How You Can Benefit from an International Business Coach or Mentor

06th Dec , 2018

Business coaching and mentoring has been around for a very long time and can be enormously beneficial for business owners, CEOs, directors and senior executives. At International Business Mentors, we can provide you with a business coach or mentor who can help you gain personal benefits for you and your business.

Business mentoring is recognised around the world as a valuable relationship that can greatly assist you to succeed in business, providing you with confidential advice, new perspectives on your business, and improvements to your business skills. Business coaching can also give you an impartial sounding board while unveiling practical methods and strategy frameworks based on the actual experience of your business mentor or coach. These benefits are delivered with much-needed personal support for you in a strong business mentor or coach relationship. Within your mentoring relationship, your mentor aims to encourage you and instil in you greater confidence, while still challenging you to grow, develop and succeed in your business objectives.

The Role and Benefits of a Business Mentor

We find many business people are not completely aware of the role and benefits of a business mentor. Your business coach or mentor is a facilitator; someone who assists you to find solutions to your business problems and helps you to make better use of your opportunities. They also help you know yourself better and look to use and develop your own natural talents further, as well as helping you to understand where to get assistance or fill any gaps. Your business mentor or coach will share their experiences, successes and mistakes, while your business decisions and business growth strategies will continue to be your own. Your business mentor or coach will challenge, support, steer and encourage you, as well as helping you to look at problems and situations from fresh perspectives.

National Mentoring Day was launched in the UK to recognise the significant benefits of mentoring across the world. It takes place each year on October 27th and was developed to help encourage and celebrate business coaching and mentoring in all its forms.

Placing Your Trust in a Business Coach

An important ingredient to successfully develop your mentoring relationship is trust. And for trust to flourish, you need your mentoring sessions to be confidential and your business coach or mentor to be independent and have no conflicts of interest. Both of you must keep your discussions confidential, ensuring a trusting relationship that allows both parties to talk freely with the knowledge that what is said in your meetings stays in your meetings.

Business coaching relationships also need good chemistry between both parties for success. That is why International Business Mentors takes great care to match you for your personal fit with a business mentor who has the necessary skills, background and experience to assist you with your requirements and help you achieve what you would like to achieve.

Your business can also benefit from business mentoring or coaching for key people, as having your key people better skilled can increase performance and help keep important staff for longer. You may like to send the message that you want to empower your key people to grow their leadership and business skills and contribution, and this performance will create even greater opportunities for them within your organisation. Greater performance from your key employees and better retention from coaching will be well worth the mentoring investment in your people and your organisation’s success.

Avoiding Blind Spots

Business coaching and mentoring can help you avoid blind spots. Sometimes, when you’re too close to something, you can develop blind spots. Your business coach or mentor will have a relatively objective and different perspective, with the ability to quickly identify problem areas that you might not be able to see. They may also be able to offer solutions or strategies that you need to consider.

Your business mentor or coach can be very encouraging, especially when you experience failures and setbacks that can impact your productivity and effectiveness as a leader. In hard times, having a mentor will help you to keep your head high and refocus you on what needs to be considered given the events and the context of the broader picture.

Developing Business Growth Strategies

Critically, when you have been at the helm of a business for a long time, or when your markets are fast moving or have undergone significant disruption, you can benefit from having a business mentor to relook at your strategy. This allows you to take a step back and become critically strategic so you can consider different perspectives, risks and opportunities and reignite enthusiasm with a reframed strategic direction. You can then implement your action plans to make your business growth strategies happen.

Minimising Stress

Feel like you’re constantly stressing about many different problems? Your business mentor or coach can help you triage your issues and decide which to fight today and which to leave until later. As you better prioritise in a strategic context, you will become more effective and less stressed.

Continual Improvement

Over time, a good business coaching or mentoring relationship will develop and flourish. The issues that once were a problem will be dealt with, and new aspects or challenges will arise for discussion and consideration. There are several strategic areas that need to be reviewed or revamped, for example, customer demand in the future, selling, product or service development, investments in the business, acquisitions, expansion plans, staff remuneration and incentives, geographical location, systems, social media strategy, business plans, risks, vision, strategies, culture, emergencies or contingency planning, and target organisation.

Your desired outcome with your business coach or mentor must be a win-win for everyone. As with all great mentoring relationships, the critical aspect is finding the right person to meet your specific needs. There are many considerations to be taken into account, and that’s what International Business Mentors does best. To get your own business mentor or coach so you can start enjoying the benefits that mentoring can provide, contact us today.