Mentorship is a highly beneficial relationship, especially for the mentee. However, to glean all the wisdom you can from your mentor, it is essential that you ask questions, especially the right ones. This is even more important as a business owner, seeing that your meetings with your mentor might be sparse.
Did you know that businesses that participate in or have mentorship programs will likely increase their productivity by 67%? This is largely because the mentees are better engaged and more satisfied. Also, 88% of mentees and mentors mention that they have been more effective in their work because of their mentorship relationship.
The statistics above reveal the importance of mentorship to businesses and their owners. With this, it is essential that when you meet with your mentor as a business owner, you should ask the right questions. Continue reading to see a list of ten questions to ask your mentor as a business owner.
Defining Mentorship: What It Is And What It Isn’t
Before discussing the questions to ask your mentor as a business owner, it is imperative to understand who a mentor is and isn’t. This will help us set the foundation for our discussion.
A mentor is an experienced individual who can provide advice, support, and guidance to a less experienced individual. Usually, a mentorship relationship affords the mentor the opportunity to know the mentee after a series of meetings. This way, they can provide valuable advice that imparts knowledge to the mentee and also help through challenges that may hamper progress in the right direction.
Now that we know who a mentor is, it is essential to know who a mentor isn’t. A mentee may often be tempted to consider their mentor as a coach, teacher, sponsor, or therapist. However, we must point out that a mentor is none of these. While they can teach, coach, or sponsor, they should not be considered in such offices since these responsibilities are not part of their core roles.
The Purpose Of A Mentor
Understanding the purpose of a mentor helps you determine whether you truly want one. Mentorship is a popular word these days. However, we must understand that not everyone needs a mentor. In some cases, you need a coach or teacher.
At this point, the question that begs an answer is, “What is the purpose of a mentor?” A mentor is a person who comes into your life to facilitate your growth. As a business owner, a mentor is supposed to help you understand business principles, meet your goals, and ensure that your business goes in the right direction.
A mentor will help do any or all of the following:
- Set the right business goals.
- Introduce you to better ways of thinking about business.
- Show you more effective ways of approaching challenges.
- Share valuable business and life lessons.
- Mentorship is supposed to guide you to avoid certain pitfalls that would have stifled your business growth.
10 Questions To Ask Your Mentor As A Business Owner
Mentorship plays an essential role in helping people develop the skills they need to thrive regardless of their profession. For business owners, mentorship shows them the ropes of their business sector and provides the knowledge they require to succeed.
Having a mentor as a business owner equips you with the support and guidance that will allow you to fulfill your potential. Through their help, you can navigate the uncanny waters of entrepreneurship. Apart from the lessons you learn from your mentor, you will also improve your decision-making abilities, gain access to insights that will influence your development of new strategies, and gather the knowledge to build effective teams.
How do you gain access to all of these and more? The secret is asking the right questions. Remember, mentorship is a relationship that thrives when the mentee pushes to gain knowledge. That being said, what kind of questions should you ask when you have the opportunity to meet with your mentor?
We have outlined ten questions to ask your mentor as a business owner, along with a brief explanation of each question below:
Question 1 – What inspired you to set up your business?
This question helps you gain insight into the driving force and inspiration behind your mentor’s journey into entrepreneurship. Through this, you can discover why they are truly motivated to do what they do. Their story can also help as a source of inspiration for you.
Question 2 – What were some of the main challenges you experienced during the early stages of your business?
There is no business without its fair share of challenges. This question lets you learn about your mentor’s most challenging obstacles while setting up their business. Their answers can prepare you for the challenges you will likely face on your entrepreneurship journey.
Question 3 – How did you handle setbacks or failures?
Challenges, failures, or setbacks are normal business experiences. Having an open discussion about failures and setbacks helps you learn about resilience. This knowledge will empower you to see such events as opportunities for growth.
Question 4 – What factors would you say have contributed the most to your business’ success?
Business success is relative. However, when you consider someone worthy of mentoring you in any capacity, they must have experienced some success. Asking this question lets you learn about their success story and the main factors contributing to their success. The nuggets you gain from this question would be instrumental in your entrepreneurship journey. Though your journeys may differ, such factors are often quite similar to achieving success.
Question 5 – What keeps you motivated and helps you focus on achieving your business goals?
Setting goals is common, but not everyone can stay true to achieving their goals. As a business owner, you must gain knowledge to keep you motivated and focused on the prize. Asking this question allows you to do this. You will gain tips that will help you stay motivated. It will also allow you to maintain your focus regardless of the distractions or challenges on your path.
Question 6 – What important skills should I develop at this stage of my business career?
One of the core responsibilities of mentors is acquiring knowledge about their mentees. They achieve this through building a strong relationship that allows them to see beyond the periphery. Since your mentor knows your current skills and business goals, they can tell you what new skills you should develop. You can improve your personal development to become a more robust business owner.
Question 7 – What resources do you recommend to gain the skills you suggested I acquire?
Now that you know the skills to acquire, learning how to develop them will be great. Asking this question helps you draw from your mentor’s knowledge of the best resources to gain the skills you need. These resources include tools, courses, books, websites, networking events, professional memberships, etc.
Question 8 – How do you identify new opportunities, and what do you do to seize them?
Promptly sniffing and efficiently utilizing opportunities play a huge role in business success. As a business owner, you must know how to identify new opportunities and the best ways to seize them. The answer to this question will equip you to be more proactive in the market. It will also present you with better opportunities to grow your business.
Question 9 – How have you been able to embrace innovation, and what role does it play in your business?
Innovation helps to drive both differentiation and growth. For this reason, you must learn how your mentor has embraced innovation in their business and the role it plays. This way, you can adopt innovation to inspire creative solutions in your business.
Question 10 – How do I build a strong team for my business?
Your business is as strong as the weakest member of your team. This means that you must continually strive to have the best team possible. Your mentor’s answer to this question will show you how to attract top talent and retain them to strengthen your business.
How Platform Circle Can Help You Maximize Your Mentorship Relationship
Have you been struggling to get the right results from your mentorship relationship? If so, it probably means you are not doing something right or you need access to the right tools. We have just the right tool for you, and it is called Platform Circle.
Platform Circle is designed to help maximize the relationships within your circle. One such relationship is the one you have with your mentor. With this tool’s mentorship and accountability partner access feature, you can improve your mentorship story. This feature allows you to achieve the following:
- Invite your mentor into your circle.
- Assign your mentor a special role. This will allow them to see your tasks, goals, and deliverables.
- Share your business goals and visions with them.
- Find out the best times to connect with your mentor.
Ready to enjoy these benefits and more? Sign up here.
Conclusion
Mentorship is crucial to business success. To get it right in your mentor-mentee relationship, one of the things you must do is ask questions. This post has provided ten questions to ask your mentor as a business owner. It has also shown you how Platform Circle can help you maximize your mentorship relationship. Would you like to get started? Sign up now.
