I’m constantly overwhelmed by all the online advice on how to ‘win’ at work. It seems like every post starts with a clickbait title, and then lectures us on what we must do to succeed, or fail at work. I mostly ignore this stuff, classifying most of it as corporate waffle or just nonsense.

Recently I sailed the Mediterranean from Toulon to Barcelona; giving me some time to ponder on my life. I love travel, especially the journey which affords me time to think. When sailing I am always mesmerised by the waves, the wind and weather. On the ocean nature is in charge and we humans are just along for the ride. On this journey I thought of all those people who’ve helped and influenced me along the way. So I put fingers to keyboard and made a list of all my mentors. I use Evernote, not pen and paper as my journal. All backed up via Joplin and S3.

I do a lot of mentoring of my peers, professionals at a career crossroads, and also those entering the workforce. They often seek me out, either through referrals or because they hear that I like to listen, I don’t judge, and I like to challenge people to think boldly about their own careers.

Young professionals and those changing careers need more personalised information to navigate their own career journey than just a formulaic set of instructions. Each of our own career journeys is a unique wicked problem and not a series of tests to pass, in a ‘… do this get this outome…’.

In this post I’m going to acknowledge all the diverse and influential mentors that I’ve had throughout my career. I think of these people often, and am privileged to have known them. Some have passed, others remain lifelong friends and confidantes. Some, I have even forgotten their names. But all are good and great people.

I’m now in my fifth decade of work, and my career highlights would not have been possible without the guidance and opportunities afforded to me by my unselfish, insightful, and at times demanding and opinionated mentors.

These people not only helped me build useful skills and experience, they also introduced me to career opportunities. They have also helped me navigate conflicts and unprofessionalism, that I’ve faced from time to time throughout my career. Knowing when to dig in and uphold high standards when faced with bad behaviour, corporate bullying and shitty people; and when to depart the sinking ship of a toxic corporate culture, project, dysfunctional team or failure, are important situations that my mentors have helped me navigate successfully.

In true systems engineering fashion, which is my anchor profession, there are some emergent properties between mentor and mentee, that are an outcome of this trip down memory lane. Those unique and valuable properties of true mentors are:

  • Trust - where i can have full and frank discussions without the constraints of corporate HR or contractual or legal constraints.
  • Reachability - I can connect to my mentors at any time. Even decades later. They are my mentor and not constrained by a time period or work relationship.
  • Personal - They focus on me the person. It is a deep social connection. Human to human, not dissimilar to our ancestors sitting around a campfire. It is a one to one relationship.
  • Focussed - Discussions are around optimising, me, the individual. The topics present themselves. It is not a formulaic or checklist interaction.
  • Symbiotic and naturally evolving - Often, we have never mentioned our mentor, mentee role. It’s not contractual or formal, although it can be. I have had formal mentors, but I consider that a different relationship as the organisation is the third entity in that relationship. I’ve never found formal mentoring useful. I hate being micromanaged, and formal mentoring feels similar, with a third entity overseeing.

I was also surprised by how many mentors I have had. I am by nature fiercely independent, a loner and quite happy solving problems without assistance. This is how I was raised, and I make no apologies for having this persona. But over time I forced myself to socialise, work with others, embrace public speaking ( from age 13 ) and actively network and communicate broadly ( it took me 2 decades to work out how to successfully comunicate and network in the corporate context ). I count a total of not less than 50 mentors; a surprising result, which highlights the importance of mentors to my professional success over many decades.

I’ll not lament about our discussions, as they are mostly personal, and the details are of little interest to others. While many discussions were about building skills and capability, some were about holding ground, fighting back against discrimination and bullying and even exposing and combating unethical behaviour by others.

Here is the list, their role and my age as mentee.

What mentors would you like to acknowledge?

  • My 4 grandparents who endured the war years and were inspiring to me at an early age
  • Police Sgt Mal Easton - Cubs and Scouts - 6 to 9 years old
  • My parents Best Man, my Uncle Dean - 13 years old to present
  • Ron Jaeger - Metalwork Teacher - 13 to 16 years old
  • John and Greta Dabovich - Archery - 13 - 16 years old
  • Lt John Pickering and Lt and Police Detective John Heseltine - Army Cadets - 13 to 17 years old
  • My Uncle, Major Bill Johns - Royal Australian Army - 13 years to 19 years old
  • Cpl Lovelock - Australian Army 17 years old
  • Rob Brown - Shell Petroleum - 20 to 22 years old
  • Ted Noake - TAFE - 20 to 25 years old
  • Grant - John Goss’ Race Mechanic and TIG Welder - 20 to 25 years old
  • Arthur Abrahams and Eric Pender - Motorsport - 23 years old
  • Numerous people - Motorsport - 20 to 31 years old
  • My Math Tutor - Hamilton Senior School - 27 years old
  • Dr David Hands - University of South Australia - 28 to 31 years old
  • Prof Ian Henderson - CRC for Materials Welding and Joining 31 years to 34 years old
  • Dr Denny Graham - NASA Shuttle FSW Chief Engineer - 31 years to current
  • Gael Tilbrook - IEAust - 31 years to current
  • Medical Doctor on Writing Scientifically - IEAust - 33 years old
  • Gene Lukianov and Steve Lyman - DCX - 34 to 36 years old
  • Lee Kernich and Mike Hannan - MMAL - 38 years to 44 years
  • Prof Colin Hansen - Head of School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Adelaide - 38 to 48 years old
  • Professor Colin Kestell - UoA - 38 to 48 years old
  • Professor Con Doolan - UoA - 38 years to 48 years old
  • Graham O’Neill and David Evans - BAE Systems - 39 years old to current
  • Prof David Cropley - Defence and Systems Institute - 42 years old to current
  • Professional Actor - Acting Skills for Consultants - 44 years old
  • Richard Gillette - USCG Captain - 47 to 50 years old
  • Michael Wallman, Rodney Lester and Rich McDevitt - AWS Professional Services 48 years old to current
  • Phil Vella - AWS Solution Architecture - 54 - 57 years old
  • My parents
  • My wife, business partner and sailing companion

Continue reading articles in my STEM series

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