Micah has an absolutely wonderful
post on how to mentor entrepreneurs
(a must-read for entrepreneurs
or ANYONE working with entrepreneurs).
One of his tips?
“Ask, dont tell.
Its not your company.
Be respectful of that.”
I suck at this,
brutally suck at it,
and knowing this,
I tend to mentor more over email
than person to person.
With email,
I can say what I want to say
and then go back
and replace all the telling with questions.
If you’re mentoring entrepreneurs,
you can’t tell them what to do
with their own companies.
As Micah states
“The biggest value
you can ever provide
as a mentor
is helping the entrepreneur
discover their path for themselves.
Being a mentor is
an act of supportive self-discovery
not one of explicit direction.
Its hard to not just tell
the entrepreneur what to do
— after all, you’ve gone down that path
and have succeeded or failed,
so you should know
— but fight that instinct,
and instead, help them
become better leaders,
dot connectors and problem solvers.”
Ask. Don’t Tell.