POWER TALK SUSTAINABLE PROFITS DEC-JAN 20-21

Mentoring for
Sustainable
Leadership
“Mentorship is not about age or title, it’s about action. It’s not about pushing wisdom down from the
top down or bottom up, it’s about sharing wisdom all around. A moment of mentorship can lead to a
lifetime of impact.” Forbes
Throughout my career I have been very fortunate
in having some great mentors, who have helped me in many
ways. Steve Kaufman, ex-CEO of Arrow Electronics and now a
Harvard Business School Professor, who played a huge part
in helping develop my business skills. Sir Peter Gershon, my
amazing Chairman at Premier Farnell and former Chairman
at National Grid, for his learnings, and the exceptional Sir
Roger Carr, Chairman at BAE Systems, for his support during
my board tenure. I name here just a few, I have been blessed
with many wise and trusted advisors.
,
I have tried, in return, to be an active mentor for individuals,
and a coach for businesses of all shapes and sizes. I believe
mentoring is key to evolving in one’s personal and
professional journey.
As leaders it is important that we learn from those who are
different from us in age, profession, interests and ways of
thinking. Cross-generational and cross-dimensional learning
is vital to our growth personally and professionally and is one
of the best examples I can think of being truly diverse and
totally inclusive – it’s a great way to learn about the many
similarities and differences between us and helps us
acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate the uniqueness in
each other. and ideas – unexpected inputs from totally
different perspectives – perspectives I wouldn’t have
thought of or connected with otherwise. These have helped
me make better business decisions, listen more intently to
my teams and act with greater agility.
Values I admire from my various mutual mentoring sessions
are how much everyone appreciates and admires honesty,
responsiveness and being genuinely interested as well as
interesting – being authentic to oneself and others without
trying too hard
Mentoring is an act that is not time or age bound and can be
limitless – there is no saying how long one can mentor or be
mentored – it can be a lifelong association and learning
experience and can be truly rewarding if based on mutual
respect, understanding and supported by an insatiable
appetite to learn, trusted and wise mentor is not a simple
task – it’s a challenge that requires us to push ourselves
every day to be relevant and authentic to develop a genuine
interest in seeing others grow and dedication and
commitment to see it through to the end. It
Power Talk l Sustainable Profits