Corporate guide and official friend
Is mentoring a solution for developing and retaining talent for Indian SMEs?
A key reason behind the success of Richard Branson ��� as acknowledged by him ��� is the guidance that he received from his mentor, Freddie Laker. Closer home, Nandan Nilekani���s success story will always have the name of his mentor NR Narayana Murthy mentioned in golden words. Flashback to the ancient times and think of empire builders like Alexander the Great or Chandragupta Maurya. They were prot��g��s of great mentors like Aristotle and Chanakya respectively. These are of course grand examples; the mentor-prot��g�� relationship can work and prosper at other levels too. Let���s analyse its significance from the corporate perspective, particularly in the context of Indian SMES.
Organisations which hitherto never focused on their human resources are now realising the importance of people in their business continuity. If people are important to big organisations, they become more important to smaller organisations; as SMEs find it a bigger challenge to attract, develop and retain talent. And mentoring could offer a tool to support organisation in talent management.
���Mentoring is surely one of the most efficient talent development and retention tool for an organisation,��� says Aarti Sharma, CFO, ICICI Bank overseas operations. During her last 15 years of career spanning a spectrum of organisations and having supported SMEs in their business operations, she believes that mentoring achieves the two principal goals ��� talent development and management. These can be achieved, firstly, by guiding the mentee to find the right direction, develop solutions to career issues (which help retention more than big salaries) and gain an empathy with the mentee.
Secondly, mentoring helps by fostering a sharing and transfer of organisation knowledge and wisdom for more effective and efficient work. According to Ms Sharma, ���It is a partnership between two people normally working in a similar field or sharing similar experiences. It is a helpful relationship based upon mutual trust and respect.���
Mentoring is a process of communication and interaction between a mentor, usually a senior colleague such as the business owner or a manager and a prot��g��/mentee who is usually a junior member of staff or a new joinee. The aim is to help the mentee to change something ��� improve performance, develop leadership skills, realise vision or provide organisational wisdom.
Mentoring involves primarily listening with empathy, sharing mutual experience, developing professional friendship and supporting development of insight through introspection and reflection in an encouraging manner. Mentors assume such role both formally and informally. Most of us have had mentors playing some role or the other in our lives at all times ��� parents, friends, siblings, elders, etc. To quote Eric Parsloe of The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring, ���Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.���
Organisations which hitherto never focused on their human resources are now realising the importance of people in their business continuity. If people are important to big organisations, they become more important to smaller organisations; as SMEs find it a bigger challenge to attract, develop and retain talent. And mentoring could offer a tool to support organisation in talent management.
���Mentoring is surely one of the most efficient talent development and retention tool for an organisation,��� says Aarti Sharma, CFO, ICICI Bank overseas operations. During her last 15 years of career spanning a spectrum of organisations and having supported SMEs in their business operations, she believes that mentoring achieves the two principal goals ��� talent development and management. These can be achieved, firstly, by guiding the mentee to find the right direction, develop solutions to career issues (which help retention more than big salaries) and gain an empathy with the mentee.
Secondly, mentoring helps by fostering a sharing and transfer of organisation knowledge and wisdom for more effective and efficient work. According to Ms Sharma, ���It is a partnership between two people normally working in a similar field or sharing similar experiences. It is a helpful relationship based upon mutual trust and respect.���
Mentoring is a process of communication and interaction between a mentor, usually a senior colleague such as the business owner or a manager and a prot��g��/mentee who is usually a junior member of staff or a new joinee. The aim is to help the mentee to change something ��� improve performance, develop leadership skills, realise vision or provide organisational wisdom.
Mentoring involves primarily listening with empathy, sharing mutual experience, developing professional friendship and supporting development of insight through introspection and reflection in an encouraging manner. Mentors assume such role both formally and informally. Most of us have had mentors playing some role or the other in our lives at all times ��� parents, friends, siblings, elders, etc. To quote Eric Parsloe of The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring, ���Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.���
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The origin of the word mentoring can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. Mentor was actually a character in Homer���s epic poem, ���The Odyssey���. When Odysseus, the King of Ithaca went to fight in the Trojan War, he entrusted the care of his kingdom to a mythical guardian ��� ���Mentor���. Mentor served as the teacher, adviser, friend, surrogate father and overseer of Odysseus��� son, Telemachus. In Indian mythology too, we had Lord Krishna play the role of a mentor to Arjun. In Japanese businesses, a senior executive called sempai is often paired with a junior executive called kohai or kosai. The sempai-kohai relationship is held together by a bond of trust and loyalty. Almost all aspects of the kohai���s life are carefully scrutinised by the senior sempai.
In the technology driven 21st century, the need for facilitated mentoring is far greater than ever before. Organisations are made of people who require even greater skills for mastering the increasingly complex issues and tasks.
A good mentor is someone who acts as source of information, offers insight into the organisation���s culture and philosophy, is a confidante in times of personal crises and gives feedback of observed behaviour and performance. Hence it is important for the mentor to be non-judgmental and constructive at all times. A good mentor needs to have good interpersonal skills, have complete knowledge and understanding of business and organisation, and is approachable.
For Gitanjali Alamshah, who owns a niche travel company, Journeys N Destination, based out of Delhi, the ideal candidate as mentee could be a new employee, someone going through transition, one who is willing to be mentored and takes responsibility for personal development and is receptive to feedback and coaching. For the mentee one of the most valuable assets a career could have is a good mentor.
Mentees want mentors who are organised, patient, understanding, knowledgeable and realistic. For the mentor it is a fulfilling and a learning experience as well as an opportunity to hone leadership skills. It���s interesting to see what mentees have to say. ���It is comforting to know that whenever my world falls apart, I can speak to someone who cares about me and my success,��� says one. While another one says, ���Being able to speak with someone with experience in life who has an open mind and a non-judgmental view of me is simply great.���
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Mentoring helps in fostering strong careers, transfer wisdom to next generations and fortify industry with the best talent. Mentoring helps in addressing most critical issues and supplies useful information for both mentor and mentee. All this being critical for SMEs to focus as they move into the next phase of growth and complexity in their businesses. To conclude, it is evident that mentoring can be a very effective tool for organisations to develop and retain talent. As someone has aptly said, ���A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.��� LV Sastry, VP & Chief of Operations, Bharti Airtel Ltd
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