Professional development through mentoring
A young graduate starting work as an accountant may be eyeing up the CFO job, but career progression in risk management isn’t necessarily so straightforward. That’s one reason why a mentor can be so valuable, says Airmic board member and mentor Richard Hoult.
Richard started his career in 1997 performing finance-related roles for Fujitsu and SITA, and then moved to British Gas. He joined Thames Water in 2014 and later became CFO for its Infrastructure Alliance business. In March 2018, Richard moved into his current role of Group Head of Risk, Audit & Assurance.
Along the way, he has had mentors himself, some formal through the company and some informal. He mentions with pleasure working with former Airmic CEO John Ludlow when John was SVP Risk Management at the hotel group IHG.
“It’s always been useful,” he says. “The mentor can share advice and knowledge that are valuable to someone who wants to approach the next step in their career. It can come in the form of a challenge, too.”
What’s the first step in being a mentor? Listen to the person and understand what they want. They may be stuck at a place in their career and want ideas how to advance. The mentor doesn’t necessarily have to be in the risk field or the same sector. Richard recalls working with someone involved in transformation, not risk management, at British Gas. That meant his mentor was implementing change – he had to get people thinking differently. “It’s a question of thinking: what skills does the person have that could be useful for me?”
Why have a mentor?
Richard says that the key reasons why people want a mentor are:
1. Achieving a work balance between their current job and taking on additional tasks with the aim of advancing in their career. People tend to think that if they agree to everything they’re asked, it will help them. Ultimately, either the person gives up under the strain or their work suffers. They can learn how to prioritise – and sometimes how to say no.
2. Gaining more visibility in the organisation. The mentor can discuss how to get involved in suitable projects to extend their role. The mentor helps the risk manager ask the right questions and present themselves in ways that take them beyond the perception of “the person who does the risk register at the end of the quarter”.
3. Developing a career path. The mentor can help someone early in their career get as much information as possible about opportunities and get a better job, or just add value to the one they have. Risk management often doesn’t have a clear vertical route. Sometimes the best approach is to move sideways for more and different experience. Richard has done that himself, starting in finance roles and today when he has several functions.
In some organisations, the risk role can be isolated. “It can be a challenge if someone is a member of a very small team and doesn’t have anyone to bounce ideas off,” says Richard. “This can be a trigger for looking for mentoring or becoming involved in Airmic.”
The Airmic Mentoring Scheme, which began in 2020, illustrates the value of mentoring. Currently, the scheme has 70 mentees and 31 mentors registered – all members. There have been 16 mentoring relationships completed since the start. All others are continuing, as mentoring continues for as long as both parties want.
For more information and to download a guide to the Airmic Mentoring Scheme: https://www.airmic.com/mentoring-scheme