-4000

Fax: 219-989-2101

E-CENTER PROGRAMS THAT INCLUDE BUSINESS MENTORING:

1. The Entrepreneurship Program (E-Program)
for Full-Time Business-Owners (aka E) to enhance their abilities to compete more effectively

2. Aspiring Entrepreneur Program (A-Program)
for Aspiring Entrepreneurs (aka A) to assist in systematically identifying opportunities for Self-Employment and business start-ups.

3. Sounding Board
Business-Owners (Es) volunteer their expertise to provide assistance to aspiring business owners and other Es; program supervised by Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (E-i-R).

4. Business Owners Forum (BOF)
Peer-to-peer counseling for owners of second-stage businesses (aka SSE); to provide an enabling environment for them to collectively stimulate economic growth in the region.

5. Internship Program (3-Credit Course BA-391)
for students (S), to provide real-world hands-on experiential learning by working with small businesses (Es). The Es provide students with first hand understanding of how businesses operate and what it takes to succeed.

6. Business Plan Competition: Annual program. All participants, mostly Ss and As, are provided training and mentoring. Participants meet with Es and SSEs to seek inputs and advice on their business plans.

TYPES OF MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS INVOLVED:

1. E-Program – (E + SSE) mentoring other Es

2. A-Program – Es mentoring As

3. Sounding Board – (E + SSE) mentoring Es and New Es

4. Business Owners Forum (BOF) – SSE mentoring other SSEs.

5. Internship Program (BA-391) – (E + SSE) mentoring S

6. Biz Plan Competitions – (E + SSE) mentoring Es and As

All the above formalized mentoring arrangements are supplemented by an ongoing presence of two “E-i-Rs” who are available to assist in any of the above situations, as needed.

ROLE OF MENTORS:

Mentors usually perform one or more of the following functions:

a. Answer questions

b. Give advice and encouragement

c. Share experiences

d. Serve as a Role Model

e. Help create scenarios enabling mentees to better visualize their options

f. Play devil’s advocate

g. Discuss own mistakes, and share lessons learned

h. Provide motivation & encouragement

MENTEE EXPECTATIONS:

The mentees have expectations that do not generally match with objectives of the organizers of the mentorship programs. The following is a summary of what happens in our programs:

1. The E-mentees expect that all their immediate problems be solved through the mentor relationship. Obviously this can never be fully achieved; as such this leads to many mentees being dissatisfied with whatever mentorship arrangements offered.

2. The SSE-mentees, (i.e., second-stage entrepreneurs in peer-group settings) usually have a fairly wide range of expectations, such as:

– develop a strong social interaction relationship with other SSEs

– learn from mistakes of other SSEs.

– identify business opportunities through interactions with peers

– develop new clientele from amongst the peers in the group

– get others’ perspectives on their business issues and problems

These expectations may or may not match those of the organizers. While our wish is that SSEs achieve as many of their objectives as possible, we were not ready to compromise on our overarching objective: to facilitating peer-to-peer learning for purposes of growing their organizations. We have encountered difficulties with several SSEs whose expectations did not match ours, and, in some case we had to disassociate with several of them.

3. Student-mentees are the easiest to manage. Their expectations are usually flexible. However, in their enthusiasm to receive mentoring, and particularly with a short-term desire to include this experience in their resumes, we have noticed attempts to portray themselves as the best candidates just to be able to get in. If this posturing is not detected early, it can lead to problems in the long-run.

4. The “aspiring entrepreneurs”, the As, are usually the most committed and anxious to receive mentoring assistance. Working with A’s is probably also the most immediately satisfying of mentoring arrangements.

Reflecting on our experiences we realize that too often we did not spend enough time determining the best mentor-mentee match.

ATTRACTING & RETAINING MENTORS:

The best business mentors, obviously, are business-owners. Therefore, it is important to note that:

(a) Business-owners have been categorized by experts as driven by “n-Ach”, i.e., “need for achievement”. This means that they are generally more motivated to undertake projects by their ‘need for achievement’ rather than by other factors such as ‘need for recognition’, or ‘need for affiliation’, or ‘need for power’.

(b) Since business owners own their businesses, they do not need anybody else’s permission to leave their place of work to assist others. However this only happens if they are seriously committed and motivated to assist/mentor others.

As such, in order to attract and retain business owners as mentors, there may be a need to develop formal mechanisms primarily to fulfill the mentors’ overall need for ‘achievement’.

We currently use one or more of the following tools to attract and retain mentors:

1. Provide feedback on mentees’ progress

2. Recognize them adequately for their services, by

a. taking pictures of them in action

b. mentioning their services in our newsletters

c. giving them appreciation plaques or framed certificates, in special cases

d. creating opportunities to introduce them to special people

e. inviting them to special events, such as E-Awards Banquets, etc.

3. Nominating them selectively for awards, as applicable

4. Keeping them informed about our activities and their roles in our successes.

5. Seeking public forums to acknowledge their contributions.

6. Cashing in on other opportunities to acknowledge them.

7. Keeping them on our mailing list.

It is our firm belief that thanking, appreciating and acknowledging volunteers for their services can never ever be over-done. As such, by design, we do not hesitate to repeatedly thank all our mentors, as well as other supporters, for their assistance and contributions.

MENTOR CONSIDERATIONS:

The two primary requirements of Mentors are that they should

(a) make a commitment to assist others, and

(b) be willing to donate quality time.

LESSONS LEARNED or KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MENTORING:

Based on discussions with our key mentors, Advisory Board members, and particularly the E-i-Rs we summarize the following as the key elements of successful mentoring:

1. Mentoring cannot be a random activity. It is an interactive process, which cannot have a ‘talking head’ telling people how to do it (i.e., mentoring) or how to run their businesses.

2. When mentoring other business-owners, credibility can come only from peers; Business-owners do not necessarily want to be mentored by a professor – almost all of them would prefer to listen to and be mentored by someone who has ‘been there, done that’ either as a business owner or as the President/CEO/head of an organization.

3. The mentoring process should not be overly structured or rigid. Mentoring works best when the environment enables free flowing, relaxed and comfortable discussions in a confidential environment.

4. Students (Ss) and/or aspiring business-owners (As) do not necessarily need SSEs to be their mentors. The Ss and As require a lot of time and attention, and often much hand-holding.

5. Ensuring confidentiality is another key element to be emphasized. At all levels of the process of mentoring, be it directed towards the SSEs or Es or As or even the Ss, it is critical that all players are reminded, repeatedly, about the need for maintaining strict confidentiality. We require every mentor and mentee to fill out a confidentiality form at the start of each engagement.

6. For peer-to-peer mentoring (SSEs mentoring other SSEs as in our Business Owners Forum) all the players need to be repeatedly reminded that they should expect out of the interactions only as much as they themselves put in into the discussions.

7. All mentoring projects should be directed & supervised by someone who knows the subject extremely well. This point is considered by our key Board members as a very vital element of our success. This supervisor should be on top of all mentoring relationships and be readily accessible by all parties involved in different mentoring programs.

Prepared by:
Jamaluddin Husain & James Yackel
Dec-2006

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