Last few months have been a whirlwind of learning, inspiration, and collaboration at the hashtag#NationalBusinessMentoringConference2025. The flagship national programme was launched by the government in 2021 and offers support from business mentors alongside leadership and management training.
The conference featured an impressive lineup of motivational speakers, panel discussions, knowledge-sharing, and networking opportunities.
The theme of the conference being;
Inspiring Productivity, Transforming Growth!
A delightful warm welcome by Georgina CEO Association of Business Mentors (ABM)
👏🏾 I was particularly encouraged by the statistics from Help to Grow: Management Course Course making it the largest mentoring initiative in the world:
✅️3,017 volunteer mentors trained
✅️4,610 mentorships created
✅️31,000 mentoring hours delivered
✅️89% mentee satisfaction
Mentoring makes a significant difference in building resilience, productivity, and growth by fostering mindsets which have a lasting impact on organisations. The program is supported by :
Chartered Association of Business Schools
Association of Business Mentors (ABM)
Newable Advice Enterprise Nation
I enjoyed an enthralling talk by the founder of Homeserve Richard Harpin on the 8 secrets to building a billion-£ business. He introduced us to the term ‘COACHMENT,’ a hybrid combination of coaching and mentoring, and I resonated his analogy about the hedgehog strategy from Jim Collins’ book hashtag#GoodToGreat. focus on a single core concept.
Here are some fabulous takeaways;
🔥Hire your replacement
🔥Follow a NOT-to-do list
🔥Use the Hedgehog strategy
🔥Join accountability masterminds
Encouraging talks from Sarah Tyrrell driving SME growth through mentoring and Liz King raising the quality of business mentoring were particularly memorable. Malcolm Cohen Newable Advice, emphasized the importance of raising quality, experience sharing, collaboration, understanding the value of mentoring, partnering, and adapting to increase opportunities to transform businesses.
The panel discussion; how mentoring drives growth and productivity was insightful also to hear firsthand experiences from Chris Baker, Mhari C. Emma Ellse, who highlighted that mentoring should be seen as holistic all-round development. They explained that mentoring benefits both mentors and mentees by serving as a sounding board for entrepreneurs who might otherwise feel isolated and develop a fixed mindset.
A huge thank you to Help to Grow for organising this extremely powerful and content-rich conference. 💙
It left me eagerly anticipating conference part2. Special thanks to Dave Sharpe🎤 for his flawless, award-winning MC mastery! 🙏🏾
Mentoring provides accountability, a sounding board, assistance with growth action plans, challenges to entrenched beliefs, better communication skills, and encouragement for a growth mindset. 😀