Having a Mentor is a must for every corporate professional. A good mentor can help you get:
– Clarity
– Direction
– Acknowledgement & Validation
As part of the Management Trainee program, I was formally assigned a mentor in my first year of corporate world. @ChrisTobit, a CEO of immense repute was my first Mentor. I used to feel anxious before our sessions, but I clearly remember how each session with him made me more confident & determined to achieve.
Post my lovely experience with Chris, I started seeking mentoring on my own. I started consciously seeking time from the leaders I worked with. And despite their busy schedules, they always give me knowledge, ideas, direction, and more importantly, their warmth & time.
Here’s how mentoring has helped me over the years:
– I had to deliver a critical project for the CEO and despite my best efforts, I was not getting the required data. I had reached a dead-end and just one frantic call to my mentor helped me get clarity. Mentor’s simple advice was- break down the data into smaller chunks and then play with what you have. It worked.
– The workplace competition was getting to me. Every day I would go to office just to win. My mentor saw this & sat me down- this is not who you are, what do you really want to gain with all this? I re-prioritised immediately to focus on what was true for me.
– A tough functional leader was not giving me time for an important career framework discussion. I was on the verge of giving up when my mentor told me how he struggles with time with senior leaders too and the strategy he uses to get this done. I pursued the leader and not only got his time but also his appreciation on my designed career path framework.
Even today, I make attempts to meet my mentors as often as I can. During our conversations, I try and understand what difficult complex people issues are they managing, how are they doing this and challenges they may face with this. I try and get a sense of how they look at their careers, what more they want to achieve. I also ask them for guidance for a new project I would have picked or the next steps that I am planning for my self-growth.
Now, as I have become a mentor myself, offering mentoring as a service to mid-career humanresources professionals, I feel extreme gratitude of having mentors in my life.
If you’re an HR professional with 5-15 years of work experience wanting to get a mentor for yourself, feel free to reach out to me at storysideup@gmail.com to book a free discovery session.