When you think of influential people from the world of business, Richard Branson is a name that’s likely to feature pretty high up on your list. With a multi-billion-pound empire that has included transport, music, and even his own private island getaway retreat, he certainly knows a thing or two about creating and sustaining huge success.

With that in mind, it might pay to carefully consider his latest comments on the value of mentoring.

Speaking via a recorded message to an event on mentoring hosted by Purple Cubed, he said: ‘I am often asked what the link between a promising business person and a successful business person is, and mentoring always comes to mind. Giving people advice on how to achieve their goals is often overlooked in British businesses.’

The lesson here is really quite clear. Though formal training and development programs will always have an important role in any business, it’s time to start paying serious attention to the alternative options that could give your staff the capacity to shine.

A huge difference can be made by creating and implementing learning and development programs that will give staff members at all levels a chance to shine. They could work alongside skilled and understanding managers who are trained in coaching techniques, or work with qualified coaches or internal mentors who can help them overcome their barriers to success, look at challenges in a different light, and help your employees step into their full potential.

So perhaps it’s not actually that fancy e-learning platform that you really need. Or maybe that expensive training course that you’ve had in mind wouldn’t get you the very best return on your investment. It could be the case that you could reap the biggest rewards by going back to basics and enabling great conversations between your employee and their manager or internal mentor about how they can reach their full potential and career goals.

Are you ready to take the advice of Richard Branson, and try a different approach to the ongoing development of your staff? If your managers can become mentors or coaches of their teams, they will definitely see a huge change in their teams’ performance. We’ve got some great case studies from our clients where mentoring and coaching has taken their management skills and teams performance to the next level. So why not book a virtual cuppa with me and we can have a chat over a cuppa about how coaching could help you or your managers. Book your call here.

Or if you want to be a great leader, why not come along to my next FREE workshop being held in Bicester on 8th November – 5 Steps to becoming an Inspirational Leader.  Make sure you sign up below and I look forward to meeting you there!