What is a Mentor ? Do you need one ?
What is aMentor and do you need one ?
In my book, “Dive In – Lessons learnt since business school” – there is a chapter on mentoring that begins with the following :
One of the tag lines of the ‘MasterChef’ TV show (Australia) is] ‘extraordinary cooking from ordinary cooks’. That is my view on many of the people I have met and who have influenced me. There were some incredible high achievers revered by society, who helped and assisted me in numerous ways. However, the day to day interactions with ‘ordinary’ people are as important as the high achievers.
I have always been fiercely independent. I have never been able to follow a particular mentor to the exclusion of all others. However, over many years in business I have had countless influencers and mentors.
Manypeople use the terms mentor, coach, teacher, consultant and counselorinterchangeably. Are they actually thesame ?
I have mentored many people over the years, some in the finance industry and many others in diverse and very interesting roles. I recently joined Mentored with Mark Bouris as one of their team of mentors.
Mentoredhas a purpose that stated as :
“Mentored gives you access to a wealth of business resources, events, educational content and the ability to connect with some of Australia's most experienced and specialised Mentors”
In myview, a mentor is someone who provides a method for the mentee to discovertheir wisdom. A mentor may be providingquite specific technical assistance to a person and that crosses the role lineto coach and consultant.
The idea of a long term mentor is one who provides a framework for the mentee to be able to grow.
SME Business sector
As amentor, focused on the SME sector, I am passionate about making sure thebuilding blocks for business excellence are all in place. I challenge people toalso discover the missing blocks that perhaps are making their businessunstable and unable to reach its growth potential.
Do youneed a mentor in your business or organization? Someone who can provide freshunbiased eyes and show leaders how to find their missing elements of businessexcellence
What hasyour mentor shown you that changed your life ?
Rael Bricker - Mentor :
With over 30 years of experience in organizations and as a serial entrepreneur, Rael Bricker works with businesses to build businesses excellence by thinking outside the box. Rael has been consulting for many years on business leadership, culture, finance, venture capital, investing, diversity, ethics and management. The learning is best practice combined with practical experience to achieve business excellence.
Clients have found inspiration in the simple and practical approaches to running, growing and succeeding in business and creating business excellence.
From being 6000ft underground, to starting an education business (that grew to have 4000 plus students) to spending years working in venture capital, Rael has seen it all. He's listed companies on two international stock exchanges, and his financial services group has settled more than $3bn in loans over 18 years. Rael has diverse work history combined with his unique global research interviews with companies in more than 25 countries makes him perfect to advise businesses on growing and achieving business excellence as he has experienced the rollercoaster himself.
Rael Bricker holds two Masters degrees, an MBA and MSc (engineering) and is currently a Fellow of the MFAA. (Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia) and a Professional Member of PSA (Professional Speakers Australia).