The value of mentorship could apply to anyone. Students, employees, and even executives are obvious examples. Executive coaching is a thing for a reason. But when you think about it, how else do we learn but from others?

Mentors help us to learn and grow, both professionally and personally. When it comes to business, the value of mentorship can be astoundingly pivotal.

According to entrepreneur and advisor Doña Storey, “when you ask accomplished business owners how they achieved success, many will say they had a mentor who helped guide them throughout their business journey….

while research and trial and error can help you learn, nothing replaces the guidance of someone who has been there before.

Growing a business is challenging

For entrepreneurs and self-employed people running their own businesses, the many challenges cut across a wide spectrum, from finance to legal issues, IP protection, managing employees, suppliers and inventory, through to sales, marketing and business development. For small businesses and newer entrepreneurs, there are special challenges that can present themselves.

Women entrepreneurs also face their own unique hurdles in launching or growing a business. The numbers tell the story:

• Approximately 16% of small and medium-sized enterprises are majority women-owned
• Only 10% of high-growth firms are owned by women
• About 8% of women-owned businesses export

The rate of entrepreneurial failure is almost legendary. More than 50% of startups fail within the first 5 years of their launch.  For all sorts of reasons, the odds of success are much higher when an entrepreneur has access to a mentor.

Entrepreneurs aside, what about the rest of us? It is said that a good mentor challenges and inspires you, in addition to supporting you in your quest to do better and achieve more. Health journalist Joelle Kleina adds that “having a mentor in your life can make a big difference to your success and happiness. Study after study has found that professionals who have had mentors experience higher salaries and greater job satisfaction; one study of Sun Microsystems employees found that mentored employees were five times more likely to be promoted than their non-mentored peers.”

Where are the mentors?

Given the challenges, it’s safe to say that in the world of business, it’s widely accepted that a mentor can be an invaluable resource. And yet, according to Harvard Business School professor Thomas Delong and his colleagues, “everyone we spoke with over age 40 could name a mentor in his or her professional life, but younger people often could not.'”

The business landscape has changed profoundly in the last few decades, significantly impacting the way we can expect to find guidance and career advice. According to Priscilla Claman, a career coaching expert, “Middle-and senior-level managers are no longer the ones with stable jobs. With changes in direction, restructuring, downsizing, acquisitions, mergers and, of course, recessions, your mentor is just as likely to move on or be laid off as you are.”

We need to change our thinking about what a mentor should look like, according to Dorie Clark, accepting that the “beneficent, all-knowing senior professionals — are in short supply these days.”

Mentorship is changing

A new model, a kind of mentorship by community, has surfaced in place of the way things used to be. Think of it as a kind of personal board of directors, a group of people you consult regularly. Rather than relying on one trusted advisor, why not benefit from the feedback and guidance of many – colleagues, peers, a counterpart, a superior, your boss, or even consultants. Consider the value of getting feedback from multiple viewpoints and perspectives.

So, what can we expect from a mentor exactly? Futurpreneur Canada breaks it down:

The role of a mentor is to:

• Help build your self-reliance and leadership skills
• Help you discover your own insights, abilities and solutions as you start and grow your business
• Support your self-directed learning and help you come to your own conclusions and decisions
• Listen to your ideas and answer your questions truthfully
• Give emotional support while also challenging you
• Provide real world business advice when requested/appropriate
• Celebrate milestones and successes

How do I find a mentor?

According to Futurpreneur Canada, many mentorship programs and opportunities exist across Canada for entrepreneurs, both for one-on-one mentorship and mentoring advisory boards. Their Futurpreneur Canada Start-Up Program individually matches entrepreneurs to ideal mentor candidates based on skills and personalities.

Regardless of where you look, the key is to find a mentor who suits your needs and personality. The best match is made when a mentor complements your own skills, experience and needs.

7 expert tips for mentees to get the most out of your mentor:

1. Be prepared for change. “Mentoring can have a profound impact on your personal growth, but you have to be open to change.” — Lois Zachary, EdD, author of a number of books on mentoring including The Mentee’s Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You.
2. Trust your mentor. “Not only open your mind, but open your heart to the other.” — Rabbi Victor Gross, co-director of the ALEPH Sage-ing Mentorship, a spiritual mentoring program in Boulder, Colo.
3. Be an active listener. “Always make sure you understand what your mentor is saying or asking. If not, don’t be afraid to ask questions.” — Rabbi Victor Gross
4. Be authentic. “Unless the mentee is real, the mentor ends up mentoring an imposter and it’s a waste of time for both.” — Lois Zachary, EdD
5. Be committed. “If your mentor is willing to make the commitment, you need to honor her time and willingness to work with you.” — Liz Katkin, former partner at an international law firm and mentor for new associates.
6. Challenge yourself. “If you stay in your comfort zone, that’s where you’ll always be. You need to stretch yourself. Take risks.” — Rabbi Victor Gross
7. Don’t expect to be promoted; expect to be promotable. “It’s not about immediate achievement. It’s about developing your future potential.” — Lois Zachary, EdD

Consider mentoring someone

Giving your time as a mentor can not only make a difference in another person’s life but it can change your own as well. It can benefit your career by motivating you to stay at the top of your game and to pursue your own growth and professional development.

