Three Lessons From My First Mentor

“If someone has taken the time to teach you, take the time to teach someone else.”

Notable Moments

00:02:02 – Learning the responsibility to be great.

00:03:36 – The value of finding where the edges are.

00:05:23 – Applying pressure to rules that don’t make sense.

00:06:46 – The importance of building influence before challenging norms.

00:07:37 – Passing lessons from a mentor on to others.

In this episode, Jody shares three lessons from the park manager took a chance on him. His name was Jack, and he became his first mentor. He shares the meaning behind some of the things Jack taught him, including expect greatness from yourself, discover the edges of what’s possible, and challenge rules that don’t make sense. These simple shifts can change how you show up every day in life and as a leader.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Foreign
welcome to the Jody Mayberry show. You don't have to
listen to this show for very long to hear that. I used to be
a park ranger. It's true. I was a park ranger and it
was very unlikely that I would become a park
ranger. Prior to being a ranger, I was a financial

(00:22):
analyst at a commercial bank. I was a spreadsheet
warrior. My job was to measure interest rate risk.
And then I had the bold idea to become a park
ranger. And it happened. As unlikely as it is,
it happened. And the park manager who hired me took
a big risk. You could easily say I wasn't

(00:43):
qualified, I didn't have the experience. There were other park
rangers who interviewed for the job that I got
and he hired me with no experience. He took the risk
and well, once I was hired, he spent a lot of time with me.
He really invested in me. He would do opening shifts
with me. We would walk some trails together. He would explain

(01:05):
things about park management to me. He would talk about birds. If
you saw someone had walked through the grass, he would point out
the grass and say, this is how, you know, how long ago it was. Really
neat, things like that. And given that I did not have
experience in parks, you would think that the
biggest lessons that he taught me were park related. And they

(01:28):
were. He taught a lot about parks. I would not have
had a good career as a park ranger without him. His name was Jack Hart.
I would not have had a good park career without him. But I
want to share three lessons from him
that really made a difference. The first one
was that I, I learned I had a responsibility

(01:51):
to be great from other people. I was expected
to make the park better. I was expected to show up
on time and do my job without question. But
Jack Hart was the only one who expected
me to be great and become a leader in the
organization. And that was a really

(02:12):
booster for me, a confidence booster. Because
I told you I did not have the background to be a park ranger.
Jack brought me in from the outside and then expected
me to be great. He approached it as in,
you are a future leader, you should act accordingly.
And I'm going to expect things out of you accordingly.

(02:35):
Just having that mindset completely changes how
you go about the day to day of your job. Everything
becomes more meaningful. Little things like cleaning
cobwebs, picking up trash at the side of the road, all
the little things become more meaningful when you
realize you are expected to be a leader, that

(02:57):
where you are now is a temporary role
on your way to bigger roles. Jack expected that from Me,
from the very beginning, that's my encouragement
to you, is if you act like what you're doing now is a
temporary role on the way to something bigger. Because you're a leader.
If no one else is expecting that of you, expect it of

(03:19):
yourself, and it will make all the difference. The second
lesson from Jack was find out where the edges are.
Here's what I mean by that. I came in from the outside.
I didn't know policies, procedures, guidelines, culture,
expectations. And Jack encouraged me to
not just do things because I was told to,

(03:42):
which is bold coming from the park manager. He
did not expect me to do things just because I
saw other people doing them or people wanted me to do them.
He thought that since I was from the outside, I was in a perfect position
to show up, poke around, push around, ask around,

(04:02):
and find out where the edges are. Based on what other people are
doing and what other people want and what other people expect,
there may still be a lot of room. Based on
where they're operating and where the edges are, there could be a
lot of room to go even further, to ask for even
more, to do even more. You may have more authority

(04:24):
in place than you realize, and you'll never know
unless you push and find out where the edges are.
That was a tremendous lesson I learned from Jack.
I still do this today. I'm always looking for where the
edges are. It's not all that often that I will go
past the edge. Sometimes I do, sometimes it's needed. But I do

(04:47):
like to find out where the edge is, and I'll go all
the way out there. The third lesson from Jack,
apply pressure to rules that don't make sense.
Some people really dislike this one, but Jack would
encourage me since I was new. If a
report was due, ask, why are we doing this report?

(05:10):
If I had to do so much paperwork
when we did something in the park, he would say,
find out why you have to do it. Even if it was him or the
assistant park manager, I had to ask. He said, don't just do
things because they're expected. Find out why it's expected.
If you find a policy procedure guideline that makes no

(05:32):
sense, keep applying pressure to it until someone can
explain to you why we do it that way.
There were even times where he encouraged me not to send in reports.
He said, don't send in a report and see what happens.
You might get in trouble. Someone might just call you and
say, hey, where's that report? Or you might find out that report

(05:55):
is done for absolutely no reason. And you don't ever
have to do it again, but you won't know until you apply pressure.
And that that went beyond paperwork. That was in almost
everything we do. Keep applying pressure to things
that don't make sense to you until you find out why things
are done the way they're done now. I will say this is kind of a

(06:17):
corollary of that lesson. I wish I had realized
the importance of building enough influence before
challenging what was normal. When you're the new guy
and you push a little too hard, not everyone
appreciates it. When you're always challenging things,
it can ruffle people. But if you take the time to build

(06:39):
influence and build relationships, you get a little more
leeway when you start to challenge things. And I could go on and
on about Jack, my first mentor, and the things I learned. I never would have
been a great park ranger without him. I give all the
credit for my career to him. But those three
lessons were so valuable to me because I did not show

(07:02):
up and have someone say, okay, do what you're told
when you're told to do it in the way that you're told to do it.
Sure, other times in my career I had that happen, but
not with my first mentor, not with the guy who first
hired me. He set the tone for how I would
approach all my years as a park ranger. Those three

(07:23):
lessons that I had the responsibility to be great,
find out where the edges are, and apply pressure to
rules that make no sense. I carried that with me
throughout my part career. And since then I've
carried that with me. And I just wanted to share that with you
because maybe one or all three of those

(07:46):
lessons will matter. And that's what you do when you learn
something from a mentor. You help everybody when you pass it
on. If someone has taken the time to teach you, take the time to teach
someone else. So I hope these have been valuable to you. I've
gotten back to writing a weekly
email. I'd love for you to be on the list. Go to

(08:07):
jodymayberry.com There's a form right there. You can get on my
email list and you'll hear from me more often. I'm also working on
getting better about posting on social media. Are we connected on
social media yet? Find me on Instagram, Facebook,
LinkedIn, whatever you prefer. Just reach out. I'd love
to hear from you, and I hope that you enjoyed this

(08:29):
short, shorter, but packed full of goodness
episode of the Jody Mayberry Show.
He's carrying on like a pork chop. It's Sugar J.