As an experienced business professional, do you want to give back and pass on your experience to the next generation of business leaders? As an entrepreneur, do you want guidance and insight from a veteran in your journey of expansion? If yes, we welcome you to join our Leadership Hive Mentoring Programme and be part of the thriving community of successful businesses across Greater Manchester.
Leadership Hive Mentoring Programme, one of the most successful and innovative programmes under GC Business Growth Hub, matches SME leaders across different industries. Mentors would share experiences to help mentees through their challenges, helping them develop, change, and grow their business.
With a bespoke digital mentoring platform - iMentor, we will match you with a critical decision-maker in different sectors and industries. Through interaction, while the mentee can benefit from experience sharing, the mentor will also be nurtured with innovative ideas. The ultimate goal is to achieve a win-win situation for both parties and unlock growth across the region.
Supported more than 1,300 businesses in #GreaterManchester, 90% of which are SMEs.
97% of the mentees found having a Mentor has helped them improve their business performance.
Fostered the creation of 905 new jobs.
Recruited and engaged more than 700 mentors from SMEs and corporations & helped develop 1,100 senior business leaders
2,500 mentoring relationships have been established through the years, with a successful matching rate of 97%.
Helped to uplift sales of £33M.
Due to the success of the Leadership Hive Mentoring programme, GC Business Growth Hub has developed and launched a digital mentoring platform called iMentor.
iMentor is an innovative platform matching mentors and mentees across the city-region quickly and effectively. Based on the requirement provided by Mentor and Mentee, we use an algorithm to make the best possible matches.
It works by matching service users looking for business guidance with an experienced mentor who can provide useful knowledge and help apply actionable strategies. The long-term benefits of which include business growth, increased knowledge, and support.
Every successful person has been working and learning new skills for a long time, no one is born brilliant at their job. The existing programme has discovered that 97% of mentees found having a Mentor has helped them improve their business performance and joining the mentoring programme is definitely a good way to learn from the peers.’
With the latest digital platform, we provide an efficient and convenient way for mentors and mentees to enroll on the programme and find suitable counterparts. Individuals can easily complete the whole enrollment process at home. In addition, the digital platform also helps to break geographical and sector barriers, connecting both parties to start a meaningful mentoring relationship.
You can help the next generation of business leaders in Greater Manchester to be the center of successful business stories that create benefits for both the planet and humankind.
Your first contact will be with your Mentoring Advisor. The matching process can take a few weeks, as our mentoring experts put mentors and mentees through a rigorous pairing process to ensure long-term compatibility.
Once you are matched and introduced, it will be over to you and your Mentor to start the process. You both need to be engaged and committed to the Programme and promptly organise the all-important first meeting, which will be exploratory, aiming to establish some 'chemistry' and a mutual feeling that the relationship would be productive and effective.
Should you have any reservations at this stage over compatibility, either party can feed this back and be re-matched if necessary – our objective is for the mentoring partnership to be as enjoyable and effective as possible.
Once the pairing is agreed, you can expect up to eight hours’ worth of support. Of course, depending on both Mentor and Mentee, some relationships can last for a few months or even longer. The most effective and productive mentoring relationships are ones which set regular meetings, ideally once a month, with as many as feasible being face-to-face. Experience and feedback from successful relationships have highlighted the benefits of visiting each other in your work environments at least once.
This is especially the case if the Mentor comes to Mentee's workplace as early in the relationship as possible.
It's always a fulfilling role. By its very nature you are often working with someone who wants to learn, grow, develop and push themselves. Whilst a mentor might have skills and tons of experience, a mentee will have their own experiences too. Mentees can help refresh their ideas – it's about coming together and working something out. By sharing experience, it's a good way to inspire each other and grow the network in different industries and sectors.
Yes, the Programme welcomes Mentors from around the UK to share their experience and knowledge with our Mentee.
Mentoring has proven to be a fantastic support for thousands of SME businesses to learn from more experienced professionals. You will:
- Acquire insight from an experienced business leader
- Access a discussion partner to work through business challenges
- Gain assistance shaping strategy, organisation design and business plans
- Boost self-confidence and motivation for change and growth
It's a unique opportunity for businesses to gain access to high-calibre mentors with experience to share knowledge, ideas, and good practice.
Our mentors have worked with some of the regions and the UK's most productive and successful companies. All have been on their own journey of discovery and growth and now volunteer their time to share their experiences with those with specific business challenges.
Through iMentor, an innovative matching platform, we will base on your requirement to generate the best Mentor that suits you the most.
You need to meet the requirement below to get this fully funded support:
- All sectors eligible (including charities and CiC)
- Less than 249 FTE employees
- Growing organisation looking to increase profitability and/or create jobs
- Must be looking to improve leadership/productivity/resilience, and the Mentee must be a key decision-maker in the business or looking to personally develop their leadership skills within a senior post.
