BUSINESS TIPS - Who is your Mentor

BUSINESS TIPS – Who is your Mentor


By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting CC November 2010

Let’s start at the very beginning – What is a Mentor? The dictionary says “Experienced and trusted advisor. Advisor of the young.”

Who needs a mentor? Well in my opinion – everybody! Shrinks go to their own shrinks, dentists go to their own dentists (imagine trying to work on your own teeth – urgh!) and so for me, even people who are mentors themselves, need to have their own mentors. No (wo)man is an island” and that certainly is true in this instance.

So who is your mentor? Do you have one mentor, or are there different people who fulfill different needs that we as individuals have. For example, I have a mentor who looks after me in terms of my business needs and others who look after me in terms of my spiritual and personal needs.

Who shows you the ropes or acts as your sounding board? Who do you trust to give you the kind of advice that you actually need to hear, irrespective of whether we want to hear it or not?

Here’s the thing – in my experience, people who have mentors or ‘coaches’ are usually far more successful in both their personal and professional lives than those who don’t.

Some have a single mentor and some like me, have more than one. Some folk even have a whole team of mentors!

Some have an informal relationship with their mentors and some have a documented, measured, formal mentorship arrangement.

Fact of the matter is that it doesn’t matter how many mentors you have, as long as you have a mentor who gives you the support you need. That is what is important.

Fact of the matter is that all the money you spend on training or workshops or self help books is nothing compared to the invaluable advice you will received from someone who has already walked on the path that you are walking. The ability to learn something new or at the very least avoid making a costly mistakes, is priceless.

Having someone there to guide you in the right direction, to teach you all that they know, without judgment, is one of the greatest gifts that anyone could receive.

Then taking that invaluable knowledge and experience and adding it to your own and then playing that forward. . . When you mentor someone else, you are leading by example – it’s part of your legacy to the world. It’s a way of giving back to humankind.

So I ask you again – who is your mentor?

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za