Tips for Finding a Mentor

By Lois Carter Fay

If your company doesn’t offer a formal mentorship program and you feel a mentor would be beneficial to you, consider talking to your boss about starting a program. Offer to handle or assist with the project so your boss knows you are serious and not just delegating work to him or her. You’ll need to recruit mentors and mentees, develop the list of policies and procedures, prepare a mentorship agreement for each team to sign, hold a kick-off meeting, and schedule an end-of-year evaluation meeting for all the pairs. Each mentor/mentee should meet a minimum of once a month to discuss ideas, evaluate successes and failures, and set a monthly plan of action.

Or, if that’s not your cup of tea, and you just want to find a mentor for yourself, then look around for someone who would be a good mentor for you. Choose someone in your company, the Chamber, a trade association, or among your business associates and friends who you admire and know is successful. Consider your needs. Who do you know who can help you learn what you need to learn, has done successfully what you want to do, and would be willing to help you achieve your goals? You’ll want someone who has the time, energy and gentle "nudging" ability to keep you on track toward your goals.

Make an appointment with your prospective mentor and discuss the idea with him or her. If you meet for lunch, pick up the check. To get the most benefit from it, you want this relationship to be equal.

If you can’t think of anyone who would be a good mentor, and willing to commit the time and effort to your cause, call your local Small Business Development Center and talk to the staff about finding you a mentor. The SBDC usually has a long list of willing experts who can be tapped as mentor volunteers.

You can also start reading books about successful leaders, entrepreneurs and mentorship. Two highly touted books are Be Your Own Mentor by Sheila Wellington and Catalyst (Random House) and Greatest Business Stories of All Times by Daniel Gross and the editors of Forbes Magazine (John Wiley & Sons).

If you take the time to find a good mentor, you’ll be one step closer to your goals.