Notes from the CEO - Ian’s Mentoring Journey

Ian Parry – My Mentoring Journey

Sarah Morgan, our COO and the person who is our moral compass, sends me a Slack message and it goes something like this (some artistic licence is used 😊):

Sarah: Hey Ian, will you write a bit about your journey so we can share it on our website?

Me: Yeah of course, as soon as I can ask co-pilot how to do it.

Sarah: Ummm no…

Me: So, you want me to write it from what is inside my head?

Sarah: Yes

Me: I barely passed my English GCSE but I will give it a go!

Sarah: You are the best leader and CEO I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Your story is worthy of its very own TED talk.

Me: You are too kind Sarah

Ok, so it didn’t go quite like that, but you get the gist!

So, where to start?

Let’s just say it was a number of years ago, and I had no clue about leadership (I’m not even sure I had even heard the word). I was a manager though and was proud to be one.

Up to that point I wasn’t sure what I would be good at, but I had confidence that I would be good at something. Although with a below average education behind me where I saw lots of “could do better“ statements written in my school reports and my grades at exam time were pretty poor - So much so that my Grandfather had told my Mother that she was foolish to let me stay in school.

Looking back at my first management role, I realised there were two things that I spent most of my time doing. I said “YES” to opportunities that came my way and I enjoyed the feeling of helping people.

For me, saying “yes” was about learning new things and I equated this with progression, development and ultimately promotion.

Helping people was my dopamine fix (so I learnt years later). It felt amazing to be asked to help and even more amazing if someone thanked me for doing so. Looking back, I enjoyed it and started to become successful.

In a short time, I was asked to join a mentoring scheme for high performers. Wow! As a boy from the South Wales valleys, this blew my mind and got me thinking seriously about my future and what I could achieve.

I was introduced to someone more senior than me, which was intimidating and scary. But she handled the first meeting with softness that helped me look beyond my fears and focus on how we as two people could work together to accelerate our learning. This, for me, became the single principle for mentoring.

Whilst the mentoring programme at the time required improvements, that single principle has stood the test of time.

This was my first experience of mentoring and from that point on, shaped the way I mentored. I carried on chasing my dopamine fix by saying “YES” and by searching for new chances to learn. Over the years I have come to realise that I get bored easily and need lots of different projects happening at the same time.

Fast forward to 2018 and whilst working with several start-up energy companies, I had an idea that turned into Future Leaders Mentoring. I saw the talent on show and kept thinking about how I could help them get to where they were going more quickly.

Using the foundations of the “single principle” of working together to accelerate learning, I set about convincing others to join me. Luckily, there were several people who were just as excited to help, and who were in the room with me when Future Leaders Mentoring was born.

I will always be grateful to them all and the least they deserve is a shout out, so thank you to:

·       Samantha Miles

·       Pamala Nast

·       Richard Bartlett

·       Lizzie Hieron

Having these people believe in Future Leaders Mentoring strongly enough to give up their time gave me the confidence to know I was doing the right thing.

One other thing about me is that I like to keep things simple. Hang in there, we are nearly at the end!

Mentoring can be described in many different ways, and you can learn about it via hundreds of training courses, incorporating various methodologies. But for me, it is two people respecting each other and talking in a safe space about the most important topics to them.

If you have read this far you either appreciate what I have said, or you scrolled straight to the bottom like we all do when met with a T&Cs checkbox. Either way, I ask you to do three things:

·       Help more people. You will love the feeling you get from a selfless act!

·       Say “yes” more often.

·       Always simplify things.

If there is anything that I have that said sparks an interest or has your brain whirring, then please contact me so we can chat more.