MENTORING

Rajat Subhra Chatterjee             

0009

What is Mentoring?  IT IS NOT COACHING . Then what  !!

See if you like this !

Your willingness to invest yourself in the life of another person will be the key that unlocks treasure of fulfillment and accomplishment both ways.

 You work with your team member side by side.

You motivate your team member  ‘on the job’.

You lead by example.

You transmit mutual trust and commitments.

You offer empathy.

You show emotional  maturity.

You participate.

Tough phrases ! So,  we need  illustrations in the form of story telling !!

1996. On a grey afternoon, I was at my desk sorting out few last minute details on my forthcoming trip abroad. It was going to be my first ever London trip. I was scheduled to visit GEC Factory for a possible tie up. Those days in Bengal, there was serious power shortage and installing captive power plants, industry wise, could have been a solution. GEC used to make turbines for Jet Engines of Airplanes. Turbines were ideal to model into captive power plant for generation of electricity.  Then of course I was scheduled to cross over the Atlantic to travel into South Africa for a totally different project. It was going to be a long tour and preparation on all accounts were necessary. My Boss was to accompany me entirely.

So on that afternoon, suddenly my Boss appeared at my desk and asked me to get ready for dinning out. I had no clue at all ! Within minutes, we were on our way. The car reached Taj Bengal and I was following my Boss to the rear stair whereby we reached the top floor and were ushered in the Chambers, a special dinning room for Taj members.  I was getting curious because Taj was no stranger to me as many times I had dined with my family at the behest of my Boss. On birthdays or wedding anniversaries, this Boss of mine used to book us tables at the Taj. It has been a practice and privilege for us.

That was mentoring by Empathy.

On this occasion too, I was not surprised, rather I was intrigued why at the Chambers !! My suspense got over quickly as we were taken to a corner  large table where all the cutleries and crockery  were neatly dressed up and kept.  We took our seat with my Boss taking the Head Chair of the table. Then what followed,  has been a lesson.  There had been several types of spoons and forks and knives spread over both the sides of our dinning plates.  My Boss started explaining to me, what spoon or fork should be used for what type of food to be served. Soup spoon, salad spoon, the combination of knives and fork etc  etc. I was getting amazed. And when seven course of lunch was served and finished, I could see that I was made to use almost all the cutleries as was being directed by my Boss.  Then he told me, “ you are going to have several such lunch and dinner in London, Johannesburg, Pretoria. As my representative, you must not cut a sorry figure in front of them. ”

Mentoring at its peak. This was participative  mentoring.

Next afternoon, my Boss took me to Raymond’s outlet on Chowringhee and bought me jackets, suits, shirts, tie etc. He told me, “ you are going to be with the British, so you must be adequately attired. They are very fussy about dress code. ”

This was mentoring by extension and through body language.

My Boss happened to be Mr. Pessi Nanabhoi Dadina, CMD of KND Engineering & Technologies Ltd. A suave and charming Parsee, Pessi has been an inspiration to my ‘life making’ in many ways.  If one has to pick up a mentor in his  life, I would recommend a person like Pessi as he has been a leader who believed leading not by remote control, but by working together.  A leader believed not of talking too much but working, brushing shoulder with his colleagues.  When ISO 9000 came into being as a new Quality system in early nineties, Pessi jumped for it and thrust  me,  basically a non-technical person yet with some degree of Man Management acumen, in to this and made me the Quality Representative of the company much to the chagrin of my other colleagues. I suddenly became a privileged person as every work or processes were being acted upon under my nose. But Pessi did not stop at that. He himself plunged in to the system and ritually, religiously went deep in to this and ensured that all quality manuals, procedures, work instructions, forms etc were  prepared tailor made to our civil engineering construction company.  It has been a huge task then, as things have drifted away quite a bit now but when it was hot, Pessi was hotter and made me a partner of his thought process.

That was mentoring by example.

I still remember, one morning we were on the streets of Jo’Burg and I was hungry. So we sat in a way side inn and got our meal. I started hogging actually. Pessi, rebuked me and stopped me from taking my meal the way I was. He then advised me not to show my teeth while eating. I realised then, that was the etiquette to eat without opening your mouth.  Excellent piece of advise which I have followed whole my life.

That was mentoring by etiquette .

Even when I was given my first car from the company, Pessi took me personally to the showroom and personally made me seated in the new car stating that this was your car key.  Imagine.

That was mentoring by emotional maturity.

Even today, both me and my wife receive Morning wishes from Pessi as our relationship has remained as sweet as ever. Over the years, in spite of storm blowing over us, the relationship has grown stronger.

If proper mentoring is offered, then  people will begin to show:

Appreciation of networking / team working.

Proactive approach  to any project / task .

Attitude of Advocacy and Ownership.

 Why don’t you try ?