Being a Réseau Mentorat mentor

Réseau Mentorat’s mentors are mid-career, late-career or retired entrepreneurs with a proven track record and five or more years of experience. They must be available and qualified to volunteer their mentoring services to help foster a mentee’s development and entrepreneurial skills.

How does an entrepreneur become a mentor?

The process goes like this:

1. You, as a future mentor, will fill out the application form on the Réseau Mentorat website.
2. A representative of the mentorship group/cell or the coordinator will make an appointment with you to go over your application and determine whether you meet Réseau Mentorat’s stringent criteria.
3. Once the selection process is complete, you will attend a mandatory workshop so you can learn about the Réseau Mentorat mentoring approach. Some mentorship cells also offer a program that matches new mentors with experienced counterparts to facilitate their integration.
4. At the end of the workshop, the mentorship cell will pair you with a mentee (this is known as a dyad), based on your personality and the mentee’s needs. The skills development workshop is a prerequisite for errors and omissions insurance coverage.
5. Your mentee will call you and set up an initial meeting.
6. If you have the right “chemistry,” the dyad will be formally activated.

How long does a dyad stay active?

The average mentor-mentee relationship lasts two years. The two of you will arrange monthly meetings about 90 minutes long. You may decide to make this period shorter or longer, depending on your mentee’s needs and your availability.

What are the selection criteria?

The success of the Réseau Mentorat entrepreneur mentoring program is contingent on the quality of our mentors. Candidates are hand-picked to work with our mentees based on their business experience and entrepreneurial know-how. Mentors’ personality and relatability are taken into account in the selection process, rather than their technical expertise or the size of the business they have founded and/or run.

In addition to the required entrepreneurial background and qualities, the following criteria are considered:

• Accessibility: Prospective mentors must be open and willing to work actively with up-and-coming entrepreneurs and with their mentorship cell.
• Lack of conflict of interest: There must not be any personal conflicts of interest with a mentee’s business and the mentor must not expect to benefit in any way from the mentoring experience. Moreover, mentors may not have any business ties with a mentee or be active in the mentee’s financial institution.
• Mentoring mindset: Mentors must have a knack for synthesizing information, express themselves clearly and articulately, and possess a keen sense of value and practicality. They need to master the art of active listening and show poise, confidence, empathy and humility. They must have a reputation for credibility and integrity and bring a human touch to their interactions with others.

How much does it cost?

There is no cost to becoming a volunteer Réseau Mentorat mentor. Mentees must pay annual membership fees and any administrative fees applicable to their mentorship cell.