Attendees of a Channel Community event last night heard how two young sales and marketing pros have progressed in their careers after taking advantage of free mentorship.
The Channel Community was launched in 2021 to help like-minded industry executives give back to the next generation of talent, as well as those in solitary roles.
Those wishing to become ‘mentees’ are paired with a mentor or ‘Channel Buddy’, who they can then lean on for free regular support and guidance.
With the Channel Community recently kickstarting the next stage of its evolution by becoming a Community Interest Company, the focus now is on scaling the number of mentees who can draw on its free services.
Held at Titan Data Solutions’ Canary Wharf HQ, last night’s networking event saw potential recruits matched with a succession of Channel Buddies in a ‘speed mentoring’ session (see below).
But will the concept catch on?
Mentoring momentum
The answer to that question will be partly determined by the experiences of those younger industry pros that have already taken advantage of its services.
Two of the night’s panellists, Distology’s Dan Evans and SCC’s Kate Auchterlonie, are in just that position, having both received mentorship through the initiative over several years.
Asked about the key skills they have gained from the experience, Auchterlonie said her Channel Buddy had helped her with personal development, soft skills and confidence.
Evans, meanwhile, said having external support helped him to rapidly get to grips with what was, at the time, an unknown industry to him.
“When I joined [Distology] three years ago, I’d been in a sales role before that, but really had no idea about the channel. I really wanted to quickly understand what it meant, because I had a target over my head,” he explained in a panel session.
“Using the Channel Community really helped me to understand what I should be doing in my day-to-day role, because there were a lot of unknowns. There’s always mentorship in my own organisation, but having an individual that didn’t work at the same company and had been there, seen it, done it was a great sounding board.”
The experience has also encouraged Evans to tackle public speaking head on, which has helped him with presenting and pitching in his job, he added.
Asked for her advice on how to approach mentorship, Auchterlonie said the trick is to be “open and honest” about the nature of the support you need.
“The first call I had she asked ‘okay, what are you looking for?’, and I just laid it all out in front of her,” she said.
“[I said] ‘every month, I’ll take the good, the bad and the ugly [to you]’, and she said ‘okay, that’s definitely something I can help with’.
“People also think it needs to be a really serious, structured relationship, like something you might have at work, but it really doesn’t.”
Richard Eglon, who is a Channel Community Channel Buddy and CMO at Nebula Global Services, said he is learning as much from his mentees as they are from him, meanwhile.
“If I’m engaged with new people that are bringing new ideas in from outside, that keeps me even more relevant and that’s really fed my appetite to remain in the industry,” he said.
“This isn’t about me being a wise old merlin with his staff in the corner – it’s the opposite.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
