Get a mentor, get ahead

When the latest Apprentice winner, Dr Leah Totton, opened her clinic in the City of London at the start of the year, she wasn’t standing before the cameras on her own. Her famous mentor, Karren Brady, football boss, life peer and more, was right beside her while she cut the ribbon. Many sporting legends, entrepreneurs, politicians, musicians and movie stars have also had the support and encouragement of a mentor to help them rise to the top of their chosen field. However, it’s not only well-known individuals who are using mentoring to improve their knowledge and raise their performance. Organisations as diverse as the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Civil Service, the BBC and Shell run schemes for their employees. While, in the medical sphere, the Nursing Midwifery Council, Medical Women’s Federation and Royal Colleges of Nursing, Physicians and Surgeons respectively also offer mentoring schemes to their members.

WHAT IS MENTORING?

What do we mean when we call someone a ‘mentor’ and what can working with one actually do for you personally and professionally? The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that “mentoring is the long term passing on of support, guidance and advice. In the workplace it has tended to describe a relationship in which a more experienced colleague uses their greater knowledge and understanding of the work or workplace to support the development of a more junior or inexperienced member of staff.”

A mentor can help you:

• Develop your professional skills and commercial knowhow
• Act as a sounding board Boost your confidence
• Share best practice with you
• Help you set goals, both individual and organisational
• Enable you to develop your network

A MENTOR, NOT A COACH

These terms are often used inter-changeably but there are some significant differences. Firstly, the partnership between mentor and mentee can be very enduring, in some cases lasting several years, if that is what both parties want or need. The interactions between the two are likely to be informal and unstructured, rather than goal-oriented, with the agenda driven by the mentee. The mentor is likely to be someone more experienced than the mentee in their speciality and the mentor should be willing to pass on their knowledge. However, in reverse mentoring, someone operating at a senior level will be mentored by a more junior or inexperienced person.

An effective mentor will:

• Clarify what they can do for you
• Take the time to listen to what you say
• Give vital support and advice
• Share information, openly and honestly, often drawn from their own experiences
• Be available to you when you need them, within agreed timescales

In 2013, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published a detailed report, written by Leandro Galli from Warwick Business School and BMG Research, on the demand for mentoring among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It found that “75% of those who have ever used mentors were satisfied with them (54% are very satisfied)… 87% of those currently using mentors were satisfied, and none were dissatisfied.” In addition, “of those that have ever used mentors, 74% would describe them as a specialist business mentor.” 

The Federation of Small Businesses says that “70% of small businesses that receive mentoring survive for five years or more, which is double the rate compared with nonmentored entrepreneurs.”

WORKING WITH A MENTOR

A good time, perhaps, to seek a mentor’s support is when planning a significant career change. If you are at the beginning of your career in aesthetic treatments, you might be looking for a new role, either full or part-time. Or you might already be practising aesthetic treatments but want to take your knowledge to the next level. Alternatively, you may want to develop your commercial skills and set up a clinic of your own. All these huge changes in themselves can be hard to do on your own but the path is not so lonely and daunting with the support of a mentor. As Mr Rajiv Grover, outgoing president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) and consultant plastic surgeon, says, “Aesthetic medicine is a science as well as an art and, historically, these similar fields have developed professionally through the method of mentorship. A mentoring scheme is a way in which practitioners, after they have attended courses of aesthetic treatments, can continue their learning and improve their skills, while feeling they are not alone.”

MEET THE MENTOR – SUE IBRAHIM

How does the mentoring relationship work in the context of aesthetic treatments? Sue Ibrahim, nurse consultant and founder of Elan Medical Clinic, has mentored over 30 professionals since she set up her mentoring scheme in 2010. It began when she joined an online forum run by the British Association of Cosmetic Nurses. With over 10 years’ experience in aesthetics, together with several years working in dermatology within the NHS and qualifying as a prescriber, Ibrahim realised that many nurses needed to build their confidence and improve their skills as well as their prospects. She became a regular contributor to the forum, sharing her knowledge and giving nurses practical advice on how to establish themselves and develop their careers. Before long, she was receiving emails from nurses all around the country asking her if they could shadow her at her clinic, in Rayleigh, Essex, for a day or two. Ibrahim was happy to do this freely – and still is – with her patients’ consent. However, it was clear that some of her visitors, while seasoned professionals in their own field, needed a higher level of support, and so she developed her own mentoring scheme, at an affordable price. This would enable her mentees to spend as much time as they wanted with Ibrahim and have access to her policies and procedures. They would be able to bring their own models to her clinic – outside of usual working hours - and attend Ibrahim’s masterclasses. She would also help her mentees develop their business skills. Her mentoring work is not restricted to nurses – she has also mentored doctors and other practitioners. She even mentored a competitor who came from a clinic just as few miles away from her own. Her main criteria for accepting a mentee is that, like her, they want to reach the highest possible standards.

A key aspect of Ibrahim’s work is bridging the gap between doctors and nurses attending initial day courses and then developing their experience so they can practice with both proficiency and confidence. “People are trained to administer and carry out procedures but not how to deal with managing complications. Yet both doctors and nurses have a duty of care to ensure they are competent,” she says. But the learning isn’t all one way. Ibrahim also learns from her mentees as much as they learn from her. In fact, when one of her mentees, a clinical nurse specialist, spotted a bruise on a patient that had lasted more than a month, the mentee advised the patient to see a GP, as she thought the patient could need anti-clotting medication.

Elizabeth Rimmer, who has her own clinic, London Professional Aesthetics, is one of Sue’s mentees. A nurse at a GP practice for 15 years, with experience of treating skin complaints, she became a partner and a prescriber but felt it was as far as she could go. It was time for a new challenge. Her interest in beauty and fitness inclined her towards aesthetic treatments and, in turn, that led her to the Facebook group that Ibrahim heads up for her mentees. She had also seen Ibrahim at conferences. They spoke on the phone and, as Rimmer says, “we clicked”. They also spent time together and emailed each other directly or via Facebook. Of being mentored, she says, “It’s invaluable having the opportunity to spend time at someone’s clinic. I soaked it all up like a sponge.” Rimmer also likes the opportunity for reflective practice where, together with Ibrahim, she goes through previous treatments and situations, considering what worked and what, with hindsight, could have been better. “When I talk to her, I’ve got her full attention, so I don’t feel uncomfortable,” she says. Ibrahim’s work has not gone unnoticed by her peers. In 2012 the British Association of Cosmetic Nurses gave her an award at conference for the support she has given, and continues to give, to nurses. Grover who, while not her mentor, as such, has been a supportive figure in her own career comments, “I admire the fact that Sue has taken the lead in this area by championing the concept of mentorship. It shows her resolve to raise standards and help others achieve the high standards she sets for herself.” But for Ibrahim, her greatest reward is the seeing how her mentees develop. “A lot of my mentees now have their own, successful clinics”, she says. “I’m proud I’ve helped them along their journey. I love my job.”