Entrepreneurship

I went to see the girl I'm mentoring this week (my mentee?) and was disappointed to find that she actually seemed a lot more relaxed than I was...

I guess it was partly the timing. I'd had a pretty rotten day - my plan to get my HR manager to deal with our stragglers has not only failed to solve the original problem, it’s also produced a new one: should I consign my HR manager to the 'not quite good enough’ pile too? After all, if she's no good at cracking the whip, maybe I need to find someone that is (especially as these days whip-cracking is a core competency). To make matters worse, a big client called to say they were pulling our contract (‘afraid we’re having to batten down the hatches, you know how it is’), which is going to put a big dent in our numbers. So it's fair to say I wasn't in the best of moods when I arrived for our first session.

My mentee is actually slightly older than me, which cheered me up a bit - although she's only six months into entrepreneurial life (after ten years as a corporate wage slave), so I felt there was stuff I could usefully tell her. I also liked her business, which was a relief; diplomacy isn't my strong suit, so I wasn't sure how I was going to give her advice if I thought she had a rubbish idea in the first place. Plus she seems very nice, which also helps.

However, she’d just come from a very good day (big new client win) and I’d come from a very bad one – so if anyone was in need of a glass of wine and a shoulder to cry on, it was me. Sure enough we started off talking about some of her people issues, but it wasn’t too long before we kind of drifted onto mine. To be honest, I found it quite useful – she may be inexperienced but she’s pretty smart, so she was actually a good sounding board. When you’re really close to a decision, you’re always a bit inclined to over-complicate it – sometimes you need an independent view to distinguish the wood from the trees.

And to be honest, I think I actually demonstrated an important part of being a successful entrepreneur. Starting your own business might often be called 'going it alone', or something like that, but it's actually quite the reverse. Running a company can be a lonely business, and you only succeed by utilising the talents, advice and contacts of those around you. And that means you have to be fairly shameless about asking people for help - from high-flying business leaders, to your friends and family, to random strangers you've only just met. Or even people who ask for help from you.

Anyway that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Of course, it’s quite possible that my mentee was just a bit bemused by the whole thing – I’m guessing that when you sign up to have a mentor, you’re kind of hoping that she'll give you advice, rather than vice-versa...

secretdiary@managementtoday.com