# John — the mentor who changed everything - **Episode:** [17](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/17.md) (2022-12-20) - **Type:** other - **Tags:** mentorship, influence, career - **Time:** 22:59–29:37 (start 1379s) - **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/17?t=1379](https://truthliesandwork.com/17?t=1379) --- [22:59] Al Elliott: Yeah [23:00] Leanne Elliott: So, yeah, I went back the next day and I told John this with the MD. And this wasn't the answer they expected. I think they expected me to go back to being a coach. I kind of held my ground with it. And in the end, John was kind of like, I hoped you'd go back to be a coach because I think in a few months' time, you'd be able to then step back into the manager role. And I was kind of like, well, Okay, but if you don't think I can do it now, what difference is it going to make to have 3 more months of experience I've already got under my belt? Um, and at that point, he was just kind of like, I think you can do this, and I think with a smaller region, you can do this. So, he really lobbied for me, campaigned for me to the MD, his wife as well, by the way, and he's director of the contract, to give me this chance. And yeah, she reluctantly, very reluctantly, gave me this 3-month— [23:54] Al Elliott: 3 months [24:45] Al Elliott: We actually have a lot in common. We both use behavioral science to help people do better at work [24:52] Al Elliott: And 2 out of 3 of us are devilishly good-looking. And you're not going to say which. Fel, host of Nudge, UK's number 1 marketing podcast. It's brought to you— we need to do this in 3s— the HubSpot Podcast Network [25:06] Leanne Elliott: The audio destination for business professionals [25:47] Al Elliott: It can [25:55] Leanne Elliott: But come back [25:56] Al Elliott: Yeah, come back. Definitely come back because Nudge isn't as good as this [25:59] Leanne Elliott: So come back [25:59] Al Elliott: I'll cut that out. Keep that in. So you've got very fond memories of John, sadly no longer with us. Um, and I think that a lot of the things that you do these days are based around some of the fundamental things that you learned from John. So tell us what are some of the things that you learned from John that— [26:21] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, I did, I did learn a lot from John, but I think there was maybe 3 core things that really stuck with me. One is that you're not that important. One person, manager or leader, is not that important. To lead with humility, with empathy, with honesty, and that it's all about building trust. And I think one thing that I later learned about John, that he was hugely successful, he was a CBE, but I didn't know that, and he never told me that. Somebody else told me that [26:56] Al Elliott: Yeah [26:57] Leanne Elliott: So, I think it's that kind of, it doesn't really matter what you've achieved or what you've done before, it's all just about the moment. And, you know, people aren't gonna trust you just because you've got a legacy of achievements, they're gonna trust you of how you're operating and navigating in that moment. So, yeah, that's what I learned. You're only as good as your current day as a manager, rather than what you've achieved before. Secondly, the importance of employee voice. One thing that John did that blew my mind, bearing in mind I'd been with this company for 3 years already, and no senior manager had ever done this before, but he said to me, you know, right at the beginning of every quarter, I wanna sit down for half an hour with every single member of the team. And that was everyone, whether they were a senior coach, whether they were a brand new coach, whether they were admin, whether they were compliance team, whether they were actually on another team but worked very closely with us [27:51] Al Elliott: Yeah [27:51] Leanne Elliott: And so we're in our office 2 days a week. He wanted to sit down with them as well, and he spoke to every single person, how they were doing, what was working well, what perhaps wasn't working so well, areas for improvement, and just created a very safe space for them to give feedback to a very senior leader who is also the husband of the MD. Like, that is an intimidating situation to put an admin person in. Yeah. You know, who's very new to the team, the business, or very early in their career. Yet he facilitated those discussions that then meant that I had the feedback I needed to make the improvements that I needed to do to make an environment that was better and more supportive for the people in it. And I think that just then created this sense of teamwork and collaboration and transparency and psychological safety that we've talked a lot about before. Um, so yeah, the importance of employee voice. And the third thing, hide the wires. And it's funny, I've been talking about this on another podcast today, but hide the wires. So you basically said that even if you've had the shittiest day, even if you are getting pushed and pulled and dragged down and pressure from all angles, whether that be in work, whether it be at home, whether you're going through personal things as well. Hide the wires. Like, don't bring that in with you. Your team don't need you to put on your stress and emotion onto them. That's not going to be helpful to them in any way. And your only job as a manager is to enable the performance of others. Um, so yeah, if shit's going down, hide the wires [29:28] Al Elliott: So you're saying hide the wires is one of the mistakes that a lot of managers make or could potentially make. What other mistakes do you see managers making?