Call them sounding boards, gurus, or advisors. Mentors at the workplace don't just speed up the learning curve; they also help proteges find their way through their careers. Organisations say there is no single strand of mentoring.
The HR head of an ITeS company in Gurgaon says mentoring has turned out to be the single most significant retention strategy for his company. For industrial company Lafarge, training and mentoring employees is an investment for the future.
"Skilled and satisfied employees play an important role in the group's long term success," says Camille Miranda Gonsalves, senior vice-president -- corporate affairs and CSR. A couple of years ago, Finnish handset maker Nokia dabbled in reverse mentoring when young turks turned into tech gurus for the senior management.
Mentors can be buddies or coaches, but they learn as much from their proteges as they teach them. Four mentors and proteges share their experience with Team ET.
THE WRITING ON THE BIG SCREEN
PROTEGE :
Sarthak Seth ,
Assistant GM (Marketing),
Panasonic India
MENTOR:
Manish Sharma ,
Director (Sales & Marketing)
Duration of their association : 3Years
Lessons Learnt:
Sharma gained a fresh outlook towards business and new ideas. SETH has received several suggestions and insights. "He is a patient mentor, and that helped me move up the learning curve," he says.
Challenges:
Sharma needed to ensure that no grievances or communication problems arose while taking Seth through the training.
For Seth, the challenge was making Sharma understand his strengths and weaknesses and guide him in the right direction
Impact on Business & Career:
Innovative consumer-led marketing campaigns
Says Seth: "My association with him helped boost my confidence to achieve new goals and explore innovative methods of marketing in today's competitive world."
Positive factors: Great chemistry and understanding of each other and the business
A PERSONAL EQUATION
MENTOR:
Janmejay Sinha ,
Chairman Asia-Pacific,
BCG India
PROTEGE :
Saurabh Tripathi ,
Partner & Director, BCG India
Duration of their association : 12 years & counting
Lessons Learnt:
Sinha learnt that the same style doesn't work for everyone. To some people, he tells tell stories. With others, he is more direct.
Tripathi learnt a lot, like how to make decisions. "Sinha believes in people. He puts more faith in people he mentors than they have in themselves," he says.
Challenges:
Sinha says the biggest challenge is time, especially if a company is growing rapidly. People who have the least time have to do the most mentoring, he says. "As you grow senior, your time is at a premium. Real quality mentorship is increasingly hard to do," he says.
Tripathi says mentoring is a means of apprenticeship. And knowledge transfer.
Impact on Business & Careers:
Mentoring leads to better performance and you make, hopefully, less Type-II errors (where you overlook a deserving person), says Sinha. IT helps to have someone care. Tripathi was once struggling with a tough project, and Sinha simply sat him down one evening to help - without Tripathi even telling him once he had a problem.
Positive factors:
Hand-me down: Sinha says people who mentored him during the early days of his career with the Reserve Bank of India, shaped his thinking. "I learnt to enjoy mentoring because I was mentored very well," he says. DIAMONDS FOREVER
PROTEGE :
Cecil de Santa Maria ,
Vice President (Marketing & Retail Operations), Orra
MENTOR:
Vijay Jain,
CEO
Duration of their association : A decade
Lessons Learnt:
"Over the years, we've learnt to sit down and thrash out all issues. Also, we recognised the need to build and develop people," says Jain.
Challenges:
Cecil had to acquire certain skillsets to face the issue of whether to move people up internally or hire from outside.
Impact on Business & Career:
The trust, comfort and understanding between the two has allowed Cecil to focus on the short term while Jain focuses on key strategic issues.
The business has grown 30-fold, with Orra emerging among the country's largest diamond retailing chains.
Positive factors:
Backgrounds: Cecil hails from a family of professionals, while Jain has an entrepreneurial background.
Shared Vision: Helped them build the brand from scratch
HELP IS JUST A CALL AWAY
MENTOR:
V Ramnath ,
Director, Sales at Nokia India
PROTEGE :
Rajeev Chettri ,
Retail Operations Manager
Duration of their association : 9 months
Lessons Learnt:
Chettri understood the various segments in the market - from telecom operators and customers to the government - allowing him to mould himself faster.
Challenges:
Chettri was new, but Ramnath had spent over five years. It was important that Chettri learnt about Nokia's business and culture
Impact on Business & Careers:
Chettri learnt that one does not have to be at the top to become a leader. "It's about how to create the right ecosystem for what you want to achieve," he says.
