Mentorship

To do or not to do.....how do you decide? I have come accross many ambiguous scenarios in my business and personal life, where, in spite of my knowledge, experience, resources and aptitude I sometimes don't know what's the correct approach. I think finding a right mentor helps us to solve our toughest problem.

It's a mere coincidence that when I was thinking about this issue I ended up taking the course. Leadership Lessons in the world literature. It's a unique but very effective way of teaching leadership lessons. As a part of the course the movie Matrix was screened. I have to admit that this is the first time I completely understood the movie. And the credit goes to professor Rajeshwar for describing the mentor/mentee relationship.

A few learnings from my experiences:

1. Multiple mentors. A mentor is one whom we go to when we are in darkness. In my experience, I could not find an ideal mentor who knows everything in every subject. I have identified different mentors for the three main categores: Personal, Professional and Philosophical. Sometimes, the areas overlap and optimal decision should be taken based on the context.
2. Ideal mentor Obviously, a mentor should be either more experienced and/or more knowledgeble than I am in the particular area. Preferably a mentor should know my strengths and weaknesses very well and should be mature enought to understand my context and my environment. I prefer not to bug my mentors too much and approach them only when I am in an impasse.
3. Be a mentor to others By being a mentor to others I came accross priceless valuable insights. The satisfaction of being able to help others in a tough or sticky situation is priceless. You will also perfect the art of the mentor/mentee relationship.
4. Listen more talk less When I am with a mentor, I try to listen more and talk less. I discuss the problem and start listening. I interrupt with very small questions for clarifications if necessary.
5. Provide Feedback Irrespective of the results of your actions, it is always a good idea to provide feedback to the mentor. Feedback, especially when positive gives lot of motivation to the mentor. Negative feedback provides opportunity for improvement.
6. Be your own judge Inspite of what a mentor says to you, you have to take the final decision and you are responsibile for the decision. Blindly following whatever your mentor says may lead to different type of problems.

According to the HBR article, Probing Options, top executives who have had a mentor derived greater satisfaction from their career and work. Of course, they also ended up getting higher pay.

Think like a Fish!

What is the best way to catch a fish?

My answer: The best way to catch a fish is to first think like a fish. Let me replace fish with a customer.

How can I win a customer?

To propose any winning solution to the customer I have to think like a customer first. I will put myself in customer's shoes and try to analyze what is best for me. I will probably validate the solution with the customer, to make sure I understood the need correctly. There are probably a million books written on this topic, so what's so new in what I am trying to say?

My definition of my customer includes but not limited to:

• external customer
• internal customer
• boss
• colleague
• team member
• partner

The function of a manager in my view is simply to meet or exceed the expectations of the customers. Most of the problems in business arise because I don't know who my customer really is. For example: All customer interfacing roles such as sales or service, need lot of interaction with the customer, yet, external customer is not the only customer he needs to deal with. Some times the bigger customer in these types of roles might be the boss.

Once I have identified my customers, my next step would be to identify what they need. This is probably the most difficult part. I have to wear different hats so that I understand the problem from all angles. Unless I do this, I will not be able to come up with a possible solution. I have learnt a host of new priceless theories in the Consumer behavior course on how customer thinks before making a purchase decison.

The next thing I would do is to identify what are qualifiers and what are winners for each type of customer. At a minimum I have to meet all the qualifiers and depending on the competition and context I have to look for the winners. For example: In today's IT outsourcing, CMM Level 5 has almost become a qualifier and not a winner for global MNCs anymore.

The next step would be to propose a solution. Ideally I want to satisfy all the customers but practically it may not be possible. One way to find a way out is to identify who are my major customers. If I identify all the customers, it will at least help me to set the expectations for the smaller customers. Of course, it depends on the context.

To summarize:

1. I have to identify who my customers really are.
2. I have to identify what my customers really want.
3. I have to identify qualifiers and winners for my customers.
4. Come up with a solution which satisfies at least majority of my customers.

Treat me like a king and I will treat you like an emperor

Title of this topic kind of crystallizes on how I am conditioned to behave. If someone encourages me and honestly appreciate what I am doing, I will go great lengths to pay the person back. Ditto with the team I work with. I pick and choose the team if I am allowed to. I do my best to encourage them, show them guidance and set them free. They always pay me back and stretch their limits to make things happen. These are ideal scenarios and have always worked for me when they happened.

I wish, life is so simple. I wish, I don't need to write anything more.

There are a few limitations with the core idea. Few questions:

1. What should I do if someone is not treating me with the respect I deserve?
2. What should I do when I see people working with me lose integrity?
3. What should I do when your respectful behavior is mistaken for easy to deal with?
4. How should I treat my team when I know that they are making mistakes which they can't see?
5. How do I deal with people who are emotional?

The answer can be easy if I answer "No" to the question "Do I care?" I believe majority of the scenarios, you don't need to worry so much.

In a few scenarios, where I want people to care, I need to deal with these sensitive situations with extreme caution. Following attributes are most important:

1. Develop ability to function well under pressure(crisis)
2. Practice patience and self-control under these extreme conditions

Solution will come automatically to you. For example, if some one is not treating me with the respect I deserve, I have to be patient and earn the respect through my actions and not words. Answer for all the questions start with I have to be patient and ........

Patience is the secret of success for many successful managers according to a Stanford university study. As a manager, you will be automatically treated like a king if you practice patience, otherwise, no matter how good you are you will not get the treatment you deserve.