About me
Thanks so much for visiting my blog – I hope you manage to stay awake whilst reading this and if you’re using this as a sleeping aid, then I hope you have a good sleep. 😴
So why I have created this blog – well a few students who I mentor at a local University have asked me whether I have a blog as they have felt that my words of wisdom (I’m trying to remember what I said now!) would help others.
My aim is to share posts that help future leaders into leadership positions and will be highlighting some challenges faced in my career and how I personally got past them.
A little about me – I initially studied Pharmacy for 1 year (no I did not graduate in 1 year…) and learned that it was not right course for me, though as a positive I did learn how to make Paracetamol 💊. My dad has funnily asked me to produce some for him – a big ‘no no’ as I’m not legally qualified, and I really have no intention to poison anyone! Also, to be honest, I really would not trust anything medicinal that has been made with my hands. 🚨
Having not enjoyed my first attempt into ‘paracetamol land’, my next move was to venture into a ‘Computer Science’ degree. Having been building my own computers for years, also executing some basic programming, my view was ‘What could go wrong if I picked a course with ‘Computer’ and ‘Science’ in the same title?’. It was a good choice – phew!
Fast forward lots of years (no I do not want to share how many as that would give away that I’m now an old man) and my role entails working as a ‘VP of Quality and Enablement’ for SHL. My experience primarily has been around the Quality Assurance space, though I have been lucky enough to venture into the mysterious land of DevSecOps, Delivery, Engineering and Data analytics.
Outside of my day-to-day, mentoring at my local University gives me great joy. Mentoring has given me the pleasure to collaborate with some super talented and enthusiastic mentees. Over the years it is one role that I have never been able to let go of – not only because a highlight was visiting Villa park with other mentors (I’m a Villain at heart ❤️ ⚽️), but also because it gives me great pleasure to see young professionals growing from a seedling to a flourishing tree. 🌱
On top of this I have been lucky enough to have served on the board for ‘Enactus, Aston University’ – this opportunity came about via chance (thanks Mo!) and in all honesty I learned more from the students than they actually did from me. So what does serving on a board actually mean – for me it means being a servant leader and putting others first, being kind, caring about what you do, and sharing from my past experiences.
Last year sadly I left Enactus (yes my wife wanted to kill me after probably taking too much on outside work) – though the pull of TedX was too strong to turn down (sorry boss at home! 👮🏾). TedX has opened my eyes to the entrepreneurship shown by these students at such a young age. From this experience I have been in awe to see future leaders coming together to put on such an awesome show, and not just that, some of the team even had the confidence to present, and they smashed it out of the park.
Work aside I’m a massive sports fan, with my favourite sport being Football (though you probably guessed) and Tennis. I also enjoy eating delicious meals made by my talented wife – you can see what keeps me fuelled here 😋 🔋
If I can share any advice to others who start reading this blog: success is not a linear path, strength lies in differences and a well cohesive team is no different. In my career I have had some amazing leaders and some not so great (maybe more of these now that I think of it), but I would say that I would not be the leader that I am now without having had those mixed experiences.
Please do leave comments here or feel free to get in touch on LinkedIn for anything that you would like me to cover in my upcoming blog posts.
For those who have made it to the end of my blog post – you’re a ⭐️ and you are already being more Meerkat. In my next post I will be exploring what ‘be more MEERKAT’ means to me. ✌🏾