Mentoring matters
Article Date: Sep 16 2005
A problem shared is a problem halved – so the old saying goes. Being mentored can offer a new way of lightening the load for an isolated entrepreneur or can simply be a means to sort out a particular knotty problem. Don’t be shy, give it a go.
One of my closely guarded secrets is that I go running twice a week with a personal trainer called Luke. I have now been doing this for nine years and although my lap speeds have declined, my enthusiasm has not. So it comes as something of a surprise that he has branched out and become a mentor after, he assures me (and I believe him), some considerable training.
Now if you had asked me even three years ago about business mentoring I would have come up with a fairly brusque Yorkshire response along the lines that it was for patsies… you get the drift.
But now being older and hence marginally wiser I have changed my mind. In fact, I have been mentored.
Granted, my mentor was experienced, discerning and a genuine grandee of the City – although talking to him you would never guess the latter. I wanted to know how ‘grown-up’ FTSE chairmen behave. How do they organise their board meetings, how much discussion do they allow, how much pre-planning and, if you like, ‘prior agreement’ with the executive team happening before the day of the board itself. I also wanted to gauge just how deep the level of involvement was – did he really just hold a monthly board meeting or did he make regular site visits and hold wide-ranging discussions with a number of executives. You see, Sage was only a £9 million market cap company when it floated in 1990 and I wanted to know if our board behaviour had moved to reflect the company’s current market capitalisation of about £3 billion.
Sir Brian had such zest and enthusiasm for business as well as being hugely entertaining. My sessions with him also set me thinking what I wanted to achieve from this mentoring programme and why.
Outside edge
I guess I was looking for some level of reassurance that what I was doing was roughly on track. I suppose I could have asked my fellow directors but this can be a double-edged sword. It is surely more truthful to seek out a totally unbiased view from someone outside the business, particularly as there is always an element that by asking the question you are somehow undermining your own position as ‘leader of the gang’.
Luke, my trainer, also believes this is a key reason why people use him as a mentor. Although we all know we have weaknesses, we don’t necessarily want those reporting directly to us to know that we feel vulnerable. Nor do we want our boss to know this in case it affects our career prospects. There is an element of preventative medicine here. If I can correct my weaknesses before they appear on my year-end assessment, so much the better.
Chairman as mentor
Sometimes a sensible non-executive chairman should view himself as more of a mentor to his CEO than as a chairman per se. How involved in a business should a chairman really be? For what they are worth, here are my views on how a chairman should behave.
First of all, a chairman should really understand the business. If the business model is flawed or there are key risk areas you’d better know about them upfront. If, however, you are happy with the business generally, and specifically the level of and quality of the management reporting systems, then business performance is down to execution.
Good execution is all about good CEOs and it’s a chairman’s responsibility to make sure that if the current incumbent isn’t successfully carrying out the role a successor is sought.
Generally, a poor-performing CEO is not the major business issue, so the chairman can revert to a role as mentor. I find this particularly relevant when it comes to personnel. My view of a fruitful CEO/chairman relationship is one in which the CEO consistently asks the chairman’s views on the strengths and weaknesses of the key executives. Sounding out the chairman can provide especially illuminating guidance on whether, for example, the CEO is over-reacting to a problematic scenario.
Let’s say a key executive starts to have an office affair, is drinking too heavily or has a personal problem that affects work. Now, these are not topics that most people would associate with a CEO/chairman discussion. The expectation might be that weightier matters are discussed. But in reality these day-to-day lifestyle occurrences really affect businesses.
Empathy can be vital
A good business mentor will also be able to suggest a range of options and when this is backed up by the experience of handling a similar situation, it can really make a difference.
Selling your business is a case in point. There are bound to be times when a small business owner just gets fed up, particularly if you are having a poor year or have lost a large, valuable and long-standing client through no fault of your own. So you say to yourself – ‘Oh, let’s pack up and sell.’
A mentor, who has already built up and sold a business, can relate to these feelings and can also point out how else you can get back job satisfaction. Selling the business may be an answer but not the only one.
So it comes as no surprise that, for once, being that little bit older as mentor or chairman works to everyone’s advantage – lucky for me I guess!
