How mentors and coaches can make all the difference

I was reading this wonderful article from First Round Capital on how a fantastic mentor can make all the difference to a mentee and how mentorship is a fantastic way to give back. The key points from the article were:

1. If you are writing to someone to be your mentor, don’t ask if the person wants to be your mentor. The word mentor secretly implies lots of commitment for an undefined period of time. Instead use words like guidance / direction
2. Keep it time-boxed, e.g. once every 2nd week for the next 12 weeks
3. Come prepared with an agenda and goal (mentee)
4. Show progress between meetings (mentee)
5. Don’t boil the ocean in every meeting, instead be focused around specific problems / themes (mentee)
6. Exchange goals with the mentor i.e. understand what is driving the mentor too (both)
7. As a mentor, go in with the mindset that you will learn from the exchange too (Mentor)

My story with my mentor

I was 19 when I met my mentor Ola, who today is my partner, co-founder and colleague that I still work with over a decade later. Our relationship has transformed from a mentor — student to some mentoring and mostly partnering. While he still has more experience that I do, having worked so closely we understand our strengths that we each bring to the table, gaps and hence joint choices we can make.

I have moved from trusting his ideas 100% when he was my mentor to trusting his instincts and separating instincts from ideas. I think experience and wisdom gives you great instincts but does not necessarily make you immune from making mistakes when it comes to breaking new ground. I think my work capacity, my own knowledge and experience tags nicely with his instincts, wisdom and experience.

Without him as my mentor, I would definitely not be the CEO of Result, a company he started in 1999. I would have by no chance met my wife, had my son or be living in Sweden and travelling the world. I would have also not been part of Magine TV or Epicenter or other companies we have started or work with today. In short, I believe the right mentor — mentee relationship can be life changing and I am the living proof of it.

Mentor — Mentee to part mentor most partner relationship between Ola and me (left photo taken in 2007, right photo taken in 2017)

Systematising this insight into a way of working:

We are using this insight in every aspect of what we do today.

• Innovation Labs: We work with large enterprises to support high speed innovation projects from their own employees (internal innovation) or find and pilot new types of partnerships / M&A opportunities within our innovation labs (external innovation) or start companies with them (e.g. Epicenter with AMF). Here all the internal innovation teams are paired with different types of coaches / mentors who move in with the teams for set period of time (generally between 6–12 weeks). Most of the teams have the spirit, mindset and drive to succeed, but need guidance, experience, wisdom from both within their organisation and outside. All our labs have a coach from within the organisation and one from outside (typically from my team) to move in with them, remove obstacles, open up network, share wisdom and guide them to their destination

Example of an email we get when working with our internal innovation lab teams

• Scale-Up Labs: We work with hyper growth digital companies that have turn over of 2M EUR+ or have raised Series A funding. They come to us needing help in executing their growth strategy (or in some cases creating and executing one). Here, we work with them as co-entrepreneurs rolling up our sleeves in execution while being a sounding board / coaches for general growth issues. As the saying goes “if growing is not painful, you are not doing it right”. Our growth team works 50% as coaches guiding the management teams and 50% reporting to the same management team on key business functions. We in fact have a growth hotline where teams call in and just cry out their growth issues.

Another example of an email you get as a mentor / coach — very fulfilling.

• Startup Mentoring: While we do not invest in startups, we mentor about 8 startups every quarter at Epicenter. We pick companies with teams we like, give them free office space and mentoring / coaching. We love it when we get mails like the one below when this works. This has of course been made legendary by YCombinator and TechStars.

3 reasons why I recommend finding a mentor / coach or being one

• I think what I love about working with teams is the knowledge, experience and kind of bond you share jointly. The experiences are intense, personal and challenging
• I find purpose in seeing individuals and myself grow in every measurable dimension during such a short period of time. And as the saying goes Purpose beats profits in a knock-out any day. It can’t be more truer than here.
• I find that I make friends easier with such teams since we have a spirit of honesty and clear communication (not with all teams / individuals of course)

It is easy to start.

Just ask or volunteer.

And read the first part of this article on making sure you are a good match for each other.