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.