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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and

Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative

Get Mentoring

Final Research Report

Prepared for: BIS

By: Leigh Sear, SFEDI Ltd.

Date: March 2013

Version: 6

SFEDI

Enterprise House

18 Parsons Court, Welbury Way

Aycliffe Business Park

Aycliffe, County Durham DL5 6ZE

www.sfedi.co.uk

Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and

Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative

Get Mentoring

Final Research Report

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 2

1. Introduction 7

2. Aims and Objectives and Project Approach 9

3. Review of Current Thinking: Understanding and Supporting Enterprise

Mentoring 13

4. Enterprise Mentor Characteristics and Past Experiences –

An Analysis 16

5. Enterprise Mentoring – An Analysis 22

6. Summary, Implications and Recommendations 51

7. References and Resources 57

Appendices 61

1. Members of the Research Steering Group

2. Mentor Discussion Guide

3. Mentor Diary Template

4. List of Interviewed Enterprise Mentors

Get Mentoring – Final Research Report, SFEDI, 2013 Page 1 of 75

Executive Summary

This SummaryIn September 2011, SFEDI was commissioned by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) to develop and deliver a programme to recruit and train volunteer mentors from the micro, small and medium sized business community, namely Get Mentoring.

There are a number of strands of activity to the Get Mentoring project including: Awareness raising of the role and importance of mentoring to learning and skills

development in SMEs Recruitment and training of enterprise mentors Building the evidence base around understanding and supporting enterprise

mentoring Experience exchange between different groups of stakeholder involved in

enterprise mentoring Animating the market for enterprise mentoring with other stakeholders. Assessing implications of mentoring for female entrepreneurs and mentors.

Given the scale and scope of the Get Mentoring project, it has provided an opportunity to research different aspects of understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring and address a number of gaps in the current evidence base, including the implications for female entrepreneurs. This element of the project has been led by SFEDI Solutions, the UK recognised sector skills body for business enterprise and enterprise support.

This executive summary outlines the key headlines and highlights to emerge from research into the experiences of a cohort of small business owner-managers who have been supported to mentor other businesses through Get Mentoring.

The Aims and ObjectivesThe overall aims of the research strand of the Get Mentoring were three-fold: To explore how the mentoring relationship is managed by the mentor, mentee

and other stakeholders involved in the process To unpack how the mentoring relationship can be effectively supported to

enhance its impact on enterprise learning and skills development To reflect upon the implications of supporting enterprise mentoring amongst

female entrepreneurs.

In so doing, the research project has: Explored definitions of enterprise mentoring Reviewed the knowledge and abilities and skills required to effectively mentor

other business owners, particularly in terms of any specific requirements/issues for different groups of entrepreneur and/or mentor

Explored the key stages in the enterprise mentoring relationship including the activities undertaken, the barriers and challenges encountered in mentoring others and the associated personal/professional development and support needs

Assessed the key outcomes from the mentoring relationship


Examined the implications and recommendations for supporting enterprise mentoring in the near-term.

The ResearchGiven the above objectives, and the limited nature of the existing evidence base on enterprise mentoring, a qualitative research approach was adopted.

As such, the emphasis within the research project has been on understanding experiences, as opposed to the representativeness of the cohort of interviewed enterprise mentors, mentees and partners.

The project used a range of different methods and engaged with different groups of stakeholders involved in understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring including: Review of the existing evidence base and statistics Face-to-face and telephone consultations with a group of 40 enterprise mentors Self-completion diaries with 35 enterprise mentors Consultations and a review workshop with project partners Consultations with other stakeholders.

Key FindingsKey headlines and highlights to emerge from the research included: There is diversity amongst the mentors supported through Get Mentoring, with

no one type of enterprise mentor. There are different age, gender and ethnicity profiles, different spatial patterns of mentoring, different business experiences and different experiences of mentoring other businesses.

The level of previous mentoring experience and experience of running your own business are the primary influences on subsequent approaches and experiences in mentoring others. A number of studies have identified the importance of previous business experience as a critical success factor in a mentor being able to establish an effective relationship with a mentee (see, for example, Parvin, 2001; Barrett, 2006). This was reinforced by the interviewed enterprise mentors that had undertaken some form of mentoring with other businesses. It emerged from these interactions that previous business experience provided a ‘hook’ upon which to assist the mentee to reflect on their experiences that seemed more important than their age or gender. In addition, previous business experience provides a source of ‘stories’ which can be used to assist in engaging with the mentee and demonstrating credibility and empathy.

In comparison to previous mentoring and business experience, there is less evidence around the influence of age of the owner-manager, gender and ethnicity on the management of the mentoring process and its impact.

There are different types of mentoring being undertaken, ranging from the highly naturalistic and informal to more formal mentoring sessions undertaken via a formal business support organisation. To date, there is evidence of more informal mentoring being undertaken by the mentors supported through Get Mentoring than more formal mentoring sessions. However, it is likely that the extent of formal mentoring may increase in the near future, with more volunteers from Get Mentoring raising awareness of the benefits of mentoring amongst business networks and with initiatives such as the New Enterprise Allowance


Scheme and Start-up Loans providing an opportunity for volunteers to move from the training to mentoring other businesses.

There are two key groupings of motivations to mentoring others – strategic/proactive (e.g. desire to ‘put back’ into the local business community, develop a set of new skills which could be used to benefit their own personal development or other businesses in the area) and tactical/reactive (e.g. ‘top-up’ professional development activity which was associated with previous employment and continuing professional development, without which they may struggle to win and/or deliver work). These motivations lead to different experiences of managing mentoring sessions with owner-managers, the challenges and opportunities faced in mentoring others and professional development needs and requirements.

There are a number of discrete activities undertaken in mentoring others - as outlined in Figure 1 below. Each activity is a flexible and evolving aspect of the mentoring process and incorporates both formal and informal approaches. The research identified different levels of focus on each of the key parts and associated activities outlined in Figure 1. Certain activities, for example, were passed over quickly and with minimal concern, whereas others were the focus of most of the mentor’s activities. There is, in other words, no pre-determined allocation of effort amongst the key stages of the process. Instead, concentration of concern and activity varies from mentor to mentor, typically dependent upon: o Previous experience or knowledge of mentoring and/or supporting the

development of owner-managerso Attitude and perception of the mentor (e.g. ‘cautious-sensing’ versus

‘learning-as-you-go’)o Extent or degree of networks with other businesseso Extent of other mentoring provision in the locality.

Motivation and confidence is the key building block to the mentoring process. This leads to awareness raising, opportunity recognition and selection, matching and review, management of mentoring others and reflection and review. The interviews highlighted that Get Mentoring has not only stimulated the motivation for owner-managers to engage with enterprise mentoring but also has built the confidence to mentor other businesses. Therefore, there is evidence to demonstrate that Get Mentoring has been an important intervention in mobilising the enthusiasm amongst smaller businesses to share experience and expertise with each other.


Figure 1: Enterprise Mentoring – A Process Framework

Mentors are encountering a number of challenges in moving from the training to action, particularly in terms of “how to’s” related to managing different enterprise support roles (e.g. between advising, coaching and mentoring), managing the relationship with mentoring organisations (e.g. following up initial expressions of interest) and generating opportunities to mentor others. Developments such as the ‘Meet the Mentor’ events are emerging to assist mentors in working through such challenges.

There is a need for some sort of structure to support the professional development of enterprise mentors supported through the Get Mentoring project, who are not being picked up by mentoring organisations. This structure could be developed through extending a couple of existing learning platforms such as the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE).

There is qualitative evidence of the impact and value of Get Mentoring and subsequent mentoring activity on the personal and business development of both the mentor and mentee. In terms of the former, mentoring others has provided an opportunity to review the development of their own business and implement practices to support key business activities (e.g. staff management and employee engagement). With mentees, for example, there is evidence of the impact of mentoring in developing the resilience, confidence and self-efficacy of the mentee and the development of new business opportunities.


Implications and RecommendationsThere are a number of implications and recommendations associated with the key insights that have emerged from the research into understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring.

These can be grouped into a number of bundles including: Developing further understanding of the key aspects of the enterprise mentoring

process e.g. understanding of the dynamics of the demand-side; understanding the impact of enterprise mentoring. To this end, BIS has recently commissioned further research on the demand for enterprise mentoring amongst the SME business population

Reviewing ways to encourage and support a range of different types of mentoring activity e.g. develop materials to assist mentors in generating opportunities; illustrate different forms of mentoring activity in marketing and communication activity

Managing the dynamics between the demand and supply of enterprise mentoring e.g. develop a national mentoring strategy; create a national mentoring forum

Reviewing the structure and materials required to support ongoing professional development of mentors e.g. review different options for a professional development structure for enterprise mentoring; research the need for different professional development materials amongst enterprise mentors.

By working through these implications and recommendations, there will be opportunities to build upon and sustain the impact and value of the investment in Get Mentoring.

Further InformationFor further information on the research undertaken as part of the Get Mentoring project please contact Leigh Sear ([email protected]). For further information on Get Mentoring, please visit www.getmentoring.org.


http://www.getmentoring.org/

mailto:[email protected]

1. Introduction

Get Mentoring1.1 In September 2011, SFEDI was commissioned by the Department for

Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to develop and deliver a programme to recruit and training volunteer mentors from the micro, small and medium sized business community, namely Get Mentoring.

1.2 Get Mentoring is a project initiative which recruited and trained 15,000 enterprise mentors in the United Kingdom from the micro, small and medium business community. In so doing, the project has played a key role in animating the market for enterprise mentoring through identifying routes to providing enterprise mentoring to other owner-managers and raising awareness of the impact of mentoring on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development.

1.3 There have been two key stages to the Get Mentoring project. The first phase started in September 2011 and focused on recruiting and training 10,000 mentors by March 2012. The second phase started in April 2012 and focused on the recruitment and training of an additional 5,000 mentors by September 2012. Throughout the project there has been a focus on ensuring that learning materials, research and evaluation of Get Mentoring addressed implications for different groups of entrepreneurs and mentors (including women, black and ethnic minorities (BME), older people and people with disabilities). The project finished in March 2013.

1.4 There are a number of strands of activity to the Get Mentoring project including: Awareness raising of the role and importance of mentoring to learning and

skills development in SMEs Recruitment and training of enterprise mentors Building the evidence base around understanding and supporting

enterprise mentoring Experience exchange between different groups of stakeholder involved in

enterprise mentoring Animating the market for enterprise mentoring with other stakeholders Assessing implications of mentoring for female entrepreneurs and

mentors.

Building the Evidence Base – Researching Enterprise Mentoring1.5 A review of current thinking on enterprise mentoring highlights a limited but

growing evidence base (SQW and NESTA, 2009; Mowgli, 2011; Henry et al., 2012). There are a number of overviews of the evidence base, ‘how to’ guides and reviews and evaluations of specific mentoring programmes. However, there are fewer accounts that unpack the experiences of owner-managers as mentors and their mentees of the mentoring process and the impact of mentoring on the development of learning and skills needed to start, survive and grow a business.


1.6 Given the scale and scope of the Get Mentoring project, it has provided an opportunity to research different aspects of understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring and address a number of gaps in the current evidence base, including the implications for female entrepreneurs. This element of the project has been led by SFEDI Solutions, the UK recognised sector skills body for business enterprise and enterprise support.

Structure of this Report1.7 The structure of this final report is as follows:

Section 2 – Project Aims, Objectives and Approach: Outlines the overall aim and key objectives of the project as well as the research approach and methods used in exploring experiences of enterprise mentoring

Section 3 – Review of Current Thinking: Unpacks the key themes within the current evidence base on enterprise mentoring

Section 4 - Enterprise Mentor Characteristics and Past Experiences – An Analysis: Explores the key characteristics of the interviewed enterprise mentors and previous experiences in business and mentoring others

Section 5 – Enterprise Mentoring – An Analysis: Explores the experiences of the interviewed enterprise mentors in mentoring other owner-managers and the associated benefits, impact and value added

Section 6 – Summary, Implications and Recommendations: Summarises the key issues to emerge from the research and outlines a set of implications and recommendations related to the policy, process and practice of enterprise mentoring in the near-term.

1.8 Reflecting a focus within the project (see 1.3 above), there is a consideration of the implications for supporting enterprise mentoring amongst female entrepreneurs throughout Sections 4, 5 and 6.

Definitions of enterprise mentoring1.9 This report focuses on the experiences of a group of owner-managers

supporting the development of other business owner-managers through enterprise mentoring. For the purposes of this report, enterprise mentoring is defined as:

An experienced business person acting as a sounding board and critical friend to help someone develop their abilities to start or run a business (SFEDI, 2011).

1.10 In places, this final report draws upon work within other areas, such as organisational development, in order to identity elements of effective practice and to address areas where the literature on enterprise mentoring is limited (e.g. models of the enterprise mentoring journey).


2. Project Aims, Objectives and Approach

Overall Aim and Objectives2.1 The overall aims of the research strand of the Get Mentoring were three-fold:

To explore how the mentoring relationship is managed by the mentor, mentee and other stakeholders involved in the process

To unpack how the mentoring relationship can be effectively supported to enhance its impact on enterprise learning and skills development

To reflect upon the implications of supporting enterprise mentoring amongst female entrepreneurs.

2.2 In so doing, the research project has: Explored definitions of enterprise mentoring Reviewed the knowledge and abilities and skills required to effectively

mentor other business owners, particularly in terms of any specific requirements/issues for different groups of entrepreneur and/or mentor (e.g. women, BME, older people)

Explored the key stages in the enterprise mentoring relationship, in particular the activities undertaken, the barriers and challenges encountered in mentoring others and the associated personal/professional development and support needs

Assessed the key outcomes from the mentoring relationship Examined the implications and recommendations for supporting

enterprise mentoring in the near-term.

Research Approach and Methods2.3 Given the above objectives and the limited nature of the evidence base on

enterprise mentoring, a qualitative research approach was adopted.

