Through the continued gathering of evidence of its impact, Business Mentoring Scotland has been shown to massively benefit mentees that join up to be mentored. Through gaining access to the skills, knowledge, and experience of Scotland’s leading business leaders, business owners or employees can develop new ways of thinking that increase profitability and investment, inspire the development of new products, and lead to accessing new export markets.
Why did you join Business Mentoring Scotland?
“It was word of mouth really. I knew a few people who had worked with Ayrshire Chamber and who’d been mentored through Business Mentoring Scotland and they recommended I try it.”
What did you hope to achieve by going into mentoring?
“I had moved into a new role within the company where I had to influence people at varying levels of seniority and change existing ways of working. This can cause conflict and I was looking for some help to positively resolve situations as a lot of my reactions to challenges and criticism were emotional and having a negative effect on my attitude at work. I believed that this was hindering my career progression.”
How did the mentoring process work?
“Well before meeting Pamela, Rhona (Business Mentoring Scotland Executive) asked me to set out all the learning objectives I wanted to achieve from the process.”
Pamela and I then met in person a lot, we didn’t have an agenda as such, the initial meetings mostly involved me highlighting some of the areas where I had experienced difficulty and generally letting off some steam.”
What were your discussions focused upon?
“We focused on behavioural changes I could make. Pamela was very good at asking probing questions and getting me to think about situations from a different perspective and more objectively instead of emotionally.”
What have you learned through being mentored?
“I have learned that how I react in any situation is a choice. Pamela taught me techniques that I can and have used to remain calm and diffuse tension.
I have also learned how to accept things that I can’t change and focus on influencing those I can and how to move forward positively even when things haven’t gone as well as expected.”
What was the effect of Pamela’s mentoring?
“If I hadn’t been mentored by Pamela, for different reasons I don’t know if I would still be in my position today as I had to go through a very steep learning curve over the last 18 months. I’m now looking forward to the challenges ahead and know that I am more confident and better prepared to deal with them.”
How has being mentored benefited Sigma-Aldrich?
“I have a key role on site and my output has greatly increased. I am more efficient, effective and productive as I’m able to recognise where to direct my energy and time to make the biggest impact. I have more confidence in making decisions and taking on new challenges and this facilitates achieving site objectives. Being able to move on quickly and positively after an idea or proposal has been dismissed or rejected has been a critical factor in achieving this.”
What did you think about the mentoring match?
“It might sound cliché but it was the perfect match. Pamela was very easy to get on with, open and non- judgemental and her style matched my personality, I’d struggle to think of a better person to be my mentor. It was an excellent job by Rhona and the Chamber in pairing us together.”
Would you recommend mentoring?
“I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about the programme. The way I was dealing with situations in work was a road block that was halting the progress of my career, Pamela has been instrumental in changing that.”
Positively influencing all of these factors has been shown to benefit the wider Scottish economy, but the guidance provided by mentors can also be subtle at times, influencing human behaviours with the financial impact difficult to measure. This element of mentoring is vitally important to mentees and can create long lasting positive effects on their future careers, their business’ efficiency and productivity.
When Arlene Kelly, Health and Safety Specialist with Sigma Aldrich – a leading life science firm headquartered in the US – signed up to Business Mentoring Scotland, she wanted to work on her own personal approach to her working environment and specifically – how she dealt with conflict, professional relationships and the pressures of working life. Pamela Anderson, owner of Sounding Board Associates and a senior HR consultant with Square Circle HR, has mentored a wide range of businesses through Business Mentoring Scotland, from firms in the manufacturing sector through to tourism. Pamela began mentoring Arlene in April 2014, and through using her expertise gained from a wide ranging and illustrious career including spells working within the public sector and in financial services, Pamela has successfully helped Arlene overcome her career obstacles, through a pairing of mentor and mentee that was in Arlene’s own words, the “perfect match”:
A recent addition to the Scottish Chambers of Commerce’s portfolio of mentoring successes is its partnership with sportscotland – where leaders of sports clubs in Scotland are mentored by some of the country’s most talented and dynamic entrepreneurs and business people.
Jill O’Neill, president of Garscube Harriers, took this incredible opportunity to learn when she chose to work with Jim Loy – a mentor from the Scottish Chamber of Commerce’s mentor pool. Jim was a chartered surveyor for over 25 years, ran his own surveying business, and through Scottish Chamber of Commerce’s flagship mentoring product – Business Mentoring Scotland – has mentored firms as diverse as bio-technology companies through to solicitors. Garscube Harriers is a Glasgow based running club with a prestigious history in athletics but it is also a business like any other, and Jill explains below how Jim’s mentoring opened up a new world of possibilities for her work with the club.
Why did you decide to be mentored?
“Scottish Athletics sent out a communication to us, I thought “that looks fantastic”. I met with Carol Anne (Scottish Chambers of Commerce) and there was a great choice of mentors available, all equally skilled and with really valuable attributes.”
How did the mentoring relationship work?
“When I was paired with Jim we got in touch. He said “why don’t we meet up first of all, to check if we gel?” This was a great idea as it’s so important that you have rapport with your mentor. Of course we got on well from the outset and it was very apparent Jim had lots to offer us. Jim has kept things tight and focused, we’ve had another 2 meetings since, and although he’s a busy guy he always comes back to me very quickly. So much comes out of each meeting that I need time to work on what we’ve discussed before we meet up again!”
What topics were discussed?
“In an hour with Jim so many ideas come up and most of our focus has been on communications and our digital strategy. Jim highlighted alternative methods for us to engage with our own members and how to recruit new people to the club.
“Jim encouraged me to think about threats and risks to the club, to do a SWOT analysis and to think about what value we bring to our members compared with our competitors. We also talked about what successful organisations do and Jim often spoke about what he would do in his business.”
What has been the most valuable guidance given?
“We’ve talked about the importance of internet traffic coming through mobile devices and also getting feedback from customers. Jim also asked about our use of Facebook and WhatsApp. We’ve put out a survey to our members now to better identify what their needs are and to make better use of the resources we have available. After all, our people are the most valuable asset of the club.”
Have any of your discussions led to practical changes in the club?
“It really helped having someone from outside athletics look at the club. We were already thinking about it but Jim really emphasised the urgency of changing our legal status from an unincorporated association to become a community amateur sports club, which we’ve now done.”
What else do you want to achieve through mentoring?
“Our next meeting will be in March when we`ll discuss the membership engagement survey and how it feeds into our new business plan. We’ll also continue to look at our club governance structures in consultation with Jim. We have over 330 members in the club now and it’s critical that we have the correct procedures in place.”
Would you recommend Scottish Chambers of Commerce’s Mentoring to other sports organisations?
“Absolutely. I’ve really enjoyed working with Jim, he’s focused my thinking, he’s been a mentor to me personally, and he’s got me thinking about what I should do to take the club forward. I now have a much clearer idea of what the club needs to do to become even more successful.”
