Each one teach one: How mentorship, growth and diverse opportunities empower leaders at KPMG

Samuel’s exposure to diverse opportunities and support from inspirational mentors gave him the expertise, courage and innovative mindset necessary for accelerated professional growth. He is now passing those skills on.

Samuel Dalby’s journey from accounting graduate to accomplished manager in technology assurance – a highly sought-after field in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape – is testament to the diversity of opportunities for professional growth at KPMG.

While technology risk and assurance was not a formal part of his academic training, Samuel took the leap to pursue his passion in this field with KPMG. “Technology is not going anywhere. There's always going to be risk that needs addressing,” he explains.

Five years since joining the firm, Samuel has quickly ascended to become manager. He credits his growth to the firm’s culture of mentorship and KPMG’s global talent model where multidisciplinary talents are empowered to achieve success. “Mentorship gives you someone that you can rely on – someone with experience and perspective, and the ability to help you build both technical and soft skills,” Samuel shares. “That support has helped me grow into my role.”

Tracking how this accountancy-trained, street dance enthusiast became an accomplished tech assurance professional – and is now helping others do the same – shows how KPMG invests in its talent. Our people are empowered to gain multidisciplinary skills, find purpose and realise their potential.

Turning a corner

Joining KPMG as a fresh graduate during the Covid-19 pandemic was a challenging time for everyone, Samuel recalls. Fortunately, his two internships with KPMG’s consulting function had already given him a strong sense of the firm’s supportive culture and its commitment to professional growth, team diversity and mobility. Thus, after discussions with a friend piqued his interest in technology assurance, he did not hesitate to explore opportunities in the field at KPMG. That proved to be a turning point in his career.

The move connected him with his performance manager and mentor, Kuat Wen Li, an associate director in technology assurance with over 10 years of experience covering both IT and financial audit at both KPMG in Singapore and Malaysia offices. Wen Li took Samuel under her wing, empowering the accounting graduate with the technical skills needed to become an IT auditor, honing his perspectives, teaching him various nuances of navigating the corporate world, and offering valuable career advice.

"[Wen Li] guided me and kindly provided her perspective in areas like goal-setting, expectations management and also worked with me to outline the competencies I needed,” Samuel says. “It helped me a lot to work towards those benchmarks.”

Despite having minimal exposure to the field of technology assurance when he started, Samuel thrived under Wen Li’s mentorship as well as the patient guidance and encouragement of his seniors at KPMG. Having gained the capabilities and confidence to take on bigger responsibilities, he has led teams and managed people in just three years.

Samuel’s journey is emblematic of KPMG’s efforts to create an ecosystem that nurtures future leaders. The firm’s focus on building a globally capable, relevant and connected talent base – which in turn advances ecosystems and fosters future leaders – is built on opportunities for them to continuously challenge and prove themselves.

“I've had managers who encouraged me to push myself to go beyond my current capabilities such as in managing people,” Samuel says. “I didn’t feel ready to do certain things, but they said, ‘You can do this.’ They gave me both the opportunities and the guidance in each new responsibility.”

Learning the lessons of leadership

Samuel intends to capitalise on being part of a firm that is committed to nurturing multidisciplinary strengths, and the generosity of his managers and mentors, by further developing his skills so they are better aligned with constantly evolving technology and standards.

This approach, he believes, will not only make him a better employee and professional, but also equip him with the capabilities to be the kind of manager and mentor that he has had the good fortune to work with.

The skillsets of such first-class managers and mentors are themselves diverse, but Samuel has already identified some vital tenets of leadership. "Never, never delegate something that you can't do [yourself]," is one such maxim, he says, since if a team member or mentee begins to struggle with a task, the manager or mentor should be able to guide them on execution.

Another important lesson is to recognise the diversity of talent, aptitudes and working styles of team members.

“People expect everyone to think and operate the same way as them,” he says. “In your head, you may be thinking, ‘I have a team of four mini carbon copies of me. I'm going to manage them the way I’d like to be managed.’ But that's not how it always works out. Different people have different working styles and communication patterns.”

A selfless measure of success

Even as Samuel builds on his success and works towards achieving new development goals in his professional journey, his measure of success for himself is a selfless principle that he has brought to the job from his principal hobby: street dance.

“In street dance we have this concept called ‘Each One Teach One’ where you take what you've been taught and pass that on to the next person,” Samuel explains. “It's a success if your team becomes more successful than you are. When it comes to dance, the community grows as a whole. In the workplace, your team and your department grow as a whole. To me, having mentees surpass you should be the end goal.”

That goal is embedded in KPMG’s “Be In Front” Talent Model. As the firm provides its professionals with the expertise, courage and innovative mindset needed to navigate today’s complex global business landscape, Samuel’s experience shows how its talented people thrive given the challenge to push boundaries and set ambitious goals for themselves, their peers and mentees.