About Darren McFarlane
I'm an engineer who fell into mentoring. And never looked back.
For over 20 years I worked in the energy industry. I led teams across the UK, Asia and Australia. I built an office from scratch and grew it to 50 people. I delivered some of the largest engineering projects in the country for companies like Chevron, Shell and Inpex. I was selected for a global leadership program at INSEAD in France and Singapore.
But the thing that shaped me most wasn't a project or a promotion. It was a mentor.
The mentor moment
Early in my career I was promoted into a Country Manager role and immediately hit with imposter syndrome. I was told, almost casually, that I wasn't the first choice. That the preferred candidate just couldn't relocate.
I walked into my first mentoring session full of doubt. My mentor stopped me mid-sentence and said:
"Stop. Say it with me. I got the job."
He made me repeat it until I believed it.
Over the next year, that mentor built me up in ways no training course or HR initiative ever could. My confidence grew. My leadership grew. And it changed the trajectory of my career.
That experience stuck with me for over a decade. It's the reason Next Level Mentoring exists.
Why I started NLM
When I looked back at my career, I realised something. The periods where I grew the most, as a leader and as a person, were always connected to mentoring. Either having a mentor, being a mentor, or helping to run a mentoring program.
But I also realised how rare that experience was. Most organisations either don't have mentoring programs, or they have ones that don't really work. People get paired up, left to figure it out, and the whole thing quietly fizzles out after a few months.
I knew it could be better. I'd seen it work. I'd lived it.
So I applied the same thinking I'd used as an engineer... structure, measurement, continuous improvement... to something that most organisations treat as soft and unstructured. I built a mentoring framework that actually works. One that produces results you can measure and a culture you can feel.
That's what NLM does. We build the human infrastructure that turns your experienced leaders into the mentors your next generation of leaders need.
"We build the human infrastructure that turns your experienced leaders into the mentors your next generation of leaders need."
20+ years in leadership
300+ people trained in mentoring
65+ people coached for goals
What I've learned along the way
I've now helped design and deliver mentoring programs for ASX20 companies and state government departments. I've trained over 300 professionals. I've coached more than 65 people one-on-one through goal-setting sessions. I've watched mentees get promoted, mentors rediscover their purpose, and entire departments shift their culture because they invested in their people.
The program I built with the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has run for three consecutive years, growing from 16 pairs to 30, with a 39% promotion rate among mentees and the Director General personally volunteering as a mentor. Every year it's been oversubscribed.
I don't say that to impress anyone. I say it because it proves what I believe. That when you give mentoring the structure and support it deserves, extraordinary things happen.
What I believe
Most mentoring programs fail because they're treated as a "nice to have." A tick-box exercise. Something HR sets up with good intentions and then hopes for the best.
I don't sell software. I don't sell hope. I build mentoring programs that are simple, sustainable, effective and engaging. Because those are the four things that determine whether a program thrives or dies.
If you're responsible for developing leaders in your organisation and you want a mentoring program that actually delivers, I'd love to have a conversation.