ENTREPRENEUR'S TOOLKIT

Topic 14. Engage With Mentors

Mentor meetings are opportunities to address challenges and gain insights that could change the course of your company. In this section, you will learn techniques for holding productive mentor meetings and optimizing interactions to move your business forward.

What's Included in this Guide:

1. Introduction: Engage With Mentors
2. Read Your Mentor
3. Redirect Your Mentor
4. Ask Better Questions
5. Build Relationships
6. Final Thoughts

Let's get started

Watch The Videos

Do the Exercises

Part 1.

Introduction: Engage with Mentors

Surrounding yourself with mentors who Give First to help build your business can be game-changing for an entrepreneur. This video introduces our Techstars mentors who will teach you how to optimize your time and productivity with each mentor meeting.

Part 2.

Read Your Mentor

Checking their watch, fidgeting or leaning in are all nonverbal signs mentors may give you during a meeting. This video will guide you on recognizing communication cues that indicate you may need to shift the conversation elsewhere.

Part 3.

Redirect Your Mentor

During a meeting, the mentor could get hung up on a topic you don’t want to explore. This video will help you avoid going down conversational rabbit holes and provide tactics for getting the meeting back on track.

Part 4.

Ask Better Questions

Entrepreneurs tend to waste time during mentor meetings describing what they do and failing to articulate their problems. This video will help you craft problem-specific questions for your mentor meeting to move your company forward.

Part 5.

Build Relationships

The day-to-day business objectives are only a small piece of running a great company. Regardless of the mentor’s background, you can leverage their knowledge in other ways to grow as a leader. This video will guide you in developing lasting relationships with mentors who can help you overcome common struggles of entrepreneurship.

Part 6.

Final Thoughts

Pats on the back are great, but you need mentors who will challenge you, and provide an authentic, real-world perspective about running a business. This video will help you choose the right mentors, dig deeper into the conversations, and gain real value from your mentor relationships.

Apply Your Knowledge

Continue to the worksheet where you can turn your knowledge into action.

B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. They also accelerate a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. As a Certified B Corporation, Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, because we believe entrepreneurs create a better future. We Give First, and we use our profits and growth to make a positive impact around the world.