Louise Ritson uses the term mentoring in a special way—to mean a one-to-one professional relationship with a personal mentor who does not provide you with advice, knowledge or skills. Instead, your personal mentor provides a high degree of empathy and rapport in helping you to use your own inner strengths most effectively.

Personal mentoring allows you to explore your own perceptions and feelings in depth and with the security and confidentiality of a professional setting. You can use personal mentoring, for example, to consider the personal impact of business issues, and the business impact of personal issues.

The objectives of personal mentoring are to maintain and enhance your personal effectiveness, to reduce stress, alleviate isolation, and avoid burnout. Typical outcomes include increased confidence in your intuition, beliefs and principles, calmer and more sure-footed handling of difficult situations, better realization of your strengths and passions, and clearer conceptualization.