The importance of a mentor...

I am certainly not the type of person to think I “know it all” or that I’m the finished article business owner. On the other hand I feel I am incredibly confident in my own skin and with my skillset, experience and capabilities learnt so far in my career.

I am going to focus my next few articles for LI on mentorship.

I have recently had my eyes opened by a certain business owner outside of my sector and the power it gives you to have a varied selection of mentors to talk to when needed, that sit outside of your normal circle. During my articles I will be mapping my own journey regarding mentorship and being involved in different forms of networking in the hope it can give other people the epiphany it has given me in the last few months.

My journey around seeking a mentor started with looking into the marketplace using LinkedIn and really taking in content from sources outside of my normal remit/industry. I wanted to make sure that I was going to focus on approaching businesses/owners that ran a certain types of business, to ensure I had the correct end goal in sight for my own company. I started to look for companies that had a very strong culture surrounding people, as I personal feel people are everything in a business and the reason for a businesses success an downfall.

I had the pleasure to speak with Jim Liptrot the Managing Director of a fantastic company called Howorth Air Technology. Howorth have been in business since 1858 and help save lives in the pharmaceutical and medical industries. Jim (already a very busy guy) has the real class to give me some time via LinkedIn and suggested we catch up via video the following week for a chat. That in itself already told me something about the man. After a 30-minute scheduled call overran by more than double, it was clear that our ethical practices and people orientated approach was something we shared dear, embedded within our personal DNA makeup.

Some of the questions he asked me challenged me in a way I was not used to and got me seeing my own business is a more holistic light. Its something that gets lost i think when you are into the day to day of running a business.

I was inspired by what Jim has done and is doing in transforming his businesses historic company culture into a customer and people focused business, who are successful and who save peoples lives. More than just the obvious success story, the guy behind the role was clear to see. Honesty and transparency oozed through and a sense of humility was refreshing to hear from someone clearly vastly more experienced than myself.

The “home run” for me here was not just the synergy of thinking with Jim, but also it highlighted the importance of mentorship from someone away from your business/industry.

A fresh outlook on things and someone to plug into with business challenges. This for me was a big eye opener as running a business can feel pretty lonely sometimes, even if you have fantastic people within it and are successful!

Please stay tuned for more updates and information regarding my mentorship journey and why its very important to network with the right people to help you along your very own journey!

#VIEWPOINT #KEEPPOSITIVE #GETTALKING

 AK