2.4 The key advantages of using a qualitative methodology are two-fold (Silverman, 1999; Curran and Blackburn, 2001). First, it allows the collection of ‘rich’, or intensive, data around key areas of need to know related to understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring, particularly ‘how’ (e.g. how learning from Get Mentoring was used to identify mentoring opportunities) and ‘why’ (e.g. why businesses owner-managers are mentoring other businesses and got involved with Get Mentoring) questions. This is important within the context of exploring how the mentor-mentee relationship is managed in practice and associated development needs and requirements.

2.5 Second, it allows meaning to be developed from within the group, using the language and discourse used by the participants as opposed to the constructs of the researcher. This is useful when exploring the meaning of terms such as enterprise and mentoring amongst different communities of practice, particularly as the review of current thinking identified that there is some ambiguity between different support roles in practice (SQW and NESTA, 2009).


2.6 As such, the emphasis within the research project has been on understanding experiences, as opposed to the representativeness of the cohort of interviewed enterprise mentors, mentees and partners.

2.7 The project used a range of different methods and engaged with different groups of stakeholders involved in understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring. The key groups involved in the research included: Business owner-managers supported by Get Mentoring Project partners – i.e. organisations involved in the delivery of training and

development workshops Other stakeholders – i.e. organisations influencing the mentoring

landscape.

2.8 Four stages of activity have been undertaken:

Stage 1 – Project inception and planningStage 2 – Review of the current evidence base and statisticsStage 3 – Qualitative assessment of enterprise mentoringStage 4 – Analysis and Feedback

2.9 Stage 1 – Projection inception and planning2.9.1 Activities undertaken as part of this stage included:

Inception meeting between BIS and SFEDI in November 2011 which discussed the aims and objectives of the research strand of the project, agreed the research approach and methodology and agreed the key timings and milestones

Regular updates to project review meetings with BIS Meetings with the project steering group (see Appendix 1) to review

research tools, identify examples of good practice, share resources and experiences and reflect on the key headlines and highlights emerging from the project.

2.10 Stage 2 – Review of the current evidence base and statistics2.10.1 This stage involved reviewing the current evidence base on understanding

and supporting enterprise mentoring, as a way of identifying key gaps and questions within current thinking as well as mentoring resources and experiences from elsewhere.

2.10.2 The review was informed by the growing body of work on systematic literature reviews (Denyer and Tranfield, 2009). This is widely acknowledged as an effective method for coalescing and integrating knowledge on a subject which has been researched from a range of different disciplines and perspectives. This method helps to capture not only peer-reviewed published work but also unpublished and institutional policy/practice (i.e. ‘grey’) literature.

2.10.3 Key activities undertaken as part of this review included: A review of academic articles on business and enterprise mentoring to

explore issues related to definitions of mentoring, the mentoring process,


the benefits, impact and value added of mentoring and the development of the abilities and skills and knowledge of mentors and any implications for different groups of entrepreneur and/or mentor (e.g. women, BME)

A review of the policy and practice literature related to supporting enterprise mentoring

A review of statistics and surveys to assist in identifying the extent and nature of engagement of mentoring amongst small business owner-managers and entrepreneurs, including female entrepreneurs.

2.10.4 The outcomes from this review were summarised in the interim research report which was reviewed with the steering group in April 2012.

2.11 Stage 3 – Qualitative Assessment of Enterprise Mentoring 2.11.1 This stage involved engaging with enterprise mentors supported through Get

Mentoring, project partners and other stakeholders, to explore experience of enterprise mentoring.

2.11.2 Activities undertaken as part of this stage included: Consultations with enterprise mentors - In total, 40 interviews were

undertaken with enterprise mentors either face-to-face or via the telephone. These interviews focused on: (i) previous business and mentoring experiences, (ii) perceptions of mentoring, (iii) motivations and drivers to engaging with Get Mentoring and enterprise mentoring, (iv) experiences of Get Mentoring and enterprise mentoring and (v) future mentoring landscape and development needs and requirements (see Appendix 2 for a copy of the discussion guide). After completion of the telephone interviews, the enterprise mentors were provided with a diary to complete (see Appendix 3). The aim of the diary was to provide the mentor with a structure to reflect upon and record mentoring experiences and associated challenges and opportunities. Whilst 35 of the 40 consulted mentors completed the diaries, the depth and richness of the diaries varied greatly. In fact, the majority of the mentors noted that the process of completing the diaries was somewhat challenging. This reflected a bundle of issues related to the availability of mentoring opportunities over the period of the research project and the ability to reflect on outcomes from informal mentoring/highly naturalistic experiences. Each of these issues will be further unpacked within Sections 4 and 5 below

Consultations with project partners – A series of interviews and a review workshop were undertaken with Get Mentoring project partners. These consultations explored: (i) perceptions of mentoring and its value vis-à-vis other roles, (ii) the characteristics, motivations and needs of businesses engaging with Get Mentoring, (iii) what has worked well and less well with Get Mentoring, (iv) the benefits, impact and value of Get Mentoring in supporting mentors with future mentoring activity and (v) any implications for different groupings of entrepreneur and/or mentor (e.g. women, BME)

Consultations with other stakeholders – A series of interviews were undertaken with other stakeholder organisations influencing the policy


and practice for enterprise mentoring. These consultations focused on: (i) the policy rationale for intervention in supporting enterprise mentoring, (ii) definitions of enterprise mentoring, (iii) the perceived benefits, impact and value of Get Mentoring, (iv) examples of effective practice in supporting enterprise mentoring and (v) any implications for different groupings of entrepreneur and/or mentor (e.g. women, BME).

2.11.3 Three approaches have been used to identity and engage with these three groups: Project partners and providers which resulted in lists of mentors and

stakeholders to contact Articles placed within the Get Mentoring newsletter and other online

forums to publicise the research strand of Get Mentoring. This has been a useful route to engaging mentors who have undertaken the online and distance learning mode of training

The networks of the project team.

2.11.4 The discussion guides used to underpin the consultations are provided within Appendices 2 and 3. The discussion guides not only allowed specific issues to be explored within each group but also to compare and contrast the experiences and perceptions of enterprise mentors, project partners and other stakeholders. Such insights are useful in framing policy and practice implications from Get Mentoring.

2.12 Stage 4 – Sensemaking and reporting2.12.1 This stage has involved making sense of the data from the consultations using

appropriate qualitative data analysis techniques (e.g. key word/content analysis, process mapping), in order to unpack the key experiences of mentoring other small businesses and the associated challenges, opportunities and development needs.

2.12.2 The key issues to emerge from this process of sensemaking are summarised in this final report.

2.13 Communication and consultation2.13.1 Underpinning each of these stages has been a process of communication and

consultation with a variety of different groups of stakeholders including BIS, the research steering group, Get Mentoring training partners and mentors.

2.13.2 It is hoped that this process of communication and consultation has developed ownership and understanding of the objectives and scope of the research strand of Get Mentoring. This is important, if the policy and practice implications and/or recommendations outlined in the proceeding sections of the report are to be developed and embedded, with the objective of enhancing the effectiveness of enterprise mentoring provision for small business owners and entrepreneurs.


3. Review of Current Thinking: Understanding and Supporting Enterprise Mentoring

The Enterprise Policy and Support Landscape3.1 Over the last two years, there have been a number of changes to the

enterprise policy and support landscape in the UK, with areas of policy focus being re-shaped (e.g. the balance between national, regional and local policy development and delivery), organisations being withdrawn (e.g. the Regional Development Agencies and Business Link face to face support), existing programmes being restructured (e.g. the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme), the new Growth Accelerator programme being launched and business support roles being redefined (BIS, 2011).

3.2 Within the current enterprise policy and support narrative, there is a greater emphasis on businesses supporting each other and exchanging experiences around key business development needs and requirements (i.e. areas of ‘need to know’). This narrative is not only a product of the current economic environment, where there are competing demands on public monies, but also the evidence base that highlights small business learn most effectively from each other (Gibb, 1997; SFEDI, 2008).

3.3 In addition, both Sear et al. (2010) and Scott and Mole (2012) suggest that there has been a trend for successive governments within the UK to promote certain types of business support and business support role, such as local enterprise coaching between 2006 and 2010. In comparison, there is a clear focus on enterprise mentoring within current enterprise policy debates and subsequent delivery plans (BIS, 2011).

3.4 To underpin the enterprise mentoring offer, the current Coalition government has supported a number of developments including a national working group on mentoring, mentorsme.co.uk (the mentoring portal owned and operated by the British Bankers’ Association) and, most recently, Get Mentoring. The overall aim of such developments is to expand the use of enterprise mentoring amongst SMEs by: Stimulating demand through raising awareness Increasing the supply of business mentors and raising standards Supporting structures which co-ordinate supply.

3.5 By providing access to enterprise mentoring, it is hoped that aspiring and current owner-managers will develop the abilities, skills and knowledge to survive and thrive (Sullivan, 2000; Higgins and Aspinall, 2011) and, in turn, contribute to the economic development of the UK economy in the near-term. As Lonsdale (2011, p.3) notes ‘for anyone concerned with increasing the probability of survival amongst new businesses, encouraging learning and development in entrepreneurs is therefore a worthy topic of discussion’.

A Review of What We Know about Enterprise Mentoring


3.6 Whilst there is an established literature around mentoring in organisational development which highlights mentoring as a learning tool which can be used by individuals and through organised programmes to enhance performance (Garvey and Aldred, 2000), there is a relatively limited evidence base around the impact and value of enterprise mentoring on the development of small businesses.

3.7 Indeed, a review of the literature on enterprise mentoring identifies a relatively limited, but growing body of evidence. The work to date has focused on issues related to: Definitions of enterprise mentoring, particularly in terms of the ways it is

different from other support roles such as business advice, consultancy and coaching (Peel, 2004). For example, the Office of Director of Public Employment (1997) defines mentoring as ‘a relationship which gives people the opportunity to share their professional skills and experiences, and to grow and develop in the process’. Similarly, the BBA (2010) notes that ‘Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. It entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and during a sustained period of time. Informal relationships develop on their own between partners. Formal mentoring, on the other hand, refers to a structured process supported by the organization and addressed to target populations’

Activities of mentors in assisting learning and skills development, such as assisting owner-managers to reflect on and learn from their own experience and behaviours, thereby supporting the predominant learning style of many owner-managers in terms of ‘learning by doing’ as opposed to ‘learning by analysing’ (Gibb, 1997)

Abilities and skills associated with effective mentoring including working through encouraging reflection and self-awareness by the mentee (Davies and Taylor, 2004), the use of previous experience to build rapport and empathy (Cull, 2006) and providing direction but without leading (Peel, 2004)

Characteristics of successful mentoring programmes and practices from elsewhere which can be used to shape policy and programme development. Reviews by Blake-Beard (2001), Bisk, (2002), France (2003) and SQW and NESTA (2009) identify: (i) the importance of establishing explicit guidelines (e.g. roles and responsibilities for mentors and mentees), (ii) the need for processes for matching mentors and mentees (although there is a deal of disagreement over whether the responsibility for matching and selection should be with the mentor or mentee) (Parvin, 2001); and (iii) the role for training and preparation of mentors around key stages of the mentoring journey.

3.8 In part, SQW and NESTA (2009) and Lonsdale (2011) note that these areas of focus within the current evidence base reflect the type of studies undertaken and policy priorities. The current evidence base can be grouped into four bundles: descriptive ‘how to’ guides and checklists, mapping and reviews of


the supply of mentoring provision, evaluations of specific mentoring programmes and policies and overviews of the existing literature.

3.9 There are fewer accounts which explicitly focus on the extent and nature of the usage of enterprise mentors and mentoring programmes by small businesses. Research undertaken by SFEDI highlighted that 47 per cent of just over 2,000 SMEs used discussions with other businesses as a source of learning and skills development (SFEDI, 2008). A recent survey of small businesses with growth potential highlighted that 37 per cent of the surveyed businesses used discussions with other businesses to review business plans (Sear et al., 2011). Finally, the Small Business Survey in 2010 found that 11 per cent of SME employers (seven per cent of all SMEs) reported having used a business mentor over the previous 12 months1. More recent research undertaken by BIS highlighted that amongst those SME employers using mentors, around 30 per cent had used a specialist business mentor; 40 per cent had somebody who provides other business services (e.g. an accountant) and 20 per cent a friend or peer2.

3.10 Therefore, there is a limited evidence base related to the effectiveness of the mentoring journey for different groups of small business, particularly in terms of the impact on the development of skills and business performance (Lonsdale, 2011).

3.11 In terms of the impact and value added of enterprise mentoring on learning and skills development, including management and leadership skills, Lonsdale (2011, p. 4) notes that ‘More research is needed to provide evidence of the concrete benefits of mentors on the firms of entrepreneurs who use mentors’.

3.12 Whilst a number of cross-country comparisons explore the influence of culture on perceived impact and value (e.g. the difference between the United States and UK and whether the use of mentoring is a signifier of failure or not3), there are very few articles which unpack the mentoring journey from the mentors’ and mentees’ perspective and the ways in which impact is codified and embedded within the development of learning and skills at different stages of business development.

3.13 A focus on such gaps in the current knowledge base around usage and impact of enterprise mentoring will generate evidence which can be used to enhance the effectiveness of planned enterprise mentoring activity as a tool in supporting aspiring and current owner-managers to survive and grow.

1 See http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/enterprise/docs/b/11-p74-bis-small-business-survey-2010 . 2 This estimate is based on a sample of 78 employers who had used business mentoring in the past year (BIS Business Barometer, 2011).3 Both Bisk (2002) and McAdam and Keogh (2006) highlight that perceptions around how the use of business support is viewed amongst peers in the business community varies between economies. For example, in the United States, the use of business support is seen as a less of a recognition of failure or requiring external assistance in management than in the United Kingdom.


http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/enterprise/docs/b/11-p74-bis-small-business-survey-2010

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/enterprise/docs/b/11-p74-bis-small-business-survey-2010

4. Enterprise Mentor Characteristics and Past Experiences – An Analysis

Introduction4.1 This section of the report is based on the findings to emerge from the face-to-

face and telephone interviews with individuals who have engaged with Get Mentoring over the last 12 months. It provides an overview of the key characteristics of the interviewed enterprise mentors and any similarities and differences between different types of enterprise mentors supported through Get Mentoring.

4.2 It is important to review the key characteristics and previous experiences of the interviewed mentors, as they may not only influence perceptions of mentoring, and its value to the development of the skills needed to start and manage a business, but also how the process of mentoring others may be managed (Deakins et al., 1998; Higgins and Aspinall, 2011). As such, descriptive insights around previous experiences ‘are rarely background; exploration of how the context is structured and how the key agents under study fit into it – is vital for explanation’ (Sayer, 192, p. 428). Notions of ‘fit’ are important given the recent changes in the enterprise support landscape and the ways in which enterprise mentoring will add value to more traditional business support offerings in the near–term.

4.3 When reflecting on the experiences and perceptions of enterprise mentors, the analysis below is based on the 35 mentors who completed the diaries, in order to unpack key elements of their experience in depth. Not all of these 35 mentors have undertaken a mentoring sessions; for some, the diary provided an opportunity to reflect on reasons for not being able to mentor other businesses and/or record experiences of attempting to mentor others.

4.4 Amongst the 35 interviewed enterprise mentors, there was a range of owner-managers, in terms of backgrounds, personal and business experiences and plans for enterprise mentoring. In part, this diversity reflected the process by which the mentors were recruited. But, the diversity also suggests that the enterprise mentor population is likely to be categorised by heterogeneity. As a result there is a need to segment experiences, in order to target any planned marketing and communication activity and the production of professional development offerings to the needs and requirements of different groups of enterprise mentors.

Implication:Need to undertake further research to test different segmentation frameworks to identify key segments amongst the enterprise mentor population and the key characteristics and needs of these segments.

4.5 The key characteristics of the interviewed enterprise mentors were:


43 per cent were male and 57 per cent were female. This split is somewhat different from the profile for all Get Mentoring participants, where 59 per cent were male and 41 per cent were female. In part, this difference may reflect the methods used to identify and recruit the mentors for the research

21 per cent of the mentors were aged under 35, 46 per cent were aged between 30 and 50 and 33 per cent were aged over 50. This is somewhat representative of the wider population of Get Mentoring participants. The age distribution amongst the interviewed mentors reflects not only the previous experiences of the mentors but also the motivations and drivers to mentoring other owner-managers (see Section 5 below)

11 per cent of the mentors were from an ethnic minority grouping. This is very similar to the profile for all Get Mentoring participants, where 11 per cent are from an ethnic minority group. All of the interviewed mentors who were from an ethnic minority grouping were based in London and the South East.

The majority of the interviewed enterprise mentors are located in four regions: North East England, South West, Yorkshire and the Humber and London. This reflects both the methods used to identify the enterprise mentors but also wider patterns in the availability of enterprise mentoring (see, for example, GHK, 2012). For example, the consultations suggested gaps in enterprise mentoring provision in the East of England, Scotland and West Midlands. As explored below, this geography of enterprise mentoring will reflect the coverage of existing support structures (e.g. in Scotland there is still face-to-face business advisory services via the Business Gateway Service) but also the extent to which businesses actively network with each other to support enterprise development. For example, there are a number of active business to business networks across the East of England, particularly in Cambridge, Hertfordshire and Essex around specific areas of business activity, which provide both informal and formal business support to their members

Previous business and employment experiences varied greatly, from those who have held senior positions within large businesses and have recently started their own business after being made redundant, to those who have been self-employed for a number of years providing coaching and mentoring services, to those who have started and grown businesses to 60 staff and multi-million pound turnovers

There is a wide range of experiences of working in, and with private, public and not-for-profit organisations

All the mentors have experience of running their own business, with all 35 currently running their own business. Of these, 43 per cent are self-employed (i.e. working by themselves) and 57 per cent are running businesses which employ people or use associates on a frequent basis

The businesses run by the interviewed enterprise mentors ranged from the provision of personal services (such as health and social care), to business services (such as business coaching and accounting), to cultural and creative businesses, to manufacturing and engineering businesses. The majority of the interviewed enterprise mentors provided a business service, which is representative of the wider business population, where


approximately two businesses in three provide some type of service (Office for National Statistics, 2011).

All 35 mentors had some previous experience of mentoring others, although these experiences varied greatly. The vast majority had provided some form of informal mentoring to other individuals, such as to colleagues when in employment, or to another business owner-manager or manager in a social enterprise. Fewer of the interviewed enterprise mentors had provided a ‘formal’ mentoring intervention to other aspiring or current small business owners and/or entrepreneurs. For some, these formal experiences had been ad-hoc assignments; for example in working with university graduates looking to start their own business or trustees from local charitable organisations as part of a project. For others, formal mentoring experiences had been part of a commercial relationship with another business owner. Therefore, across the group, there were experiences ranging from formal to informal mentoring, provided on a voluntary and paid basis. In addition, and explored further below there was evidence from the interviews that Get Mentoring has assisted in influencing the type of mentoring activity and its quality, particularly in terms of developing skills to assist in complementing informal mentoring to others with more formal mentoring experiences. These experiences are further explored below (see Section 5 below).

One mentor in four had experience of providing other forms of business support including advice, counseling, coaching and training. These experiences included: business advice as part of a publicly-funded business support programme; executive coaching to owner-managers and senior managers in large organisations, often as part of a wider project with the business; business consultancy services to small businesses around key business processes (e.g. sales, marketing, people development, change management); and training and skills development. As such, there was experience and expertise in supporting small business development at different stages of the enterprise journey and working through the associated learning and skills development needs.

4.6 In terms of previous experiences, the mentors can be grouped into three categories: Owner-managers of small businesses who wished to mentor other

businesses, as part of ‘putting back’ into the local business community and supporting the development of other businesses. Of the three, this was the largest grouping (see Figure 1 below). This was summarised by one owner-manager who noted that ‘I liking helping people. I thought if I do the course then I would not only improve my skills and the direction for my business but also I would gain skills which I could use to support other businesses in my local area’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). Similarly, another owner-manager reflected that ‘I am putting something back into the local economy with [name of business] so I thought that Get Mentoring may help me think about how I could do more of that’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

Owner-managers of businesses providing a coaching and mentoring service who wished to engage to reflect upon whether they were


providing an appropriate service to small businesses and/or contributing to their own professional development as a coach and mentor. As one interviewed mentor reflected ‘it provided evidence of CPD, so I went along to see what it was about and if it would help me with my coaching offer’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). For this group, therefore, Get Mentoring provided a key route to raising the effectiveness and quality of mentoring services provided to small businesses, by supporting the development of appropriate understanding and skills

Individuals who have previously worked in business support who wished to re-position themselves through Get Mentoring. One mentor commented that ‘I came across it by chance. After taking my redundancy with [name of organisation], I was doing some research around enterprise support and got interested in mentoring others. I found out that if you have support you have more chance of succeeding. So that is why I went along. Also you get a stamp of approval from a recognised body which will help’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

4.7 The common experience across all three groups of mentors was their experience in running their own business, whether this was an engineering business, a theatre company, a cleaning services business or a tailored business support offering. As identified by Garvey and Aldred (2000) such experiences are important in being able to develop a relationship with a mentee.

4.8 In terms of the distribution of the interviewed enterprise mentors across these three groups, 54 per cent were owner-managers of small businesses, 29 per cent were owner-managers of coaching and mentoring businesses and 17 per cent were business support professionals (see Figure 1). However, the scope of each of these three groups has varied over the life of Get Mentoring. For the first three or four months of Get Mentoring, a large proportion of the participants were from the business support professionals. Since this initial phase of training, there has been a shift towards owner-managers of their own businesses, in particular the first group who are looking to support the development of other businesses in their local community through ‘giving back’.

4.9 Each of these groups of mentors engaged with Get Mentoring for different drivers and motivations. This resulted in a set of different experiences of Get Mentoring as a learning and skills development intervention and subsequent experiences of generating, locating and progressing enterprise mentoring opportunities and the associated development needs. For example, with the grouping of small business owner-managers (54 per cent), the primary driver was about making a difference to other businesses in their local economy. In comparison, those owner-managers running a business offering a coaching/mentoring service talked more about using Get Mentoring to check their knowledge and skills, as a way of validating their service. A similar motivation around enhancing own understanding and skills, as a way of raising the quality of their service, was expressed by those individuals who had previously worked in business support prior to Get Mentoring.


Figure 1: Enterprise mentor groupings

4.10 Whilst there is a degree of blurring between some of the boundaries between these segments, there is evidence to suggest that: (i) each segment has different needs and requirements in terms of mentoring other small business owner-managers and (ii) different marketing and communication messages will be required to engage with the different segments, in order to shape future mentoring plans. This will be further explored within Sections 5 and 6.

Summary4.11 Therefore, in summary, there was a range of experiences amongst the cohort

of the interviewed enterprise mentors including: Those who are running their own businesses and have a desire to

voluntarily help other businesses as part of a commitment to the development of the local economy

Those who have recently been made redundant and are looking to offer a mentoring service but have no or minimal experiences of formal mentoring

Those who are looking to work through how enterprise mentoring can add value to other business support services provided to support the development of small businesses.


4.12 There was also a diversity of previous business experiences which will be useful when exploring the dynamics of the mentoring relationship and the use of mentoring to support business development.


5. Enterprise Mentoring - An Analysis

Introduction5.1 The analysis of the data and information generated from the review of current

thinking and the consultations has identified a diversity of experiences across the group of mentors, project partners and stakeholders. Each volunteer mentor and their business operated under unique circumstances, typically because of variations in their internal structures or external operating circumstances. However, several patterns and themes emerged as trends that were relevant to the group as a whole or in part. These are unpacked in greater detail below.

Definitions of Mentoring5.2 The interviews with mentors and project partners reinforced a number of

themes within current thinking related to what is mentoring and how it is different from other business support functions such as business advice, coaching or consultancy.

5.3 Key elements of the definitions offered by the interviewed mentors included: Active listening Encouraging reflection Suggesting different ways of addressing challenges and opportunities in

the business Provoking thought around actions related to the issue under consideration Providing direction Being able to empathise but without being a friend.

5.4 Others defined mentoring in terms of comparing it to business advice and coaching. For example, one mentor noted that ‘it is like the other side of the spectrum to business advice and coaching’ in that mentoring is not about telling the mentee what to do next (business advice) or teaching the mentee what to do next (coaching). Another interviewed enterprise mentor noted:

With coaching, you don’t have to be an expert. It is about working with someone to explore possibilities, futures, who to get involved and action. With mentoring, you need to be fully competent and recognised in that area of expertise and be happy to share experiences with others (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

5.5 Therefore, there are a number of similarities between the perceptions of the mentors and definitions within current thinking (see Table 1 below).

5.6 In part, these perceptions of mentoring were influenced by a combination of previous experiences of mentoring and being mentored, as well as the Get Mentoring training process. In terms of the latter, a key part of the training sessions and materials focused on definitions of mentoring and its similarities and differences to other roles. For example, the training materials note that mentoring is ‘An experienced business person acting as a sounding board and critical friend to help someone develop their abilities to start or run a business’


(SFEDI, 2011). This definition emphasises the importance of previous experience of business (as a source of credibility) and being able to listen to others (to support the owner-manager in reflecting on their own business), provoking thought and providing direction by being a critical friend (Garvey and Aldred, 2000). This can be contrasted with definitions of coaching which suggest that previous experience of the business or the person being coached is not necessarily required, sessions are more structured to achieve a specific goal and there is a degree of questioning and critiquing of the performance of the person being coached (Devins and Gold, 2000; SQW and NESTA, 2009).

Table 1: A comparison to mentoring and coaching

Mentoring Coaching

Ongoing relationship that can last for a long time

Relationship generally has a short duration

Can be more informal and meetings can take place as and when the mentored individual needs some guidance and/ or support

Generally more structured in nature and meetings scheduled on a regular basis

More long-term and takes a broader view of the person

Short-term (sometimes time bound) and focused on specific development areas/issues

Mentor usually passes on experience and is normally more senior

Not generally performed on the basis that the coach needs direct experience of the client’s formal occupational role

The focus is on career and personal development

Focus is generally on development/issues at work

Agenda is set by the mentored person with the mentor providing support and guidance to prepare them for the future

Agenda focused on achieving specific, immediate goals

Revolves more around developing the mentee professionally

Revolves more around specific development areas/issues

Source: SQW and NESTA (2009)

5.7 A number of the interviewed mentors identified that there are challenges in managing the distinctions between different roles in practice, particularly between mentoring and advice and mentoring and coaching. This was summarised by one mentor who reflected that:

There is a lot of crossover between these things [mentoring, coaching and business advice] … I have been asked to mentor but I find myself going into


coaching and advising. This is the danger when you highlight differences between theory and practice. The course highlights the difference but you cannot avoid the distinction in practice (Interviewed mentor).

5.8 Indeed, the project partners identified that because of the fuzziness between certain roles such as mentoring and coaching, the extent to which the definition of mentoring was discussed within the training varied. For example, one partner facilitated a comprehensive debate within the workshop around what is mentoring and how it is different from other roles, whilst another project partner commented that ‘… we just don’t go there. We tell them what it is and move on so we don’t get bogged down’ (Interviewed project partner).

5.9 Such experiences led to a number of suggested areas for development around acquiring further learning and skills post-Get Mentoring, in particular the need for some type of structure to support ongoing professional development. This will be important if mentors supported through Get Mentoring are not being picked up directly or indirectly by formal mentoring organisations. This would assist in dealing with practical issues such as managing the fuzziness between mentoring, coaching and advising when working with a client. A number of mentors are encountering challenges in accessing mentoring opportunities via mentorsme.co.uk after completing Get Mentoring and the associated support structures. It was suggested that a platform could be developed to host resources which could be used to support mentoring activity, access the latest articles, information and research on enterprise mentoring and facilitate experience exchange and peer to peer learning.

5.10 The interviews identified that this structure could be provided by: Extending the mentoring community on the IOEE Developing a facility on mentorsme.co.uk or another existing mentoring

resource.

5.11 The strengths and areas for development associated with these two options are further explored in Section 6. However, a number of the interviewed mentors and project partners noted that the Get Mentoring website and the associated resources provides an excellent ‘foundation’ for this structure, regardless of which of the above options (if any) are pursued.

Implication:Explore the options for developing a structure which can provide ongoing professional development to mentors who are not being supported by a formal mentoring organisation.

Experiences of Get Mentoring5.12 The experiences of Get Mentoring can be explored from the perspectives of

both the demand (i.e. the mentors) and the supply-side (i.e. providers and other stakeholders). Initial experiences of Get Mentoring were fully explored within the interim research report (see Sear, 2012).


5.13 Key headlines and highlights related to experiences of Get Mentoring included: The value of the training – The majority of the enterprise mentors and

project partners noted that Get Mentoring provided a very good and/or excellent introduction to enterprise mentoring. This introduction was useful to those owner-managers with a lack of awareness or knowledge of enterprise mentoring, as it provided an overview of the key aspects of enterprise mentoring and the ways in which it can support the development of small businesses. As one owner-manager of a small business noted ‘it is really good at raising awareness of the differences between mentoring and coaching. It was an interesting day and good at introducing things at a basic level’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). An owner-manager in the South West noted that ‘it was good in terms of confidence building, it reinforced elements of good practice and it sort of put the rigour back so it was very useful’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). The introduction was also useful to those with previous experiences of coaching and mentoring in that it provided a useful baseline against which to assess the currency or relevance of existing knowledge and skills: ‘I enjoyed it. It was a beneficial day. I was in a group with people with less experience [of mentoring and coaching] than me so I sat back and didn’t contribute as much as I often do but that was good as it allowed me to reflect on what I do ’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). Get Mentoring was perceived as useful in distinguishing between different business support roles (such as advice, coaching and mentoring), working through the key abilities and skills associated with effective mentoring and discussing the ways in which being a small business may influence engagement with mentoring. Therefore, there is evidence from the research interviews that Get Mentoring effectively functioned as a learning and skills development intervention within the context of raising awareness of the basic tenets of enterprise mentoring and the ways in which enterprise mentoring can be used to support the development of the owner-manager and their business.

The structure and content of the training process – Whether completed in a workshop or online, mentors and partners commented that the structure and content of the training process was a key strength of the project. In terms of structure, whilst there is a clear route map through the training, the partners commented that there was flexibility in how the content could be delivered. This was evident in the experiences of the mentors who attended the workshops. There was evidence that the same content was covered but in different ways such as the ways in which understanding of enterprise was developed. For example, some partners noted that they facilitated a discussion around the differences between business advice, coaching and mentoring, whilst other partners simply provided the definition and moved onto other content. This flexibility was important in enabling the training to meet the needs of the different groups of mentors outlined above in Section 4. Both mentors and partners commented on the accessibility and appropriateness of the content, particularly in terms of the value of enterprise mentoring and the appreciation of the life-world of the owner-manager. ‘It is really clear that


these materials are developed by people with an understanding of what is involved in running your own business’ (Interviewed project partner).

The quality of the materials – Along with the value of the Get Mentoring training experience, another consistent theme to emerge from the research interviews was the quality of the materials developed as part of Get Mentoring. The majority of mentors, project partners and stakeholders noted that the materials developed by the SFEDI team were excellent, not only in terms of content but also the packaging of the content. For example, a range of materials has been developed to enable them to be used in different contexts, such as the workbook for the training workshops and the pocketbooks for reflecting on specific mentoring sessions. Both mentors and partners thought these materials were: (i) well-produced, (ii) underpinned by in-depth knowledge and understanding of enterprise mentoring, as one project partner noted ‘… the workshops worked well because the materials were really professional, easy to follow and distilled what enterprise mentoring is all about in a few pages’ (Interviewed project partner), (iii) contained useful exercises such as the case studies to reflect on the life-world of the owner-manager and (iv) enabled a degree of flexibility in delivery to meet the needs of different groups of participant. As one interviewed enterprise mentor commented ‘they covered a lot of relevant ground and there was a lot of relevant literature which sort of acknowledges what you are doing rather than teaching you what to do’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

Opportunity for experience exchange and peer-to-peer learning – Another key strength of the Get Mentoring training experience was that it provided a space for owner-managers to reflect upon their own skills and the ways in which these could add value to the development of other businesses. As one interviewed enterprise mentor commented ‘I became a mentor myself before Get Mentoring but it really helped in terms of understanding how to help other people and pass on my knowledge ’. It has facilitated this reflection by providing space for participants to get together and discuss issues around developing a business and supporting others to start, survive and grow their businesses. As a result, the Get Mentoring training experience has not only developed an understanding of enterprise mentoring amongst small business owner-managers, it has also supported the peer to peer exchange of experiences around how to address business development challenges.

Opportunity to further develop management and leadership abilities and skills – There was evidence from the interviews that Get Mentoring has enabled the mentors to work ‘on the business’ as well as ‘in the business’ and the associated needs and requirements. Within the group of owner-managers looking to give back, there were a number of references to the opportunity through Get Mentoring to reflect on personal experiences and qualities as an owner-manager and strategies contributing to the success of the business. In this way, Get Mentoring has provided a vehicle for personal and business reflection, which a number of the interviewed mentors noted will be further continued through mentoring other businesses: ‘It will help me with reflecting on my journey in that I am studying for a Masters … at the same time I’m running a couple


of businesses and hopefully this will all help with whether I keep one business separate or merge it with the other one’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). In this way, there is evidence to suggest that Get Mentoring has functioned to support the development of management and leadership skills, particularly amongst the interviewed mentors who were running a business not involved in providing some form of business support owner-managers (see Figure 1 above)

Clarity around next steps – In reflecting on moving from the training to the practice of mentoring others, a grouping of mentors, partners and stakeholders, suggested that it would have been beneficial to have had greater clarity around the next steps. Whilst there was an understanding of Get Mentoring as an introduction to enterprise mentoring, it was suggested that the immediate next steps after completion of the training could have been unpacked in greater detail, over and above joining the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE) and visiting mentorsme.co.uk. Two issues emerged relating to the discussion around next steps. First, it was suggested that more time could have been dedicated during the training to generating mentoring opportunities including an assessment of both reactive and proactive approaches to finding mentoring opportunities. This need was particularly important for those with a limited experience of mentoring others and/or for those who have worked in an environment where opportunities to support other businesses have been passed to them. Second, it was noted that benefits and value of joining the IOEE could have been more explicitly discussed during the training. This was particularly an issue for mentors completing the training online or via distance learning. Amongst the interviewed mentors, three mentors in four had activated their membership. For those who had activated their membership, they had found the Institute of use not only in terms of exchanging experiences with other businesses but also updating their own knowledge and accessing useful resources on learning and skills development. In part, the flexibility in the delivery of training has meant that the discussion of next steps has varied. In response, a series of events are planned (Meet the Mentor) to assist in bringing together mentors and mentees. However, the research highlighted a number of challenges faced by mentors in finding other businesses to mentor, particularly if relying on opportunities from ‘formal’ mentoring organisations. Indeed, concerns amongst the volunteer mentors about the levels of demand for mentoring amongst small business owner-managers has been compounded by subsequent experiences of trying to find mentoring opportunities (see Section 5.37 below).

Using the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs –There was a recognition amongst the interviewed enterprise mentors that they could make more use of the IOEE after completion of Get Mentoring. There were two key barriers to engaging with the IOEE. First, for a number of the interviewed enterprise mentors, they were unclear as to the benefits or value of membership of the IOEE. Second, there were differing views around the use of technology in working with other businesses. For a number of mentors, they had not activated their membership because they tended to develop relationships and work with other businesses on a face-


to-face basis rather than through exchanging experiences using web-based platforms. As a result, it is unlikely that there will be a 100 per cent activation of IOEE membership after individuals have completed Get Mentoring training, not because they do not see a value in membership of the IOEE but because of the way in which they prefer to work with other businesses and/or future mentoring plans. For those mentors who are members of the IOEE but not actively using its services, the research highlighted that the IOEE is attempting to increase levels of active participation with other members. For example, through the listings bulletin, individuals who have completed the training are connected to the IOEE and receive notification of mentoring opportunities. Similarly, newsletters highlight that there is access to further support to continue learning around mentoring others

Additional resource development – Given the quality of the core resources developed as part of Get Mentoring, there were a number of comments around the development of additional resources to reinforce learning and manage the transition from the training to mentoring others. Similar resources to the mentor/mentee pocketbooks were suggested around key areas including how to generate mentoring opportunities, ways of managing the mentoring role in practice, networking through other support structures and managing potential conflicts of interest. In addition, it was suggested that if the training was to continue in any form after completion of the project, it would be useful to have both paper-based and live case studies (mentors and mentees), to assist in bringing the mentoring relationship to life and providing an opportunity to discuss the benefits to business and learning and skills development. A number of interviewed mentors noted that they could not find such materials from other mentoring (and coaching) organisations and, given the quality of the existing Get Mentoring materials, there was an opportunity to develop further resources to support mentoring activity. As a result, the materials would not only be a valuable legacy but also a route to supporting mentoring activity, by assisting mentors in addressing key needs and requirements.

Implication:Explore options for using the legacy of Get Mentoring, in terms of the quality of materials, to develop further materials which assist enterprise mentors in addressing key areas of ‘need to know’Implication:Communicate different options with regard to the routes for mentoring small business owner-managers, particularly from web-based platforms such as the IOEE and mentorsme.co.uk.

Mentoring experiences5.14 A number of issues emerge from an examination of the experiences of the

interviewed enterprise mentors in terms of mentoring other businesses. The interviews and diaries demonstrate a range of experiences in terms of the type of mentoring activity undertaken, the way in which mentoring


relationships are managed and the nature of the barriers and challenges influencing the level of mentoring activity undertaken.

Type of mentoring activity5.15 A key headline to emerge from the research is that there are different types of

mentoring activity being undertaken by the cohort of interviewed enterprise mentors. The different types of mentoring activity included: Highly informal and naturalistic mentoring between two owner-managers,

where the label mentoring is not used to describe the relationship. In such situations, the owner-managers will talk about the opportunity to exchange experiences with someone who understands their situation, in terms of the challenges associated with running your own business, particularly in the current economic climate.

Mentoring relationships that have been generated by the mentor through their own proactive efforts to find other businesses looking for a mentor. In such instances, the mentor will filter and choose the opportunities they have generated and the label mentoring will be used as a way of providing a set of parameters for the mentor and mentee to engage

Mentoring relationships brokered and supported by formal business and enterprise support organisations. In such instances, mentors have approached organisations via their own networks and resources such as mentorsme.co.uk to locate mentoring opportunities.

5.16 The interviews with enterprise mentors highlighted that there are a number of benefits associated with each type of mentoring activity, as well as challenges and opportunities. For example, more informal forms of mentoring may not be labeled as mentoring by the mentor or mentee. This assist relationships to be initiated but provide a challenge in both parties in moving on (see Section 5.55 below). It is anticipated that Get Mentoring has made a contribution to raising skills levels to support a range of different types of mentoring activity to be undertaken in the near-term.

5.17 The level of mentoring activity being undertaken varies according to how enterprise mentoring is defined. All of the interviewed enterprise mentors noted engaging with informal mentoring activity, although a number noted that they only realised they were mentoring others through their Get Mentoring experience: ‘Because of the type of business I have, I’ve been mentoring others on a day-to-day basis. I just didn’t call it mentoring because I didn’t know that is what I was doing’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). Indeed, a number of owner-managers of businesses in personal services (e.g. health and care) reflected that there may be benefits from their staff in developing their skills in mentoring others, as a way of understanding the nature of the services provided to their clients. This suggests that Get Mentoring has provided an important vehicle for assisting owner-managers to make sense of their experiences in talking with other owner-managers around issues associated with business development. Therefore, there is an explicit recognition that previous experiences involved mentoring others and that they now have the understanding and/or skills required to effectively initiate and manage mentoring relationships.


5.18 In comparison, there was less more formal mentoring activity, either generated by the owner-managers themselves or via a formal business and enterprise support organisation. Across the 35 interviewed mentors, one in seven noted that they had undertaken a more formal mentoring session. Given the lack of evidence on the demand and uptake of enterprise mentoring services, it is difficult to interpret whether these experiences are atypical or not.

Implication:Undertake further research into the demand for, and patterns of usage of, enterprise mentoring from a demand-side perspective. Outcomes could not only be used to inform future policy and provision but also shape marketing and communication activity (e.g. use of words to support initial and ongoing engagement with mentoring)

5.19 Therefore, since engaging with Get Mentoring, a number of the interviewed

mentors have had some sort of mentoring experience. For some, they continued activity which was started before Get Mentoring. This was undertaken on both a voluntary and paid basis4. For others, although in the minority, they were able to commence a new relationship on a voluntary basis5.

An enterprise mentoring process framework5.20 Derived from the cohort of interviewed enterprise mentors, an enterprise

mentoring process framework is outlined in Figure 2. The framework is situated in the experiences of the interviewed mentors, although the generic nature of the process suggests that it may have wider relevance and scope for application. The process can be split into three parts, each of which consists of a number of key activities: Motivation and confidence building: This part of the process focuses on the

cognitive, and to an extent subjective-emotional, pre-requisites which influence the ambition related to mentoring others and the likely level of mentoring activity. The interviews highlighted that this was influenced by the previous mentoring experiences of the mentor and the attitudinal stance of the owner-manager.

Opportunity recognition and selection: A key finding from the research was that owner-managers adopted different approaches to identifying and selecting opportunities for mentoring others. Attitudes towards how opportunities were generated, and who was responsible, influenced the approach to identification and selection of opportunities.

Mentoring others: The management of the mentoring process was based on three activities, each of which reinforced the effectiveness and

4 In such cases where there was an element of charging for the use of a mentoring service, this was complemented by mentoring being provided on a voluntary basis to businesses. The interviews highlighted that this was often shaped by the ability of the client to pay; for example, mentors working on a voluntary basis with new businesses and a paid basis with growth-orientated businesses.5 When signing up for Get Mentoring, all enterprise mentor volunteers agreed to provide voluntary mentoring at least up to the amount they have pledged, even if they charge over and above that.


efficiency of opportunity recognition and selection. The three activities were: matching and review; mentoring others; adding value.

5.21 The extent of, and investment in, each of these stages tended to be a function of the level, in terms of volume and experience, of involvement in mentoring others, as well as a reflection of the previous business experiences of the mentor. As discussed below, these criteria were considered more important than the age, gender or ethnicity of the interviewed mentor.

5.22 The motivation and confidence building part serves as the foundation of, and entry point, for the process of mentoring others. Although it is a pre-requisite for mentoring others, in itself it is insufficient for successful management and review of the process of mentoring. Successfully engaging with other owner-managers to provide a mentoring service is based on repeating, and broadening the activities in the opportunity recognition and selection and mentoring parts of the process.

Figure 2: Enterprise Mentoring – A Process Framework

5.23 Each of these parts is a flexible and evolving aspect of the mentoring process and, as noted above, incorporates both formal and informal approaches. The research identified different levels of focus on each of the key parts and associated activities outlined in Figure 2. Certain activities, for example, were passed over quickly and with minimal concern, whereas others were the focus of most of the mentor’s activities. There is, in other words, no pre-determined


allocation of effort amongst the key stages of the process. Instead, concentration of concern and activity varies from mentor to mentor, typically dependent upon the following factors. Previous experience or knowledge of mentoring and/or supporting the

development of owner-managers Attitude and perception of the interviewed mentor (e.g. ‘cautious-sensing’

versus ‘learning-as-you-go’) Extent or degree of networks with other businesses Extent of other mentoring provision in the locality.

5.24 The evidence from the interviews is that personal characteristics of the mentor (e.g. age or gender) had limited influence on how the process was managed. For example, both male and female interviewed mentors had proactively generated opportunities by which to mentor other businesses. If there were any differences in management of the process it tended to relate to how mentoring relationships were managed. However, these differences were very minimal.

5.25 In summary, therefore, the process of mentoring others was identified as complex, iterative and multi-dimensional, with the relative and absolute focus of effort on each stage and activity being determined by the perceived importance and impact of the four factors listed above. Typically, repetition and systematisation of the process itself tends to improve familiarity with – and expertise – in each stage and activity. As a result, enhanced capability and capacity to manage the process can be assessed using the following criteria: Effort and time spent in each activity (activity investment/efficiency) Ease and speed of completion of the process (process efficiency) Impact of the process on the mentor and their business (process

effectiveness) Avoidance of errors (incremental learning and improvement).

5.26 The remainder of this section unpacks each stage and its constituent activities before exploring the benefit, impact and value added associated with mentoring others.

Motivation and confidence5.27 A key part of the interviews with mentors and project partners focused on

motivations and drivers to engaging with Get Mentoring, i.e. the “why” question. Such insights are important because Walters et al. (2012) note that motivations and drivers not only influence experiences of the subsequent process but also the associated development needs and support requirements. In addition, motivations and drivers will influence how individuals respond to marketing and communication activities, particularly in terms of the words and phrases which are required to influence behaviours (Thaler and Sunstein, 2009; BIS and The Cabinet Office, 2011).

5.28 Not surprisingly, a diversity of motivations were expressed ranging from a desire to learn more about mentoring, to contributing to the development of other businesses in their locality and a desire to informally mentor other


people into enterprising outcomes, to using learning to support the development of staff in their business and developing a paid mentoring service which could be offered to small businesses.

5.29 Amongst this diversity, two key bundles or groupings emerged: Proactive/strategic – For a number of the interviewed enterprise

mentors, mentoring provided a route to: (i) develop a set of new skills and/or (ii) extend a current set of skills which could be used to benefit their own personal development and the development and growth of their business and to work with other businesses in the local economy to support their resilience and growth. Therefore, a key element of the narrative within this group of mentors was the use of mentoring as a route to contributing to the development of others and ‘making a difference’. As one mentor commented ‘one day I won’t be a MD of a [type of business] company but being an MD I am aware that businesses are part of a bigger economy and the downsides to the economy if we don’t help out … This thing [Get Mentoring] will give me an understanding of how to help others’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). Therefore, mentoring was perceived as having an important contribution to learning and skills development leading to improved capability within the businesses of the owner/managers involved in Get Mentoring and local economic development.

Reactive or tactical – Within this grouping, engagement with Get Mentoring and enterprise mentoring related to a desire to gain employment/generate an income from providing a mentoring service and/or to ‘top-up’ professional development activity which was associated with previous employment and continuing professional development, without which they may struggle to win and/or deliver work. As one project partner noted ‘Get Mentoring has provided them with a fairly neat way of maintaining their professional development training’ (Interviewed project partner). Key elements of the narrative related to making money and maintaining professional status and credibility, alongside being able to support the development of small businesses on a voluntary basis. This motivation was primarily expressed by ex-business support professionals and owner-managers of businesses offering some form of business support/coaching and mentoring offering. This motivation was also more frequently expressed by individuals during the early stages of the Get Mentoring project, which coincided with a number of other changes in the enterprise support landscape.

5.30 Proactive/strategic motivations were expressed by three interviewed mentors in four, whilst more reactive motivations were expressed by approximately one interviewed mentor in four.

5.31 The importance of these two different groupings of motivations varied according to the background of the participant and the level of previous mentoring experience and business support activity. Those mentors who had some form of previous experience of offering ‘formal’ mentoring or a business support service tended to express more reactive or tactical motivations and


drivers. In comparison, those with more informal mentoring experiences tended to express more proactive or strategic drivers. This reflects the perceived contribution of mentoring to personal vis-à-vis business development.

5.32 For those who expressed more proactive drivers, mentoring is seen as a route to contributing to their own development, as well to the development of staff in the business and that of other businesses in the local economy. This was summarised by the owner-manager of a social enterprise who noted that ‘it has been great for my staff as they realise now that they are mentoring our customers when going to see them. It has shown them what they can do to add value to the business now’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). In comparison, for those expressing more tactical drivers, being involved in mentoring was perceived as a source of opportunities for the development of their business, which often offered a related service.

5.33 The evidence from the research suggests that previous experience of business and enterprise mentoring was more of an influence on likelihood to engage with Get Mentoring and enterprise mentoring than other explanatory variables such as age, gender or ethnicity of the owner-manager or location of the business.

5.34 In particular, the research suggested that age and gender had a limited influence on motivations and drivers and subsequent experiences. For example, with gender, both interviewed men and women mentors within the cohort reflected that issues related to a desire to ‘give back’ were more influenced by previous experiences of business and attitudes towards staff development rather than age or gender.

5.35 Given the qualitative focus of the research, it will be useful to test this hypothesis around the influence of previous mentoring and business experience via more extensive research (e.g. via the evaluation of Get Mentoring) and/or identify the different levels in the decision to engage with enterprise mentoring and the likely influence of different criteria at these levels. For example, it could be argued that Get Mentoring has engaged with those owner-managers who have some form of awareness of enterprise mentoring, either from informally mentoring others or offering a mentoring and coaching service. However, age and gender may have an influence on general levels of awareness of mentoring as a way of supporting the learning and skills development of small business owner-managers. Given the limited nature of the current evidence base, it is somewhat difficult to unpick these questions. As a result, there are certain gaps in the current evidence base that could be fruitfully explored via further research (see Section 6 below).

Implication:


Test and pilot a segmentation framework based on experience of business and mentoring in terms of its effectiveness in identifying needs and requirements in engaging with mentoring.

5.36 As identified by Walters et al. (2012) the type of motivation underpinning the decision to engage with enterprise mentoring will influence the nature of subsequent experiences, the language used to describe these experiences and the type of support used to address developmental needs and requirements.

Opportunity recognition and opportunity selection5.37 The research identified that there were different approaches to the activity of

recognising and selecting opportunities amongst the interviewed enterprise mentors. This stage formed the bridge between the motivation and confidence to mentor others and the initial meeting with a mentee. Opportunity recognition involved the generation of opportunities to mentor others, whilst opportunity selection related to the decision-making process around which opportunities to progress or not.

5.38 The interviews and diaries identified two approaches to generating opportunities: mentor-led and third party led. In terms of the former, the opportunities to mentor others was generated by the mentor and often associated with a desire to mentor in order to make a difference to the local business community. Opportunities were generated through: Networking through informal networks including family, friends and close

business acquaintances Attending local business events and networks Contacting organisations who were supporting people into enterprise Raising awareness of their availability as a mentor through the local

business press or online media.

5.39 Two examples illustrate the proactivity associated with mentor-led opportunity recognition and selection.

Example 1:One interviewed mentor in the East Midlands reflected on the process of generating opportunities through placing an advert in the local paper. They engaged with Get Mentoring as a way of reviewing the possibility of offering a mentoring service to complement the book-keeping service they offered to local businesses. The Get Mentoring training helped them work through the ways in which mentoring would add value to the core service. To advertise their availability as an enterprise mentor they placed a news item on their website and an advert in the local paper offering their services as a mentor on a voluntary basis. They received a response to the advert from two people who were in business together as a partnership but who were facing a set of issues around the future direction and sustainability of the business. At the time of the interview, the mentor had had one meeting with the pair.

Example 2:


An owner-manager of an engineering business in the North West who engaged with Get Mentoring as a way of working out the ways by which to ‘give back’ to the local business community. Whilst the owner-manager had been informally mentoring other businesses in the area, the training assisted him in understanding what he had been doing and the ways in which he could support staff in his business to mentor others. Shortly after completing the Get Mentoring training, the owner-manager noticed an article in the local paper about the winners of a business competition for young people. In response, the owner-manager contacted the paper and offered his services as a volunteer mentor to the winners of the competition. At the time of the research the owner-manager was in the process of contacting the winners and exploring the ways in which to support the individuals who had won the competition in moving from idea to action.

5.40 The majority of the mentors who adopted such an approach to opportunity recognition were owner-managers of their own business. This experience was important in terms of understanding not only how to generate business development opportunities but also in being able to manage the uncertainties and ambiguities in moving from the training to the activity of mentoring others.

5.41 In comparison, there were a group of mentors who relied on other organisations for the recognition of mentoring opportunities. These mentors had recently started their own business after working for someone else, either in a large corporate and/or a business support organisation, and were interested in mentoring others, both on a voluntary and paid basis. There were two key elements to the narrative of this group, in terms of opportunity recognition. First, there was a frustration at the lack of mentoring opportunities. The training had generated an interest in mentoring others and provided an awareness of organisations providing mentoring to others. As a result, the mentors had contacted these organisations to offer their services as volunteer mentors. The diaries highlighted that they either did not get a response or the organisation replied that they had a lack of opportunities for new mentors. The interviews with project partners and stakeholders identified a number of issues influencing the availability of opportunities in such a situation including: Perceived levels of demand for mentoring amongst mentoring

organisations and hence the appropriateness of the current bank of mentors from which to draw. This has resulted in an experience for some mentors of a lack of opportunities when approaching mentoring organisations: ‘I am waiting in the wings for those who are wanting advice, guidance and mentoring. I am at the end of the phone but the organisations about have nothing doing’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor)

Competing priorities for providers in funded enterprise support, in terms of targets and the type of support which enables funding to be drawn down.

Implication:


Explore opportunities for supporting experience exchange between mentors using proactive approaches to opportunity recognition with those using more reactive approaches, via organisations such as the IOEE and other professional development platforms.

5.42 It is important to highlight that there were a group of interviewed enterprise mentors who had not started the process of generating opportunities to mentor others. This accounted for one interviewed mentors in two. There were two factors at play here: (i) the lack of space to create time to search for mentoring opportunities, either due to issues in their personal life or the business (e.g. challenges in ensuring the business is surviving in the current economic conditions) and (ii) the stage at which they engaged with the research and hence the time to move from the training to action. In terms of raising levels of mentoring activity in the near future, this group will be an important group to track and maintain contact with, particularly in terms of an awareness of the value of mentoring others (e.g. in supporting the development of their own business).

5.43 In summary, a key issue to emerge from the interviews with the interviewed enterprise mentors was a perceived lack of opportunities to mentor other business owner-managers. Those mentoring others are generating these opportunities through their own activities and initiative. Hence, the common theme to the narrative around selection of opportunities was that there was no selection at this stage. This position was summarised by one mentor who reflected that ‘there is not that much out there so you do what you can get. Some of the theory around selecting people and matching tends to become somewhat secondary’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

Awareness raising5.44 Running alongside opportunity recognition and selection was the activity of

awareness raising. Within this context, awareness raising relates to activities undertaken by the mentor to promote their availability for mentoring other businesses amongst appropriate networks.

5.45 The interviews identified that approaches to this activity varied both in terms of extent and nature. Some of the interviewed enterprise mentors were unsure of the ways by which to raise awareness of themselves and engage with other businesses as an enterprise mentor. A number of interviewed mentors used mentoring others as a way of raising awareness of themselves as enterprise mentors. In part, this approach was based on an understanding of the importance of word of mouth to small business owner-managers in buying services from external advisers (Sear et al., 2011).

5.46 For the group of owner-managers who expressed more strategic motivations to mentoring others, they tended to be more proactive in raising awareness of themselves as an enterprise mentor, as well as a small business owner-manager. Activities undertaken by this group included: Posting information to the website of their business around their

participation in Get Mentoring


Placing adverts in local business papers Contacting others within their networks who would raise awareness on

their behalf Actively engaging with other businesses via local networking events.

5.47 As such, for this group, awareness raising was interlinked to opportunity recognition and generation. As one interviewed mentor noted:

I’m a proactive person by nature so I am going to go out there and advertise what I do. Hopefully this will create opportunities for me. But, for some of the others on my course, who are used to getting work given to them, they are going to struggle (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

5.48 In comparison, for those who undertook no or minimal awareness raising activity, opportunity recognition and selection was perceived as a separate activity and usually the responsibility of other organisations. This manifested itself with contacting an organisation via a resource such as mentorsme.co.uk and then relying on the organisation to contact them with opportunities for mentoring others. As discussed above, there are a number of issues around the dynamics of demand for enterprise mentoring in the current environment which is resulting in a lack of formal opportunities being passed to the interviewed mentors via formal mentoring organisations. There is evidence that is this leading to a degree of frustration in being able to put the training from Get Mentoring into practice. However, there is a lack of connection between investment in awareness raising and opportunity recognition and generation.

Implication:Develop ways of promoting the ways in which opportunities to mentor other business owner-managers are being used and the uptake of offers from Get Mentoring participants by mentoring organisations.

Matching and review5.49 For those who have undertaken a mentoring session with another business

since completion of Get Mentoring, the interviews and diaries highlighted that the process of matching and review varied from non-existent to highly formalised. The extent of this matching activity was not only influenced by the type of mentoring activity undertaken but also the ways in which opportunities were generated.

5.50 For more informal mentoring activity and/or more formal opportunities generated through proactive recognition activities (see Section 5.36 above), the matching and review was somewhat implicit and related to issues of personality. Therefore the key considerations were ones of empathy and credibility, as a proxy for trust in the relationship and the ability to add value. As one interviewed enterprise mentor noted ‘being able to understand where you are and where they are, this is what gives you credibility. So you need a level of business experience’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). Such experiences


underpin the rationale for Get Mentoring in terms of the need expressed by SMEs for more guidance from businesses ‘who have been there and done it’.

5.51 Where opportunities emerged from an approach to a mentoring organisation, the matching and review process was influenced by the approach of the organisation. In some cases, the matching and review was perceived by the mentor as non-existent. For example, one mentor in the North East noted that they had contacted a mentoring organisation to offer their services as a mentor. After a number of efforts to get a response from the organisation, the mentor received an email asking them to contact an individual who needed a mentor:

I have now got a response from them. I got an email from them. The person has set up an enterprise related social enterprise. It is [details of the person] who I know from a previous life. She knows more about social enterprise than me! So all I got was a name and told to get on with it (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

5.52 This experience of matching and review was not uncommon. This perceived lack of matching may reflect a number of issues. First, Parvin (2001) notes that mentoring organisations place a different emphasis on the balance of control in the matching and review process between the mentor and mentee. On the one hand, there are mentoring organisations that will let the mentee chose their mentor. On the other hand, other mentoring organisations will give the responsibility of choosing the mentee to the mentor. The above example concerning the email and a request to contact a potential mentee may reflect that the mentoring organisation provides space for the mentor to choose whether to work with a mentee or not after an initial exchange. Second, it may reflect a lack of support for the mentor and/or mentee in managing the matching and review activity (SQW and NESTA, 2009). This places an emphasis on the need for some structured induction programme for mentors when signing up with a formal mentoring provider. The evidence from the research suggests that the extent and nature of these induction programmes varies. This was manifested in calls from the interviewed enterprise mentors for further support via some sort of mentoring platform (see Section 5.9 above).

Mentoring others5.53 As discussed above, the diaries completed by the interviewed enterprise

mentors identified a range of different types of mentoring, ranging from the highly informal with contacts established prior to Get Mentoring to mentoring sessions initiated by contact with a ‘formal’ mentoring organisation. Whilst not all the interviewed mentors completed the diaries with experiences based on mentoring others, a number of activities emerge around how mentoring sessions were managed and structured. These activities coalesced around: Exploration New understanding Action planning.


Exploration5.54 Exploration involved a set of activities undertaken as part of the initial

meeting with the mentee, to gain an understanding of the personal and business background of the mentee, the key issues faced by the mentee in the near-term and the reasons for them wishing to be mentored.

5.55 For those interviewed mentors who had undertaken a mentoring session, they noted that the insights from Get Mentoring, combined with their previous business experiences, assisted in managing the exploration activity. For example, there were comments about: The importance of listening in being able to understand the background of

the mentee and/or the issues they are facing The role for questioning in clarifying areas of ambiguity The use of previous experiences as a way of assisting the mentee to

appreciate that other owner-managers were facing similar experiences.

5.56 As such, exploration represented a critical activity in establishing an ongoing relationship with the mentee.

5.57 Of the activities outlined in the enterprise mentoring process framework (see Figure 2 above), it was at this stage where the Get Mentoring training added the most value. It was noted that the training provided a set of tools and tips by which to structure initial sessions with the client and strategies for following up after the initial interaction. In so doing, the interviews suggest that Get Mentoring is playing a role in raising the quality or standards of mentoring activity provided in the market: ‘It is a brilliant concept. I did it online. It worked for me so I have got others in [the locality] to do it. So I am trying to take people along with me so businesses in [the locality] benefit from having a trained group of mentors’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

New understanding5.58 If effectively managed, the activity of exploring the background, experiences

and motivations of the mentee, in wishing to be mentored, led to generating an understanding of the personal situation of the mentee, the issues facing the development of the business and the associated development needs and requirements.

5.59 The diaries highlighted that this understanding was generated through questioning of the mentee as to the vision and plans for them as an individual and the business. In addition, this activity led to a set of benefits for both the mentor and the mentee. In terms of the former, there was an opportunity to reflect on the development of their own business and some of the strategies which had been helpful in overcoming critical learning thresholds. As one interviewed enterprise mentor in the North West noted ‘it has been useful in giving me a bit of direction about the future. It is interesting in that you can start to work through issues for yourself and your business bit by bit’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). For the mentee, it provided an opportunity to stand back from the day-to-day realities of starting and/or developing a


small business and reflect on areas of strength and potential areas for further development. These benefits are further explored below.

Action planning5.60 This involved agreeing a set of actions with the mentee, which could be

reviewed at the next meeting. This not only provided the mentor with an opportunity to contact the mentee in between sessions, thereby maintaining the relationship, but also a way of developing an understanding of the commitment on the part of the mentee to the relationship and any personal and/or business issues which may influence progress against agreed actions. As one interviewed enterprise mentor noted: ‘The key to the mentoring relationship is about pitching the level right for the mentee and getting commitment to that so they understand what to do after a mentoring session’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor)

5.61 One of the challenges faced by the interviewed enterprise mentors who had undertaken a mentoring session, particularly those with limited experience of mentoring others, was that action planning sometimes strayed into the mentee asking the mentor to undertake some of the actions of behalf of the mentee. This was highlighted by one mentor in the North East who was mentoring an owner-manager of a recent start-up. One of the key areas to emerge from the initial mentoring session was the need for a business plan, not only to assist in providing direction to the business but also to support the mentee in accessing funding. The mentee had asked the mentor to write the business plan on their behalf, reflecting a perception that as the mentor was the owner-manager of a successful small business that they would have experience of writing business plans. Given the relative inexperience of the mentor in mentoring others they raised an issue around how to manage such situations, particularly in terms of managing expectations around the extent of the mentoring relationship vis-à-vis an advisory or a consultancy intervention. As they reflected ‘because it [Get Mentoring] was an introduction there was no time to look at how to deal with the tricky situations that can come about like being asked to do the business plan’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). This was not an atypical experience amongst those mentoring others.

5.62 Accordingly, the interviews with these mentors identified a set of development needs around managing the mentoring relationship on an ongoing basis. For those mentors who had generated their own mentoring opportunities, there was a call for a structure to provide such ongoing professional development.

Implication:Explore mechanisms for supporting the ongoing professional development of mentors who are not being supported through a mentoring organisation.


Segmentation of the Enterprise Mentoring Market5.63 A review of current thinking around business enterprise identifies a number

of approaches and frameworks to segmenting the business enterprise community and working through the implications for the development of learning and skills needs for both policy and practice (Atherton and Lyon, 2001). These vary from approaches using key demographic characteristics such as size or sector of business enterprise activity to more qualitative frameworks based on stage of business development or behaviours and experiences of the owner-manager.

5.64 Traditionally, more quantitative frameworks using criteria such as size, sector and location have been used. Whilst these frameworks are relatively easy to apply in identifying groups of business enterprise, the segments lack a degree of internal consistency and coherence in that a business with ten employees may be considered small in retail but medium to large in a consultancy market.

5.65 Indeed, the consultations undertaken as part of this project suggest that criteria such as age or gender of the owner-manager may have less explanatory power than more qualitative criteria such as previous experience of mentoring and/or running your own business. This reflects two factors. Firstly, and as explored above, a number of studies have identified the importance of previous business experience as a critical success factor in a mentor being able to establish an effective relationship with a mentee (see, for example, Parvin, 2001; Barrett, 2006). This was reinforced by the interviewed enterprise mentors that had undertaken some form of mentoring with other businesses. It emerged from these interactions that previous business experience provided a ‘hook’ upon which to assist the mentee to reflect on their experiences that seemed more important than their age or gender. Secondly, previous business experiences provide a source of ‘stories’ which can be used to assist in engaging with the mentee and demonstrating credibility and empathy. Down (2006) suggests that storytelling is a powerful tool by which owner-managers convey meaning and communicate and engage with other-managers. However, as noted above, given the qualitative focus of the research, it will be useful to test this hypothesis around the influence of previous mentoring and business experience vis-à-vis age and gender via more extensive research.

5.66 Table 2 below outlines an initial segmentation framework relating to understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring. The two key variables underpinning the framework are: previous experience of enterprise mentoring and experiences of running and managing your own business.

5.67 Such an approach to segmenting the market provides a way of identifying a number of groupings which have a degree of internal coherence in terms of the: Activities undertaken to mentor others Challenges and opportunities faced in mentoring others


Key learning and skill developmental needs and support responses required

Types of intervention required and the role for publicly funded interventions vis-à-vis private sector led responses.

5.68 From the information contained in Table 2, a number of questions emerge which can be used in defining the level of experience. The framework also provides an opportunity to map the type of competencies required by each grouping to manage the process of mentoring others and the role for learning and skills development in the movement of individuals between different groupings.

5.69 Table 2 can also be used to shape policy and practice around understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring. In terms of the latter, for example, The identification of the key activities, developmental challenges and

needs associated with mentoring others provides both an opportunity and a need to position support around developing process management capability

There are opportunities to support the development of process expertise by focusing on either how to manage the process or how to undertake specific stages of the process

The generic process map offers the basis for a framework for designing and delivering support to individuals wishing to mentor others and assessing the positioning and relevance of support.

5.70 In terms of policy, the adopted segmentation approach suggests that understanding of the enterprise mentoring process provides opportunities for the auditing of existing support against the key activities undertaken by individuals at different stages of the process, and against the different segments within the market.


Table 2: Initial Segmentation Framework for Enterprise Mentoring

Segment Overview Motivation Process Challenges SolutionsCurious Have considered

enterprise mentoring but have not yet taken any action. Little awareness of available support

Reactive Limited awareness of the process of mentoring others

Opportunity recognition through contacting mentoring organisations

Frustration in moving from training to action due to lack of perceived opportunities

Locating opportunities to mentor others

Meeting others to raise awareness of mentoring service

Understanding of the mentoring process

Opportunities to network with other mentors

Access to ‘process’ how to guides

Tentative Have limited experience of mentoring, which is mainly informal. Developed some skills but have major problems for which they are looking for

Reactive Awareness of the mentoring process but not necessarily from the position of understanding the process

Largely reactive opportunity

Moving from informal to more formal mentoring of others Meeting others to raise awareness of mentoring service

Develop understanding and skills to manage specific parts of the process

Access to how to guides for specific


solutions. Some experience of available support

recognition and selection

Limited matching and review of mentoring opportunities

None or minimal review of the process of mentoring others

activities

Enthusiastic Considerable experience of informal mentoring and some formal mentoring and are keen to expand this activity but are experiencing barriers in doing this. Have developed a range of skills but suspect that these need to be developed. Largely aware of available support with some experience, often

Reactive to Strategic Extensive experience of informally mentoring others. Limited formal mentoring experience

Increasingly proactive approach to opportunity recognition and selection

Some matching and review of opportunities

Some review of

Awareness of formal mentoring organisations

Dealing with specific issues in mentoring others (e.g. not advising when mentoring others)

Understanding what works and what does not work when mentoring others

Opportunities to network with other mentors

Access to specific how to advice and guidance

Access to knowledge bank on enterprise mentoring


positive the efficiency of the mentoring approach

Successful Extensive experience of a range of different types of mentoring activity. Very high skills and knowledge development, very aware of available support with high degree of usage. Often aware of skills and knowledge gaps and very keen to improve effectiveness in mentoring activity

Strategic Extensive experience of each stage

Proactive approach to opportunity recognition and selection

Use of tools to support matching and review

Reviews efficiency and effectiveness of the process of mentoring others

Accessing specific sources of support to address skills and knowledge needs

Access to high level skills development

Opportunities for championing other mentors


Benefits, Impact and Value Added of Enterprise Mentoring5.71 Given the somewhat limited nature of the current evidence base around

enterprise mentoring, there are a number of calls for further research activity (Feeney and Bozeman, 2008; SQW and NESTA, 2009; Londsale, 2011). One of recurring gaps in the current evidence base relates to the impact and value added of enterprise mentoring.

5.72 A review of current policy statements and papers around enterprise mentoring identifies a number of references related to its value to the development of the owner-manager, as well as business and enterprise development processes. However, with a lack of quantitative evidence around the impact and value added of enterprise mentoring activity, a number of commentators have suggested there is a need to move beyond a rationale for intervention based on mentoring being a ‘good thing’ (Gold et al., 2003; Bridge, 2010).

5.73 Despite the relative lack of formal mentoring activity being undertaken by the interviewed enterprise mentors, a set of insights related to its impact and value-added emerged from the research, from the perspective of both the mentor and mentee.

5.74 The consultations with the mentors identified a number of intended and unintended benefits and areas of impact from mentoring others. These included: Personal understanding and skills development: As identified above,

the majority of the interviewed mentors noted that they had learnt something from the Get Mentoring experience. For some, such as the owner-managers of businesses offering coaching and mentoring services, Get Mentoring provided an assurance that they were doing the right things when working with small businesses. In turn, this contributed to offering a more consistent, and effective service. For those who had not previously worked with small businesses, Get Mentoring provided a set of insights into the life-world of running your own business at different stages of development and the skills and knowledge required to engage with a small business around a mentoring offering. For others, they had further enhanced or developed skills which could be used in their business (see below) as well as in mentoring others. The interviews and diaries highlighted that the development of new understanding and skills would lead to a number of positive outcomes related to personal or business performance including renewed drive and determination to push forward the business, different ways of managing business activities (such as managing relationships with staff, suppliers and customers) and taking advantage of new business opportunities.

Learning to enhance the performance of the mentor’s business: A significant minority of the interviewed enterprise mentors noted that they had gained a set of insights from completing Get Mentoring and mentoring others which would assist in enhancing the effectiveness of management processes in their own business. Key areas of learning related to


supporting the development and management of staff, reviewing customer management processes, managing supplier/stakeholder relationships and creating more time to work on, as well in the business. For example, an owner-manager of a business in Yorkshire noted that ‘It reminds you of the things that you should be doing as an owner-manager and thinking through, or preparing for the future’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). Similarly, another owner-manager in the South West noted that the impact of Get Mentoring has been ‘It has helped me think about making myself more robust, the business not being dependent on one sector and the working with others to develop new business’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor). As highlighted above, for a number of the interviewed enterprise mentors who were running social enterprises, Get Mentoring has assisted them in thinking about how to embed mentoring skills amongst their staff: ‘It [Get Mentoring] has been an excellent experience in that I have been able to work with my staff to help them understand that they are in effect mentoring service users. If they can understand how to do this well then it will impact on the quality of service we offer’ (Interviewed mentor).

5.75 Whilst the qualitative nature of the interviews hindered a more traditional, economic discussion around value for money and return on investment, the interviews did highlight: A perception that Get Mentoring, as a free learning and skills development,

offered as much as value as some paid courses in the market. This position was summarised by an owner-manager of a mentoring and coaching business who commented that ‘Get Mentoring was great value for money –not only because it was free but because it delivered far more than some paid courses … that I have been on’.

The understanding and new skills gained from the Get Mentoring programme would not only add value to the development of them as managers and leaders of their business but also the performance of the business in the short-term:I am very confident that it [Get Mentoring and mentoring others] is going to add new value. It is going to help me in developing rapport with new customers, it is going to improve my business, it is going to help me to see if I am missing new opportunities for the business. I have also learnt the difference between advice, coaching and mentoring. This may be useful when I have a problem to work through with a customer or supplier (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

5.76 As with influences on the extent and nature of mentoring activity, there was no evidence of characteristics such as gender and age influencing the perceived impact on the development of the abilities and skills of the mentor. For example, both male and female mentors discussed examples of the impact of Get mentoring around personal learning and skills development. However, it may be useful to further explore perceptions of impact and influences on these perceptions given the size of the sample underpinning the research.

5.78 From the perspective of the impact on the mentee, a number of insights were gained from the mentors and project partners. At a general level, the


consultations identified a distinction between the impact and value added for the mentee, as an individual, and their business.

5.79 In terms of the development of the mentee, the mentors noted that the benefit of the mentoring sessions was that they provided an opportunity for the mentee to reflect on their own personal vision in the near to mid-term and the contribution of working for yourself in achieving that personal vision. Interestingly, the consultations identified that whilst for some mentees this provided a degree of confidence to continue with the enterprise journey, for others it led to exiting from the enterprise journey to seek other means of engaging with the labour market.

5.80 Such experiences from the research highlight that mentoring has an impact on the levels of emotional stability, resilience and self-efficacy (in terms of confidence of the person in their own abilities to achieve what they want to achieve) of the mentee. There are number of studies which highlight that such characteristics are important in sustaining enterprise activity, particularly in terms of being more effective in managing and leading the business (Hartshorn and Parvin, 1999; Cull, 2006).

5.81 In addition, the experience of the mentors suggests that mentoring has a role to play in enhancing economic competitiveness by supporting people into enterprise, as well as assisting individuals to manage both the economic and social cost with a venture ceasing to trade (Bridge, 2010). For example, one of the interviewed mentors reflected that they had been approached by a partnership of two women who had recently started their own business but were struggling to survive in the current economic climate. The two women had contacted the mentor to work through different options for the business going forward. The outcome from the mentoring sessions was that one of the women decided to stay in the business to take it forward in the near-term, whilst another exited, as a consequence of personal circumstances which would have meant that she would have not been able to commit the personal investment required. The mentor reflected that both women were happy with the outcomes from the mentoring sessions as ‘it helped the two of them sort out their friendship from the business and give them some focus, so one was not pulling the other one away from the business’ (Interviewed enterprise mentor).

5.82 At a qualitative level, a number of areas emerged in terms of the impact and value added of mentoring on the businesses of the mentees. These included: Development and/or reinforcement of an entrepreneurial posture leading

to fit between the internal business environment and external task environment. A number of previous studies have identified a positive relationship between fit and higher levels of business performance (Gibb, 1997)

New business opportunities resulting from having space to stand back from the business and taking a ‘helicopter view’ on its development

New relationships with customers, suppliers and stakeholders, through pursuing actions emerging from the mentoring sessions, as well as via introductions made by the mentor


Opportunities to increase levels of turnover through pursuing opportunities for new markets and/or new products

Improved profitability by reviewing different areas of the business and identifying areas of efficiency and cost reduction.

5.83 There was evidence from the mentors that mentoring had had an impact on the development of a mindset related to starting and/or developing a business, by providing the mentee with an opportunity to reflect on their own experiences with someone who is running their own business. In addition, there were a number of references to value added through the mentor being able to signpost the mentee to other forms of support and assist in addressing key needs and requirements. This is important within the context of building social, as well as economic, capital (Feeney and Bozeman, 2008).

5.84 The evaluation of Get Mentoring will provide an opportunity to quantify a number of these areas of impact and value added, from the perspective of the enterprise mentor.

Implication:Review ways in which robust and rigorous quantitative and qualitative evidence on the impact and value added of enterprise mentoring could be generated and used by different stakeholder groups.

Summary5.85 In part, this analysis of impact and value added reflects the type of mentoring

activity being undertaken by the interviewed mentors and the type of businesses being mentored. However, a picture emerges of impact on the mentor and their business, as well as the mentee, particularly in terms of their orientation to the business and a greater awareness of the development options for their business.

5.86 In order to inform policy development around enterprise mentoring, there is a critical need to enhance understanding of the impact of enterprise mentoring. There are a number of gaps in the evidence base to address including: The impact and value added of different forms of enterprise mentoring

(e.g. informal vis-à-vis formal enterprise mentoring) on SME performance and growth

The impact and value of enterprise mentoring from the perspective of the mentor and mentee, particularly the scale and scope of any agreement between the benefits of the mentoring relationship on the mentee’s business as perceived by the mentor vis-à-vis the mentee

The extent and nature of impact on SME performance and growth, from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

5.87 Such insights would not only assist in generating evidence to support ongoing policy development related to enterprise mentoring but also could be used by mentoring organisations to underpin the development of demand-led mentoring provision.


6. Summary and Implications

Summary6.1 This final report has outlined the key findings to emerge from research into

the experiences of a cohort of small business owner-managers who have been supported to mentor other businesses through Get Mentoring.

6.2 The approach to undertaking the research was qualitative in nature, in order to address key gaps in the current evidence base, particularly in terms of unpacking experiences of owner-managers mentoring other owner-managers, the associated challenges and development needs and the key areas of impact and value added.

6.3 Experiences and perceptions of mentoring were explored from different perspectives using different research methods. These included: Review of current thinking and statistics – e.g. to identify key areas of need

to know around enterprise mentoring as a process and practice Face-to-face and telephone interviews with enterprise mentors – e.g. to

unpack their experiences of engaging with Get Mentoring Self-completion diaries with enterprise mentors – e.g. to understand

experiences of mentoring others and associated professional development needs

Interviews with project partners – e.g. to understand the ways in which Get Mentoring has added value

Interviews with mentoring stakeholders – e.g. to understand the fit of Get Mentoring with other mentoring initiatives.

6.4 Key headlines and highlights to emerge from the research included: There is diversity amongst the mentors supported through Get Mentoring,

with no one type of enterprise mentor. There are different age, gender and ethnicity profiles, different spatial patterns of mentoring, different business experiences amongst the group and different experiences of mentoring other businesses

The level of previous mentoring experience and running your own business is the primary influence on subsequent approaches and experiences in mentoring others. There is less evidence around the influence of age of the owner-manager, gender and ethnicity on the management of the mentoring process and its impact

There are different types of mentoring being undertaken, ranging from the highly naturalistic and informal to more formal mentoring sessions undertaken via a formal business support organisation. To date, there is evidence of more informal mentoring being undertaken by the mentors supported through Get Mentoring than more formal mentoring sessions. However, it is likely that the extent of formal mentoring may increase in the near future, with more volunteers from Get Mentoring raising awareness of the benefits of mentoring amongst business networks and with initiatives such as the New Enterprise Allowance Scheme and Start-up Loans providing an opportunity for volunteers to move from the training to mentoring other businesses


There are two key groupings of motivations to mentoring others – strategic/proactive and tactical/reactive. These motivations lead to different experiences of managing mentoring sessions with owner-managers, the challenges and opportunities faced in mentoring others and professional development needs and requirements

There are a number of discrete activities undertaken in mentoring others. Motivation and confidence is the key building block to the mentoring process. This leads to awareness raising, opportunity recognition and selection, matching and review, management of mentoring others and reflection and review. The interviews with enterprise mentors highlighted that Get Mentoring has not only stimulated the motivation for owner-managers to engage with enterprise mentoring but also has built the confidence to mentor other businesses. Therefore, there is evidence to demonstrate that Get Mentoring has been an important intervention in mobilising the enthusiasm amongst smaller businesses to share experience and expertise with each other

Mentors are encountering a number of challenges in moving from the training to action, particularly in terms of “how to’s” related to managing different enterprise support roles (e.g. between advising, coaching and mentoring), managing the relationship with mentoring organisations (e.g. following up initial expressions of interest) and generating opportunities to mentor others

There is a need for some sort of structure to support the professional development of enterprise mentors supported through the Get Mentoring project, who are not being picked up by mentoring organisations

There is qualitative evidence of the impact and value of Get Mentoring and subsequent mentoring activity on the personal and business development of both the mentor and mentee. In terms of the former, mentoring others has provided an opportunity to review the development of their own business and implement practices to support key business activities (e.g. staff management and employee engagement). With mentees, for example, there is evidence of the impact of mentoring in developing the resilience, confidence and self-efficacy of the mentee and the development of new business opportunities.

Implications and Recommendations6.5 There are a number of implications and recommendations associated with the

key insights that have emerged from the research into understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring.

6.6 A number of initial implications and recommendations have been highlighted throughout Sections 4 and 5, in response to specific aspects of understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring. These can be grouped into a number of bundles including: Developing further understanding of the key aspects of the enterprise

mentoring process Reviewing ways to encourage and support a range of different types of

mentoring activity


Managing the dynamics between the demand and supply of enterprise mentoring

Reviewing the structure and materials required to support ongoing professional development of mentors.

6.7 An exploration of these different bundles is provided in Table 3. This table unpacks the key elements of each recommendation, the potential responses, key stakeholders to be engaged and levels of priority, in terms of timings.

6.8 In terms of next steps, it may be beneficial to reflect upon the key aspects of Table 3 with the key groups who have engaged with the research, in addition to the members of the steering group. This will not only assist in considering the key priorities in the near-term, from different perspectives, but also gaining buy-in around key areas of actions.


Table 3: Understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring – Key Implications

Implications Key Aspects Key Partners Priority TimingsDevelop further understanding of enterprise mentoring

Understand the dynamics of the demand-side – uptake of different types of mentoring (including demographics sectoral and geographical variations in uptake). This will complement current understanding of the dynamics of the supply-side (e.g. GHK, 2012)

Understand the impact of enterprise mentoring, both in terms of quantitative and qualitative evidence

Use the outcomes from researching the demand-side to develop a segmentation framework

Develop a knowledge bank for enterprise mentoring building upon the Get Mentoring website. This knowledge bank could contain research reports, evaluations, materials, data and statistics. If using Get Mentoring, this will facilitate the

BISSFEDIBBA/Mentorsme.co.ukMentoring community

BISSFEDIEnterprise research community (e.g. ISBE)BISBBA/Mentorsme.co.ukMentoring community

SFEDI/IOEEBBA/Mentorsme.co.uk

High

Medium

Medium

Medium

Near-term

Near to mid-term

Near to mid-term

Mid-term


development of a research community around enterprise mentoring

Review ways to encourage and support a range of different types of mentoring activity

Develop materials to assist mentors in generating and selecting mentoring opportunities

Develop and publicise mentoring case studies which highlight how mentors have developed mentoring sessions, particularly those developed through proactive opportunity recognition

Illustrate different forms of mentoring activity in marketing and communication activity – e.g. stories around informal and formal mentoring activity

BISSFEDIBBA/Mentorsme.co.ukMentoring community

BISIOEEBBA/Mentorsme.co.ukMentoring organisations

BISMentoring community

High

Medium to High

High

Near-term

Near-term

Near-term

Manage the dynamics between the demand and supply of enterprise mentoring

Develop a national mentoring strategy which identifies how mentoring fits with national enterprise development initiatives and outlines mechanisms for matching supply with demand

Create a national mentoring forum to review the fit of

BISBBASFEDI

SFEDIBBA

Medium

Medium

Near to mid-term

Near-term


mentoring to national enterprise development initiatives

Facilitate opportunities for mentors and mentees to meet – e.g. annual Get Mentoring mentoring conference

SFEDIBBA/Mentorsme.co.ukMentoring organisations

High Near-term

Reviewing the structure and materials required to support ongoing professional development of mentors

Review different options for a professional development structure which supports mentoring activity, when mentors are not working through a mentoring organisation

Research and develop materials to address key areas of development in moving from mentoring training to action

Review the feasibility of developing and maintaining a regional/national mentors register

BISSFEDIBBAMentoring organisations

SFEDIMentorsme.co.ukMentoring organisations

BISIOEEBBA/Mentorsme.co.ukMentoring organisationsLEPs

High

Medium

Medium

Near-term

Near to mid-term

Mid-term


7. References and Resources

The following references and resources have been drawn upon in undertaking this research project.

Barrett, R. (2006) Small Business Learning Through Mentoring: Evaluating a Project, Education and Training, Vol. 45, No. 8/9, pp. 614-626.

Barton-Cunningham, J. (1993) Facilitating a Mentorship Programme, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 15-20.

Bisk, L. (2002) Formal Entrepreneurial Mentoring: The Efficacy of Third Party Managed Programs, Career Development International, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 262-270.

Blake-Beard, S.D. (2001) Taking a Hard Look at Formal Mentoring Programs, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 331-345.

Bridge, S. (2010) Rethinking Enterprise Policy – Can Failure Trigger New Understanding? Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Clutterbuck, D. (1999) Mentoring in Business: Executives and Directors, Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, Routledge, London.

Cull, J. (2006) Mentoring Young Entrepreneurs: What Leads to Success? International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, Vol. 4, No. 2, pg. 8.

Curran, J. and Blackburn, R. (2001) Researching the Small Enterprise, Sage, London.

Davies, A.M. and Taylor, J. (2004) Entrepreneurial Mentoring: A Key to Business Success, New Economics Foundation, London.

Deakins, D., Graham, L., Sullivan, R. and Whittam, G. (1998) New Venture Support: An Analysis of Mentoring Support for New and Early Stage Entrepreneurs, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 151-161.

Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (2010) Skills for Sustainable Growth, BIS, London.

Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (2011) Better Choices: Better Deals, BIS, London.

Devins, D. and Gold, J. (2000) “Cracking the Tough Nuts”: Mentoring and Coaching the Managers of Small Firms, Career Development International, Vol. 5, No. 4/5, pp. 250-255.

Down, S. (2006) Narratives of Enterprise: Crafting Entrepreneurial Self-identity in a Small Firm, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.


Feeney, M.K. and Bozeman, B. (2008) Mentoring and Network Ties, Human Relations, Vol. 61, No. 12, pp. 1651- 1675.

France, M. (2003) Business Volunteer Mentor (BVM) Project Review, National Federation of Enterprise Agencies, Bedford.

Garvey, B. and Aldred, G. (2000) Developing Mentors, Career Development International, Vol. 5. No. 4/5, pp. 216-222.

GHK Ltd (2012) Estimating the Provision of Business Mentoring, GHK and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, Birmingham and London.

Gibb, A.A. (1997) Small Firms Training and Competitiveness: Building upon the Small Business as a Learning Organisation, International Small Business Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 13- 29.

Gold, J., Devins, D. and Johnson, A. (2003) What is the Value of Mentoring in a Small Business? Using Narrative Evaluation to Find Out, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 51-62.

Hannon, P. (2007) Enterprise For All? The Fragility of Enterprise Provision Across England HEIs, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 183-210.

Hansford, B.C., Tennent, L. and Ehrich, L.C. (2002) Business Mentoring: Help or Hindrance? Mentoring and Tutoring, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp.101-115.

Hartshorn, C. and Parvin, W. (1999) Teaching Entrepreneurship: Creating and Implementing a Naturalistic Model, Durham University Business School, Durham.

Higgins, D. and Aspinall, C. (2011) Learning to Learn: A Case for Developing Small Firm Owner-Managers, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 43-57.

Institute for Knowledge Management (n/d) Dissolving the Relationship. Available at: http://www.ikt.org.uk/Mentoring/ dissolving.aspx.

Kent, T., Dennis, C. and Tanton, S. (2003) An Evaluation of Mentoring for SME Retailers, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Vol. 31, No. 8, pp.440-448.

Londsale, C. (2011) Mentoring and Entrepreneurship: A Natural Fit for Learning, Mowgli Foundation Research Briefing, Mowgli UK, Bristol.

McAdam, R. and Keogh, W. (2006) Incubating Enterprise and Knowledge: A Stakeholder Approach, International Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 1, Nos. 1-2, pp. 103-120.


Megginson, D., Clutterbuck, D., Garvey, B., Stokes, P. and Garrett-Harris, R. (2006) Mentoring in Action: A Practical Guide for Managers, Kogan Page, London.

Office for National Statistics (2011) Labour Force Survey Data on Self-Employment, Office for National Statistics, Newport.

Parvin, W. (2001) Moving Towards an Understanding of Mentoring in Supporting Graduate Business Start-up. Paper presented to the 8th AMED European Mentoring Conference, St Neots, November.

Peel, D. (2004) Coaching and Mentoring in Small to Medium Sized Enterprises in the UK: Factors that Affect Success and a Possible Solution, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 46-56.

Perren, L. (2002) E-mentoring of Entrepreneurs and SME Managers: A Review of Academic Literature, Small Business Service, Department of Trade and Industry, London.

Sayer, A. (1992) Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach, Routledge, London.

Scott, J.M. and Mole K.F. (2012) Introduction to the Special Issue: Business Support, Firm Growth, Management Development and Learning in SMEs, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol. 13, pp. 5-9.

Sear, L. (2012) Get Mentoring – Interim Research Report, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative, London and Aycliffe.

Sear, L., Maragh, D. and Freeman, P. (2010) A National Survey of Enterprise Coaches: Are They Meeting Expectations, Wood Holmes Group and The Watershed, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Sear, L., Hudson, N., Allinson, G. (2011) An Investors in People Offer for SMEs: Final Project Report, UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Wath-upon-Dearne.

Silverman, D. (1999) Doing Qualitative Research, Sage, London.

Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (2008) Evidence on skill needs, supply and gaps for Business Enterprise and Business Support, Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative, Newton Aycliffe.

Small Firms Enterprise Development (2011) Get Mentoring Workbook, Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative, Aycliffe.

SQW and NESTA (2009) A Review of Mentoring Literature and Best Practice, NESTA, London.

Sullivan, R. (2000) Entrepreneurial Learning and Mentoring, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 160-175.


Thaler, R. and Sunstein, C.R. (2009) Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, Penguin, London.

Waters, L., McCabe, M., Kiellerup, D. and Kieellerup, S. (2002) The Role of Formal Mentoring on Business Success and Self-Esteem in Participants of a New Business Start-Up Program, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 107-121.

Wilson, D. and Grigg, P. (2008) Mentoring Matters in Building an Enterprising Culture, A Make Your Mark Campaign Scoping Paper, Enterprise Insight, London.


Appendices


Appendix 1: Members of the Research Steering Group

The following people are members of Steering Group for the research project.

Name OrganisationJackie Brennan FreshmindsNigel Hudson StratagiaClive Lewis ICEAWGinny Lunn Princes TrustThomas Parry Forum for Private BusinessJames Phipps BISEmmanouil Schizas ACCALeigh Sear SFEDIProfessor John Sparrow Birmingham City UniversityProfessor John Thompson Huddersfield University


Appendix 2: Mentor Discussion Guide


SMALL FIRMS ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVEGET MENTORING

MENTOR INTERVIEWS - DISCUSSION GUIDE

INTRODUCTION

SFEDI has been commissioned by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to develop and deliver an enterprise mentoring programme, Get Mentoring

Get Mentoring will recruit and train 15,000 business mentors in the UK from the micro, small and medium business community. Once trained the mentors will be deployed across a range of mentoring organisations accessible via mentorsme.co.uk. The project started in October 2011 and will finish in September 2012

As part of Get Mentoring, we are undertaking a research project to explore a number of questions related to the mentoring process, the associated development needs and requirements and the benefits, impact and value of enterprise mentoring on the skills required to start, survive and thrive

We are currently undertaking a series of consultations with owner-managers and entrepreneurs supported by the Get Mentoring project along with interviews with businesses being mentored and other stakeholders involved with Get Mentoring and the mentoring landscape. This discussion – part of the interviews with mentors

Focus – personal and business characteristics, your experiences of mentoring other businesses, your experiences of Get Mentoring, development needs and requirements

Duration - 1 hour Confidentiality – All responses will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not

be used to identify and your business


SECTION 1: BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS

This section focuses on you and the characteristics of your business, as well as any previous mentoring experiences.

Issues to be covered:

Personal characteristics Previous experiences

o Employmento Self-employment and small business managemento Business and enterprise support

Key characteristics of the current business Previous experiences of mentoring

o Formal/informalo Paid/voluntaryo Internal to an organisation/External with other groupso Business/non-business


SECTION 2: THE MENTORING PROCESS

This section explores your previous and current experiences and/or understanding of mentoring other businesses, particularly the key activities undertaken and the associated barriers and challenges.


For all: Motivations and drivers

o Push/pullo Reactive/proactiveo Tactical/Strategic

Routes into mentoringo Opportunities for mentoringo Informal routes – e.g. networks and relationshipo Formal routes – e.g. advertised opportunities

If mentoring: Activities undertaking in mentoring others

o Opportunitieso Matchingo Initial engagemento Ongoing relationshipo Exiting

Type of relationship – paid, voluntary Types of clients

o Type of owner-managero Type of business - age, size, sector, stage of development

Barriers and challenges Support and development needs

If not mentoring: Reasons influencing lack of mentoring activity Plans to engage with mentoring activity Barriers and challenges to mentoring Support and development needs


SECTION THREE: GET MENTORING AND MENTORING SUPPORT

This section explores your experiences of engaging with Get Mentoring and other issues related to mentoring provision and support in the UK.


Get Mentoring Experience: Awareness of Get Mentoring Motivations - Why did they get involved? Initial expectations/perceptions of Get Mentoring Experiences of the ‘training’ (workshop and online)

o What worked?o What could have worked more effectively?

Impact and value added – what can the mentor do now which they could not do before (knowledge and skills)

Outcomeso What have they done since the training?o How will they keep it going?

Future training and development requirements Structures to address training and development requirements

Networks and relationships: Links to other informal and formal mentoring opportunities Fit of enterprise mentoring going forward with forms of enterprise support


SECTION FOUR: SUMMARY


Thank the participant for their time and contribution Ask if any questions about Get Mentoring or the research Outline next steps – completion of the diaries and interviewees with mentees


Appendix 3: Mentor Diary Template


SMALL FIRMS ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVEGET MENTORING

MENTOR INTERVIEWS – RESEARCH DIARY

INTRODUCTION

In 2011 SFEDI was commissioned by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to develop and deliver an enterprise mentoring programme, Get Mentoring. The project will recruit and train 15,000 business mentors in the UK from the micro, small and medium business community. Once trained the mentors will be deployed across a range of mentoring organisations accessible via mentorsme.co.uk. The project started in October 2011 and will finish in September 2012.

As part of Get Mentoring, we are undertaking a research project to explore a number of questions related to understanding and supporting enterprise mentoring. A key part of the research project is focused on understanding the experiences of individuals supported through the project in mentoring others, particularly key stages in the mentoring process and the associated barriers and opportunities.

To this end, we are asking a number of mentors to keep a diary or journal of their mentoring experiences. This builds upon the initial telephone consultations with mentors, in which you participated.

COMPLETING THE DIARY

The aim of the diary is to assist you in reflecting upon your experiences of mentoring other businesses, the challenges and opportunities and any associated areas of ongoing professional development for you. This not only helps us with understanding more about enterprise mentoring but also will be of some value to you in reflecting on what works and what could work better.

The diary should be completed after you have spoken to someone about the possibility of a mentoring session or after completing a mentoring session. As you can see from the template below, the diary is focused upon capturing initial perceptions and thoughts as opposed to you writing down a lot of material about the interaction. The key questions are:

Who initiated the contact? How the opportunity came about? When did it happen? What are the key characteristics of the mentee and their business idea or business?

Get Mentoring Mentor Research Diary Page 70

What happened in the mentoring session? What was the outcome(s)? What are the next steps?

There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions so just write down what you are thinking at the time. Any responses will be treated in strictest confidence and will not be used in any way which identifies you or the individuals you are working with. I have provided an example to assist you in gauging the type of information that we are looking for.

I will contact you after a couple of weeks to see how you are getting on the diary and some of the themes emerging from your mentoring sessions.

For any questions or further information please contact Leigh Sear on 0845 467 4928 or [email protected].


mailto:[email protected]

GET MENTORING RESEARCH DIARY TEMPLATE//Date: Time:

/Location:

Notes and Reflections1 Who initiated the contact?

2 How/Why did the contact come about?

3 What are the key characteristics of the mentee?

4 What happened?

5 What was the outcome(s)?

6 What are the next steps

7 Are there are any implications for your own development from the session. If yes, what are they?

7 Other comments/thoughts


Appendix 4: List of Interviewed Enterprise Mentors


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