Positive factor:
A Bond: Although the mentoring lasted only a week, the relationship continues.
Experience: Ramnath had lead Nokia in retail operations some years ago, which helped Chetrri.
The HR head of an ITeS company in Gurgaon says mentoring has turned out to be the single most significant retention strategy for his company. For industrial company Lafarge, training and mentoring employees is an investment for the future.
"Skilled and satisfied employees play an important role in the group's long term success," says Camille Miranda Gonsalves, senior vice-president -- corporate affairs and CSR. A couple of years ago, Finnish handset maker Nokia dabbled in reverse mentoring when young turks turned into tech gurus for the senior management.
Mentors can be buddies or coaches, but they learn as much from their proteges as they teach them. Four mentors and proteges share their experience with Team ET.
THE WRITING ON THE BIG SCREEN
Sarthak Seth ,
Assistant GM (Marketing),
Panasonic India
Manish Sharma ,
Director (Sales & Marketing)
Duration of their association : 3Years
Lessons Learnt:
Sharma gained a fresh outlook towards business and new ideas. SETH has received several suggestions and insights. "He is a patient mentor, and that helped me move up the learning curve," he says.
Challenges:
Sharma needed to ensure that no grievances or communication problems arose while taking Seth through the training.
For Seth, the challenge was making Sharma understand his strengths and weaknesses and guide him in the right direction
Impact on Business & Career:
Innovative consumer-led marketing campaigns
Says Seth: "My association with him helped boost my confidence to achieve new goals and explore innovative methods of marketing in today's competitive world."
Positive factors: Great chemistry and understanding of each other and the business
A PERSONAL EQUATION
Janmejay Sinha ,
Chairman Asia-Pacific,
BCG India
Saurabh Tripathi ,
Partner & Director, BCG India
Duration of their association : 12 years & counting
Lessons Learnt:
Sinha learnt that the same style doesn't work for everyone. To some people, he tells tell stories. With others, he is more direct.
Tripathi learnt a lot, like how to make decisions. "Sinha believes in people. He puts more faith in people he mentors than they have in themselves," he says.
Challenges:
Sinha says the biggest challenge is time, especially if a company is growing rapidly. People who have the least time have to do the most mentoring, he says. "As you grow senior, your time is at a premium. Real quality mentorship is increasingly hard to do," he says.
Tripathi says mentoring is a means of apprenticeship. And knowledge transfer.
Impact on Business & Careers:
Mentoring leads to better performance and you make, hopefully, less Type-II errors (where you overlook a deserving person), says Sinha. IT helps to have someone care. Tripathi was once struggling with a tough project, and Sinha simply sat him down one evening to help - without Tripathi even telling him once he had a problem.
Positive factors:
Hand-me down: Sinha says people who mentored him during the early days of his career with the Reserve Bank of India, shaped his thinking. "I learnt to enjoy mentoring because I was mentored very well," he says. DIAMONDS FOREVER
Cecil de Santa Maria ,
Vice President (Marketing & Retail Operations), Orra
Vijay Jain,
CEO
Duration of their association : A decade
Lessons Learnt:
"Over the years, we've learnt to sit down and thrash out all issues. Also, we recognised the need to build and develop people," says Jain.
Challenges:
Cecil had to acquire certain skillsets to face the issue of whether to move people up internally or hire from outside.
Impact on Business & Career:
The trust, comfort and understanding between the two has allowed Cecil to focus on the short term while Jain focuses on key strategic issues.
The business has grown 30-fold, with Orra emerging among the country's largest diamond retailing chains.
Positive factors:
Backgrounds: Cecil hails from a family of professionals, while Jain has an entrepreneurial background.
Shared Vision: Helped them build the brand from scratch
HELP IS JUST A CALL AWAY
V Ramnath ,
Director, Sales at Nokia India
Rajeev Chettri ,
Retail Operations Manager
Duration of their association : 9 months
Lessons Learnt:
Chettri understood the various segments in the market - from telecom operators and customers to the government - allowing him to mould himself faster.
Challenges:
Chettri was new, but Ramnath had spent over five years. It was important that Chettri learnt about Nokia's business and culture
Impact on Business & Careers:
Chettri learnt that one does not have to be at the top to become a leader. "It's about how to create the right ecosystem for what you want to achieve," he says.
Positive factor:
A Bond: Although the mentoring lasted only a week, the relationship continues.
Experience: Ramnath had lead Nokia in retail operations some years ago, which helped Chetrri.
