A Mentor for Every Stage
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Share this article on Google+ As entrepreneurs grow, so do their needs. This is one aspect of the mentoring process that people don’t necessarily think of: you may want to consider changing mentors as you advance from one stage of your business to the next. A new perspective may be exactly what you need as you develop and evolve.
Mentees and mentors discuss these ideas in the video À chaque étape son mentor, part of the “Challenger et Inspirer” series produced by Réseau Mentorat.
Mélanie Bordeleau, the mentorship coordinator at Réseau Mentorat Montréal, talked to Justin Lortie, founder of Wedge and mentee, about this very topic. Their conversation started with this question: “Justin, you have a mentor. You two get along great. And yet, here we are, working to transition you to someone new… how come?” Justin’s answer was simple: it’s important to bear in mind that there are different stages to any entrepreneur’s journey, and a different mentor to guide them through each.
Imprimés Triton’s Marie-Claude Duquette, mentee, agreed wholeheartedly: “The goal in life is to keep growing, both as an individual and as an entrepreneur. It’s only natural that your path takes another direction at one point and your needs change.”
In other words, even though an entrepreneur may be happy with their mentor, it doesn’t mean they can’t eventually move on to someone else. “Mentorship is a lifelong process, but the mentors themselves can change along the way. You should feel open to exploring new relationships and exposing yourself to a new perspective,” said Mélanie.
Marie-Claude is grateful to her first mentor for helping her focus on some of the initial challenges in her entrepreneurial career and addressing some of the pitfalls she came up against in positioning her company. “I had evolved as an entrepreneur, specifically because my mentor did such a great job,” she said. “I found myself in a position where I realized I needed something else. I wanted to challenge myself a little more and head in another direction.”
That’s when she realized it was time to take a positive step forward. “I asked to be paired with a new mentor, someone who would help me see things differently, shake me up a bit and motivate me to get to the next level and become a better business professional.”
Justin had this to add: “As odd as it seems, when I decided to look for a new mentor, I was just as nervous about the process: Will this be the right person? Will we really connect? Fortunately, the answer is yes.”
He concluded on a positive note: “There’s always someone in the network who will be a good mentor for you. You have to trust in the process.”
Written in collaboration with Stéphane Desjardins.