The following tips can help you to do your part to develop a mutually satisfying and beneficial relationship:

• Be willing to commit – don’t take it lightly and be honest with yourself about how much time you have to give
• Ensure it’s the right fit – focus on the goals and learning objectives of the mentee rather than your own agenda
• Listen and ask good questions – focus on the mentee’s needs instead what you think is right for them
• Meet regularly – mentoring works best on a regular basis
• Challenge mentees to take risks and step out of their comfort zone – learning and achieving new things requires confronting our growing edges
• Provide constructive and honest feedback
• Set a good example – be conscious that you’re a role model

The post Why you need a network of mentors and how to find them appeared first on Trade Ready.

The Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) is proud to announce Allyson Fraser as the recipient of Export Development Canada (EDC) – Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) Student Internship for 2019. Allyson will work with EDC’s Exporter Outreach Group.

Getting the work experience to attain the CITP designation

The EDC – FITT student internship is offered annually to one full-time student who has successfully completed the FITTskills international business program. This one-year internship is designed to aid this individual by giving them the work experience necessary to apply for their Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) designation. The FITT CITP designation is the world’s leading professional designation for global business practitioners.

EDC is Canada’s export credit agency, offering information, knowledge and innovative commercial solutions to help Canadian exporters and investors expand their international business. EDC’s knowledge and partnerships are used by more than 10,000 Canadian companies and their global customers in up to 200 markets worldwide each year.

Graduate of International Business program

Allyson Fraser is a graduate of Algonquin College’s Business Administration – International Business program, which has been accredited by FITT.

“Before going to Algonquin College, international trade was not a field that I knew much about. The first Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) course that I took was Global Business Environment; it was a great introduction to the rest of the FITT curriculum and built a solid foundation that I was excited to build upon.

As I continued through my program, I found that the classes built upon FITT were my favourite. The training was very comprehensive, and the final projects were built upon realistic scenarios that one would face while attempting to engage in international trade. I was impressed by the fact that my final projects counted toward both my class grade and the Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) designation.

My father is a small business owner and I have seen first-hand how much goes into owning and operating a local business. After graduating the program, I felt empowered to help other entrepreneurs like him grow their businesses by engaging in international trade. The EDC x FITT Intern position will give me the chance to do exactly that and I could not be more thrilled!”

The Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) offers a sincere congratulations to Allyson for being chosen for this unique opportunity and extends best wishes to Allyson for future success in her chosen field of international trade!

The post Congratulations to the newest EDC-FITT Student Intern of 2019! appeared first on Trade Ready.

If unemployment rates are down and companies are hiring again, then more people are working and there are fewer candidates to fill open jobs. This is obviously true, but there is much more to it than that.

There is a big difference between “talent” and any breathing individual who can fill the job.

We are all looking for the top talent, the change makers, the future leaders who will drive innovation, bring change, increase profits, propel growth and who make our companies better than they were before.

If you hire enough talent, it will be a change-maker for your business.

Where is the next generation of talented supply chain professionals?

During the economic downturn of 2008 and 2009, companies let people go and drastically slowed or stopped hiring all together.

As a result, there were a lot of talented supply chain and logistics professionals, mostly middle management, who left the industry after losing their jobs and did not return.

Part of the problem arose when time away from the industry left these employees unable to keep up with industry advancements in technology.

When companies started hiring again, they found these once-talented managers had left the industry and, in most cases, would not or could not return.

This put more pressure on hiring managers and human resources to seek out and hire younger employees as they were graduating from school.

Without chances to succeed, potential supply chain professionals are choosing other paths

Historically, however, our industry is not the strongest at developing and running supply chain and logistics internship programs.  And, unfortunately, the college and university programs that do are facing their own challenges.

Some college students whose programs have an internship requirement cannot find placements in their field due to the limited opportunities in their location. They often rely on more general business internships to fulfill their program requirements for graduation.

This is what causes the largest problem: talented logistics and supply chain students who are forced to take these more general internships, are in turn hired for general business roles during their internships, and never find their way into the logistics and supply chain industry.

Even after choosing the right program, doing well in their courses, and positioning themselves for a bright SCM career, the lack of opportunities to “get their foot in the door” to the industry is leading these students to other fields.

Further compounding the issue, I frequently hear from hiring managers that college graduates do not have “real world, on the job” training and experience.

“Really?,” I ask. “How many college interns did your company utilize this year?”

Usually, the response is…none.

Now, hopefully, the “talent shortage” is a bit clearer.

Providing opportunities for the best and brightest to get their start

We need to change this about our industry and we need to do it right away.  More companies need to offer and utilize supply chain and logistics-specific internships, to offer students that much needed experience in the field.

The biggest bonus for the company is that they get first access to top talent, whom they can hire full-time pending graduation. When we make this change, our industry receives top talent instead of having a talent shortage.

At Small World Recruiting, we have developed a Logistics and SCM Internship Board, www.scminterns.com, to support the industry because we feel that matching interns with companies who need them is a big step in the right direction.

Posting a resume is free for students, and we are starting to spread the word at colleges and universities, who are encouraging students to register.

However, we are really busy doing what we do best, recruiting mid-management and executive level roles within the industry.  For the board to be successful, we need your help.

So please, spread the word and share and post this article.

Encourage your HR team to develop an internship program, and then post the opportunity on our internship board so that logistics and supply chain students can find it and come to work for you after graduation.

As with anything, good things take time, but I hope that in a year or two this logistics and supply chain-focused internship board will be the source of finding top talent within our industry, and that we can finally say, “No, we don’t have a talent shortage.”

In fact, we will have access to the best talent the industry has ever seen.

The post We need to stop passing up new grads and develop talented candidates in the supply chain industry appeared first on Trade Ready.