Mentor Programme
Digital Jersey’s Mentor Programme helps entrepreneurs to get the guidance, encouragement and support of a trusted and experienced digital/IT mentor.
The benefits of having a mentor
As much as people like to think we’ve got it all figured out, the reality is that we always need trusted guides to help us make good decisions, take advantage of opportunities, learn from mistakes, and find our positive path.
Finding a Mentor can be the best thing to secure a positive future for your start-up. A Business Mentor, is someone who has been in business and has experience of the day to day problems that a new Entrepreneur will come across both in starting as well as in planning and execution for a growing a business. The Mentor will have a breadth of experience, and come across many of the tasks facing any business through its early start up cycle, and onwards through the growth phases, which bring their own challenges. A Business Mentor can sit along the Entrepreneur, learn the business and the people concerned in the early stages and offer ideas and support across a gamut of support to management. This can be from assistance in drawing up initial business plans and onwards through the early phases. The mentoring programme can be short-term and focused on figuring a few things out, or it can last a year a more.
Digital Jersey will be matching Mentees and Mentors on case by case basis.
“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the higher part of yourself when sometimes it becomes hidden to your own view… I don’t think anybody makes it in the world without some form of mentorship. Nobody makes it alone. Nobody has made it alone. And we are all mentors to people even when we don’t know it.”
—Oprah Winfrey
The benefits of being a mentor
A Mentor is someone who learns what the Mentee is attempting to achieve, and gives guidance accordingly. Whether this is by regular reviews, by being in the background to solve a problem, or just to help with planning which direction to go. The Mentor’s role is one of support, through the mentors own business experience, or more importantly through his/her network of contacts. If the Mentor cannot solve a problem directly, then he/she can often know who to contact, through his/her network built up over many years in business.
Becoming a Mentor can enrich and strengthens several of your skills, such as:
- Leadership and management qualities: being a Mentor helps you developing your ability to encourage and motivate others.
- Improving your communication skills: as your Mentee and yourself might not have the same background, you’ll have to find a way to communicate more effectively to each other as you navigate your way through the mentor programme.
- Obtain personal satisfaction from making a difference to the career development of a Mentee: being a Mentor can be very personally fulfilling because you will directly contribute to someone’s growth and development. Seeing your Mentee succeed as result of your input is a true reward.
- Enhance your knowledge and a new way of thinking: as your Mentee might have different experiences and come from a different background, you can learn new ideas and a new way of thinking that will open new perspectives.
