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Mentoring Your Way Through Your Career
Sophie Hussey • 22 October 2023
Mentoring Your Way Through Your Career
We facilitated a workshop at the Service Desk Institute's conference, Spark23, in Birmingham to discuss mentoring and how it can support you with your personal development and career growth.
The section below provides high level detail of what was discussed in the workshop with the addition of a downloadable file providing more information & guidance from our team at Lapis Consulting Services.
Content discussed at SDI Spark23 conference on Tuesday 31st October at 12:30, Meeting Room 2.
Enabling Change the Right Way Workshop
My career path took a new route at the start of the year when I took the opportunity to start my own business as a service management & leadership consultant. Whilst of course it has been incredibly exciting, after being a permanent employee since I left university, it has been daunting at times with a steep learning curve to understand what starting & running a business entails. I’ve made jokes in the past about contractors and how simple their working life was: work for a client on a project with no BAU activities to worry about, charge a day rate, take holiday when you like, pay less tax, and so on. This could not be further from the truth. This is what I’ve learned so far: You have to move from a PAYE mindset to building a viable business from a brand & financial perspective i.e. The business earns the day rate, not the consultant There are business liabilities and financial overheads to manage such as tax, NI contributions, VAT, etc. There are subscriptions, fees and start-up costs to pay, e.g. Accountant, insurances, etc. You can take holiday when you like, but the business isn’t earning when you do. Similarly, you don't get the benefits you get as a permanent employee (sick pay, pension, health insurance, etc.) There’s more to that list in terms of all the financial and legal responsibilities of running a business but I’ll pause there and shift focus to the cultural changes I’ve experienced. As a permanent employee my working days were almost mapped out to a degree in terms of the BAU responsibilities & deliveries as well as the project and ad hoc work to be planned, delivered and reviewed. Meetings usually started at 8am and were back-to-back throughout the day. Many of these meetings were by rote rather than adding value, or being action focused with clear outcomes. I often worked additional hours to catch up on the actual work that couldn’t be done during the working day due to meetings and other demands on my time. As a consultant I have a statement of works with clear deliverables - similar to a project brief. My days are not filled with endless meetings and when there are meetings, they have a purpose, clear outcomes and I feel productive. I feel a freedom that is both alien and welcome in terms of how I spend my time as well as in terms of the rich interactions I have with my clients. I am in my 4th month as a consultant, but it’s certainly given me a new perspective on working environments, what is important to me for my career and the organisations I work with. I have been incredibly lucky with my first client - getting to work with some incredibly talented people for a fast-growing organisation has brought me joy. I thoroughly enjoy my work and feel a lightness of spirit now that motivates me to succeed and drive myself forward. The time may come in the future where I return to the world of permanent employment, but for now I’m relishing the adventure, lapping up as much experience as possible whilst building my business, making new connections and developing what I hope to be long lasting relationships with colleagues and clients alike.
Unless you’ve been very unlucky, everyone has had a manager who was also a leader – someone who kept you motivated (seemingly without trying), who kept you informed at the right level, inspired you and helped you develop. Most people have also had a manager who could, to put it politely, use some personal development time. To be an effective people manager there are skills you need in order to support & motivate your team(s) as well the more demanding side of dealing with performance or behavioural challenges. To manage well is not easy - amongst other things, it requires dedication, consistency, fairness, empathy and to advocate for your teams, especially following up on your promises. To be a leader, there are many traits that are desirable and what those required traits are differ depending on your perspective. From my perspective there are key things I look for in a leader (and strive to be as a leader): empathy active listener good communicator authenticity honesty integrity receptive to discussion and others’ ideas The above go hand-in-hand, working together to build respect and trust in the leader. Can someone be both a manager and a leader? Absolutely they can. But it’s important to understand that just because someone is a leader, it doesn’t automatically mean that individual would be a good manager, and vice versa. Similarly, if you consider hierarchical management within your organisation - those people in executive, director or senior management positions aren’t automatically leaders because of the position they hold within the organisation. Many organisations and people in positions of responsibility struggle to help people make that transition into management and leave them to “make it up as you go along” or “reinvent the wheel”. How can I become a leader or be a better leader? Being true to yourself, your beliefs & values, whilst respecting, empathising and listening to those around you is most important. Authenticity cannot be faked and to inspire or motivate others, you must be reliable & be as objective as possible, have a holistic approach and include / collaborate with others. Never stop learning and developing and understand that you don't always know everything or have all the answers but have the humility to admit that and use it as an opportunity for growth. There are a million and one books out there with advice, research and tips on leadership and what it takes to be a leader. I’ve read a fair few myself (my favourite being The Phoenix Project) and have learned a lot from those kinds of books but ultimately, I find the best way to be a leader is to follow my mantra of “be bold, be brave, be you”.