Stories into Strength: How Narrative Liberation Transforms Mentoring and Leadership

Jon Symes is a seasoned coach, mentor, and organizational consultant with over three decades of experience guiding leaders through deep transformation and purpose-driven change. In 2000, he founded The Mentoring Club in the UK—an inter-organizational peer-mentoring network that supported cross-sector growth and leadership development.

As the author of Realigning for Change, Jon offers a clear and practical framework for navigating organizational change. His work integrates personal insight with systemic awareness, helping individuals and teams unhook from limiting personal and cultural narratives. Through this approach, he supports clients in cultivating resilience, alignment, and authentic leadership. His impact spans corporate, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial settings, grounded in the belief that wise mentorship can change both lives and systems.

What You’ll Gain from This Session

• Recognize the hidden narratives that shape mentoring and leadership: Learn how unconscious stories about identity, success, and belonging influence personal and professional behavior.
• Support deeper transformation in mentees: Move beyond offering advice to creating conditions for self-discovery, agency, and sustainable growth.
• Foster purpose-driven, psychologically safe cultures: Understand how mentors and leaders can help shift internal stories that ripple outward to drive systemic change.

This presentation is designed for mentors, leaders, and organizational changemakers who want to amplify their impact by working with the deeper stories that guide human behavior. Through practical tools—like a live reflective poll, an interactive narrative exercise, and a downloadable Narrative Audit Tool—participants will engage in experiential learning that supports both immediate insight and long-term application.

Don’t miss this opportunity to bring a narrative lens to your mentoring practice—and unlock the power of story to transform people, teams, and organizations.