On Mentoring & Mentorship

Through my career in Modi Xerox and HCL , both organisations have laid emphasis on mentoring team members .I instinctively took to the role of a mentor and would give it my all .I did notice though that the more formal & structured attempts to provide mentorship most often didnt result in sustained mentorship relations .On the other hand I have experienced several cases ( and quite a rich haul at that ) of team members seeking guidance & encouragement and for several individauls I didnt even realise I was serving as a mentor .

Years later when colleagues and team members speak of how encouraged they had been after seeking and receiving advise from me ,I do feel inwardly happy and pleased .Some times the gratitude openly expressed by these individuals can be a trifle embarrasing and at times I struggle to remember when and where a particular individual had sort guidance or encouragement from me and how had I gone about helping him .I suppose when a heartfelt exchange between mentor and mentee takes place , there is no interlectual analysis and a connect on the emortional plane ( or even I dare say on the spiritual plane ) .When a structured organised attempt at mentorship is set up form and formality rob the relationship of the spontanious and acceptance of feedback or advise and guidance. Maybe also the formal sessions leave a lingering doubt of true confidentiality .

Here a lovely letter that brings out this , sometimes un realsied mentor relationships

Dear Boss,

I hope you would recognise me, I am writing this mail to wish you my best wishes for your birthday. May god gets you best of the health & all the comfort you wish. Hope you are fine & sure of you doing well in everything you do as always.

I am doing well in business, I have merged my operation with Harjeetsing (Baroda – asp, ex DTS) & now we cover 80% of Gujarat for Xerox business & this moment I remember your last mail in Xerox, which talked about the future with wisdom. Yes; that gave me power & insight to think differently & strive for the future success. Today that made possible whatever we have walked in last 5 years.

We are working with Xerox; for sales/service/consumables, with Tata for service, sales, recharge business & I personally take soft skill training for TTSL. We also have signed up for their field audits. We also work with 3M healthcare for providing after sales support to ETO sterilizes across Gujarat. Also having outbound call centre in ahmedabad for telecom companies.& few collection agencies for banking institutes.

Many times when feel down, I still go back to my old mails & read your above mail which helps me keeping my thought process same & not getting manipulated by odds we face on way of life.

I have learnt that human personality is an integration of education, exposure & experience, where you have played a major role for me; unknowingly & I deserve the right to remind you of extraordinary influence in my life which you would have not even known.

Once again wish you very best for your 59^th birthday & hope to see you some time in future.

Kindly send me your details if you can, so if I get chance I can see you personally.

Warm regards,

Prashant

Truely wonderful isnt it !! A had written back to Prashant to get hold of a copy of the mail from me that seemed to had had a strong impact on him .He didnt respond .Guess he couldnt get hold of it !!!

Author: hari008

Business Leader , Mentor and Executive Coach with a long track record of achievement , developing high performance teams and mentoring team members who now hold responsible positions in several leading companies View all posts by hari008