Good business leader is also a good mentor

A good business leader should be able to provide feedback on the move. A good leader is also a good mentor. 

There is not a strict definition of a mentor. It can be any trusted person, with relevant experience who can contribute significantly to the mentee development. A successful mentorship could be achieved provided that both parties are fully committed to the development process.

It is very important to make sure that  mentor feedback is very open and accurate. As such, it is much focused and probably very important, powerful tool for strategic business leadership development. 

Why every business leader needs a mentor?

My answer, to the above question, in one sentence: simply because of the honest feedback, a rare commodity in these days…

Being a business leader is complex and associates with broad responsibility. A business leader may receive feedback from his manager, peers and team members. It is amazing how many times the formal feedback tells you what you want to hear… In other cases measure of fear of repercussion is semantically noticed during feedback.

Whether formal or informal, in some cases these feedbacks are not complete and may not necessarily reflect full objectivity. There are many, diverse interests out there. For example, a manager may provide good feedback simply because "if it is not broken, do not need to fix it". Team members may be interested in pleasing or satisfying management, so constructive criticism may be limited.

Mentor feedback, however, should be very open and accurate. As such, it is much focused and probably very important, powerful tool for strategic business leadership development. There is not a strict definition for Mentor. It can be any trusted person, with relevant experience who can contribute significantly to the mentee development. Successful Mentorship could be achieved provided that one is fully committed to the development process.

Career development plans, formal training and performance reviews are important tools, but may not be enough, considering the broad nature of business leadership. Winning organizations should encourage mentoring either on formal or informal (yet structured) basis.

Every great leader that I know had a great role model as a mentor

Leadership plays a decisive role in enhancing employee commitment

Retaining the talent that has already been recruited is a must in today's competitive marketplace. 

As a business leader I do believe that good leadership has a profound effect on retention. It is the honest feedback mechanism that positively fine tunes the sense of member worth and purpose. 

A commitment to stay in a given workplace is also influenced by a perceived connection between work and the organization’s mission. Leaders should be able to reflect that. It is clear that Leadership is a very influential variable affecting job satisfaction, commitment and willingness to stay.

How large size corporations can be even greater businesses?

Big companies could be illustrated as a huge ship, sailing safely and navigating at all seas and in all weather conditions.

Sure, as such, it has huge advantages as size does matters. The ship has clear directions, the team is experienced and once it is on the move, it will reach its destination.

Working with startups I have identified a few gaps (comparing to large size corporations) which should be re-considered:

1. Creativity ownership and leadership – yes, we are all encouraged to be creative. Some of our time may be devoted just for that. Yet in a startup, it means doing much more than that. Employees could and should be inspired by making something from nothing regardless of their professional expertise, sales tech or other professional function. Thinking out of the pattern (or the box) is not always intuitive, but it sure creates excitement which is amazingly powerful. In some cases, one does not need to re-invent the wheel, but just re-think about something that did not work in the past, take the lead and do it differently. It can make the entire difference. They can ask me how…

2. The importance of information flow. There will always be information that isn’t shared in big companies. I am not speaking about confidential financial figures or strategy but rather processes which affect the organization and presented in the very last moment. This is common information which handled on a "need to know basis" till it is common knowledge. In most cases this is not an intentional corporate method, but the general perception is that the team are not always part of a "greater" cause. Sharing "unclassified" information can make great deal improving the sense of belonging.

3. From Human Resources to Talent Management – everyone is a talent today. Do we really manage talent properly? It may sound like a rhetorical question, but it is not. The talent management starts during the recruitment phase and should involve other talents from existing team (and not only hiring manager and HR function). Once on board, there should be a coherent synchronization between performance evaluation and individual growth plan. If it could also be linked to the team cause / roadmap / development strategy, it could intensify the success on individual as well as team levels.

The above reflects my ideas and opinions. It may make sense to some of you, but I can also assume that these words would probably fade along the sea trail generated by the big ships…

Just some food for thought.

Meir