Top 10 ways To Become a Worthy Business Mentor for Upcoming Entrepreneurs

Top 10 ways To Become a Worthy Business Mentor for Upcoming Entrepreneurs

While the number of entrepreneurs in Nigeria grow day by day. Some venture into business because they see a need to be self-reliant, while others see a reason to build on their passion. But sometimes, we realize that not all who venture into business in the first place have all it takes to keep the business surviving. Some gets discouraged in the long run while some others get very little results in their entrepreneurial endeavours, thereby giving up too soon and quit. Only a few get to pursue their dreams not allowing discouragements along the way.

As a successful entrepreneur, you have been through a lot, seen through many things in business, made some terrible mistakes, some amenable, some not amenable, which you would not want other entrepreneurs coming behind you to make. This is why you need to mentor. You might just be saving someone’s business from collapsing by offering to mentor someone, no matter how little you think your experience is. Endeavor to be a mentor in order to shed light on the path of upcoming stars.

Being a mentor does not mean you’ll have to give up on your career, neither does it mean you have to go through a lot of rigorous training to become a mentor. What you need to be a mentor are values and added skills which are already in you, which ones you have gained over the time. This article will take you through  some of the few things you need to do to save someone else’s enterprise from falling by being their mentor.

1. Be interested in your mentee: building a personal relationship with your mentee is key. This does not imply you have to make love advances towards him or her, it simply implies getting to know more of him. Much more than you would want to know his name, age, Hobby’s, what his work schedule is like amongst other things, you should also endeavor to know about things personal to them, why and how they do the things they do. You might want to know how often they got angry, or why they never ate diced onions on their food. If your mentee told you he had a great weekend, don’t just stop there, press further, inquire about where he spent the weekend, how he spent the weekend, with whom he spent the weekend, he would want to talk more with every question you stage towards him.
2. Listen well: to be a good role model, you must be a good listener. The best type of leaders are those who listen well. Build your listening skills because it is evident that your mentee would always want to talk to you about things, about challenges, don’t be too anxious to jump into conclusions by interrupting, rather listen. You might be able to create a solution out of his problem if you listened well. “In every question lies an answer” the answer to every question is hidden in the questions, so don’t be too quick to conclude. Listen!.
3. Communication: there is now little word of mouth communication these days as compared to earlier years because of the introduction of social media and chatapps. Many people now lack basic communication skills, while some have but are afraid of communicating. If you fall in this category, you must fight to break free. There is no way, as a mentor, that you won’t have to communicate. You will have to communicate with your mentee and your mentee might even introduce you to his or her friends. You’ll also have to interact with them. Communication skills is very essential for successful mentorship. If on the other hand, your mentee is the one who is scared of communicating with people verbally, you will have to do a very great job as a mentor to see that he breaks loose from the chain. You have to make him realize the importance of communication in any business and how well it could foster success.
4. Build your emotional intelligence: a good mentor knows how to perceive emotions. This can be achieved, when you are close enough to your mentee. You perceive their emotions by asking the right questions that will unlock more and more answers. This will help you know what experiences they’ve gone through, what things have happened in their lives, how they have been able to survive through thick and thorns. Knowing all of these will help you not to do things that would hurt their emotions.
5. Ask Questions: ask questions always. Never make assumptions that you know where your mentee is driving at, or don’t assume he is fine, instead ask whether he is fine and he will tell you if he is or not. Making assumptions, especially when you have not gotten to know your mentee well might be a grave mistake. Don’t assume he is making sales in that business, ask instead if he is making sales and he will let you know. Asking questions helps you know the kind of advice and recommendation to give.

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6. Share your mistakes: at one point in our lives, we have made mistakes. Share your own mistakes with your mentee if the need arises, and how you pulled through. This will help create a strong conviction in them that there is no unattainable feat in life and all challenges can be conquered.

7. Celebrate achievements: every conversation do not always have to revolve around problems, celebrate whatever little progress they make, it helps grow their confidence. Even the little things they do not see as achievements, make them see reasons to celebrate them

8. Sacrifice: you must be ready to make sacrifices. Give more than you ask for. Since your mentees might be younger and less experienced than you are, you have to be willing to sacrifice your time, thought etc. for them.

9. Know when to give feedbacks: Feedbacks could be positive or negative, whichever way, they are meant to be given. As a mentor, you need to know the right time to give your feedbacks.

10. Be a role model: there is a saying that you tend to become more of who you emulate. It is obvious that your mentee will emulate you as a mentor, it now up to you to prove yourself worthy. “Do what you preach!”.

 

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