Find Yourself a Mentor! OK, But What’s a Mentor?
If you're new here, and you'd like to keep up with our thoughts and activities, just "Subscribe" using our form on the left and we'll send you a brief email announcement of our new posts. Alternatively, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. - Thanks for visiting!
There’s an old joke:
What’s the difference between a violin and a viola?
There is no difference. The violin just looks smaller because the violinist’s head is so much bigger.
When it comes to the “people helping other people learn” profession, it’s a bit like that. There are many terms used to describe the different players, and a lot of disagreement about what the terms mean and how they might differ. Some of the disagreement can stem from an attitude of self-importance by the various players.
The home business owner, looking to follow the oft-given advice to “find yourself a mentor” will likely be perplexed by the large number of terms used by those selling their services.
Here is a list of the many people who might help the entrepreneur get ahead [grouped for ease of reading-not significance]:
- teacher, trainer, facilitator, educator, instructor, tutor
- coach, adviser, counselor, mentor, guide
- role model, exemplar, master performer
- supervisor, boss, sponsor, partner, team
Consider the many ways in which people use (or perhaps misuse) the terms:
- “I am a spiritual counselor-coach.”
- “My boss is like a don, a godfather – he always looks after my best interests.”
- “Bill Gates is my mentor; I’ve never spoken with him but I read everything he’s written.”
- “My instructor emphasized: ‘I am here to train you, not to teach you!’ “
- “I pay my life coach a lot of money, only to hear her say, ‘I can’t tell you what to do.’ “
- What qualifies someone to say, “I am an internet marketing coach”?
The truth is that all of the terms listed above overlap somewhat. All of the players have a role in helping people learn. But there are some distinctions that can be made. This article will not likely settle any controversies about these roles, but it will help the home business owner think through the kinds of learning help available.
Beginning in the early 1970s, Margo Murray studied corporations to see how more experienced employees could mentor less experienced employees and thus improve their performance. These studies led to implementing facilitated mentoring programs which Margo wrote about in Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring (1991). She began the book by differentiating three terms:
- A sponsor may provide recommendations for advancement, introductions to influential people within a certain business or industry, provide public praise and support, and offer guidance regarding corporate culture and politics. A sponsor may also serve as a confidant. The relationship is informal and indefinite in duration. A person could have more than one sponsor. Learning from the sponsor is only a small part of the relationship.
- A role model is someone that exhibits success at getting things done, exemplary behavior, and respected knowledge. The relationship is not only informal, but in most cases, the role model is not even aware of the individuals that specifically identify her as a role model. Learning from the role model is indirect as the learner observes the role model in order to emulate her.
- A mentor may “carry out some or even all of the functions of the sponsor and role model in a relationship structured around the skills that the protege wants to develop.” (Murray, p. 12) The relationship is guided by a specific agreement. Other functions of the mentor may include: providing information about the company, tutoring specific skills, giving feedback on performance, providing advice during times of crisis for the protege, help with career planning. The mentor, in Murray’s case studies, is not typically the same as the individual’s boss, but rather some other experienced employee, and the mentor typically as only one protege at a time.
There are many definitions of a trainer and teacher. Here is how I compare the two roles: Both work with groups or individuals, guiding them through a structured learning activity. A trainer is generally more concerned with an outcome of improved skill performance (like math facts, soldering, selling); a teacher is generally more concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and understanding within a given field (like history, theory of operation, corporate policy). Obviously these roles overlap, even though one may predominate.
So Murray’s “mentor” will be a bit of a teacher, a trainer, a role model, and a sponsor. And perhaps more. On the other hand, while a teacher or trainer may at times take on the role of mentor for some students, that is not characteristic of the job or role of the teacher or trainer.
Many people use the term business mentor more or less synonymously with business coach. Increasingly, the definition of a coach is being guided by the standards of the International Coaching Federation: The ICF defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” As you can see, their definition is broad and inclusive. Their membership includes not only business coaches, but “life coaches,” family coaches, and career coaches. A Master Certified Coach credential with ICF (the uppermost of 3 ICF categories) pre-supposes that the individual has had at least 2500 hours of coaching experience, at least 35 clients, and a documented 200 hours of coach-specific course-work.
There are many excellent business coaches that do not have the ICF credentials or intensity of training required by the ICF, but as I mentioned, the trend is for people to ask about the credential.
Marcia Wieder- “America’s Dream Coach” – provides some additional role distinctions in her book Making Your Dreams Come True (1999). In one chapter she encourages business owners to create a “dreamteam” (what we might otherwise call a support team) in order to accelerate their movement toward attaining their dreams (goals). At a minimum, she advises that every dreamteam should have at least one mentor, one coach, and one partner. Here is how she differentiates these terms:
- A mentor has experience and expertise in the same chosen field as the protege; it should be “someone who has been where you want to go, is still learning and growing, and is happy to share those experiences with you.”
- A coach may not have experience in the same field as the protege, but “is someone who listens for what’s possible, helps you breakthrough when you’re stuck, and holds you accountable for doing what you said you were going to do.”
- A partner is someone who “gives, receives, and shares equally with you.” (Wieder, pp 158-160) In terms of Bob Burg and Ivan Misner it is one of many people with whom you network. Wieder simply takes it a step further and suggests inviting specific people with whom to partner.
A home business entrepreneur rarely knows everything; more typically she is faced with daunting gaps in knowledge, skills, and experience required for implementing internet marketing strategies and other tasks. She may be expert in one area (or one hat, as Michael Gerber describes in The E-Myth Revisited) yet lacking competence in other areas. Consequently, an entrepreneur is faced with learning or failing. Where should she turn? In summary,
- Look for trainers and mentors to facilitate learning in specific skills and tasks, perhaps involving internet marketing. The learning can take place through e-learning (videos and other online activities), over the phone, one-on-one and face-to-face, or in a virtual or physical classroom.
- Look for coaches to facilitate learning about yourself – learning about the bigger picture of decision-making, confidence, goal setting, and action planning. The learning can take place one-on-one, either face-to-face or over the phone.
- Look for sponsors, partners, and team members (people in your network) to help you get what learning cannot provide – the inside edge.
- Look for skilled listeners. That’s one thing that a good trainer, mentor, and coach all have in common. Michael Oliver’s Natural Selling Approach is an excellent resource for home business newbies and leaders – his books and seminars help those who wish to develop their listening skills
When reading the advice to “find yourself a mentor,” it would be a mistake to think that it is always a long term relationship. It can be, and there are many famous examples of this. However, more typically it is of short duration; a relationship of 3 to 12 months. You may find the need for new mentors and coaches as your needs change and evolve.
Just keep in mind that what you call a trainer is someone else’s coach or mentor or tutor or… you get the idea.
Related posts:
