The UK government has announced a further expansion in the MentorsMe Get Mentoring programme to provide practical advice to small businesses.
This is in effect the replacement for the BusinessLink service - loved by someone and disliked by many - which has been axed.
As a business coach, I believe in mentoring although I have concerns about a free service which doesn't inspire confidence with the small business owners, tainting the image of professional coaching and mentoring.
Mentorsme Controversy
This article on the National Enterprise Network website has some interesting views. Inevitably it includes a view of how mentoring differs from coaching and training/advice. Some peopel get very hung up about these definitions but my own view is that the intervention style depends on what the client wants and needs in the particular circumstances.
I have clients who want to be spoonfed the answers on some things, hear about my experiences on others before making their own minds up and have the answers within them that need to be brought to the surface in others. It may even all happen in the same phone call.
The MentorsMe programme is causing controversy as the comments on the announcement show including plenty of criticism for retired ex-bank managers who are likely to be recruited and have spent their lives in a corporate rather than entrepreneurial environment.
I'd like to know what you think about the Mentorsme programme so please do leave a comment below.
The MentorsMe Website
I've had a quick look at the MentorsMe website and at 22 November 2011, an Alexa ranking of 887,000 shows how little impact it is having when it should be attracting visitors who are small business owners needing helping and mentors who want to promote their services to clients.
Looking at the terms to become a mentor at Mentorsme, one phrase stood out
It is important that you have enough mentors in your organisation to be able to respond to requests for mentoring services from a large number of mentees
This suggests that Mentorsme is only interested in working with big organisations. This is a shame because many of the best business coaches are independent one man businesses dedicated to helping a small number of business owners to succeed.
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