Mentorship: A Guide To Success

Mentorship is a transfer of professional advice between less and more experienced individuals. It is a widely accepted concept adopted across various fields and now gaining popularity in the business world. People seek mentors at different stages of their career from more established persons in their field. Bill Gates was mentored by Warren Buffet and Steve Jobs was the mentor of Mark Zuckerberg.

What is mentorship?

In the early years of our career/business or midway, we are bound to encounter uncertainty or difficulty in deciding our next steps. Mentorship gives the navigation you need in your career and guides you in the way forward. “Mentorship is about the engagement that would help fresh employees to gain holistic perspective of the professional world, job expectation, expected outcome and ways and means to achieve the goals. It’s about setting the tone right at the beginning so that new employees get inculcated in the organisation DNA thus assimilating the unique organisational culture,” says Sanjib Subba, CEO of National Banking Institute. [caption id="attachment_5260" align="alignright" width="193"] Mentoring brings the challenges to the table, both struggles and accomplishments. 
Sanjib Subba
CEO, National Banking Institute[/caption] Mentorship opens a world of opportunities before you got it alone. It’s the process of caring, feeding and nurturing a person to take the journey by themself. The enhancement of the capacity and honing of skills is done by mentors based on their expertise and experience. It is the strategy of development of talent, its retention and consolidation. It is about motivation. Victoria Ous, Program Director Rockstart Impact says, “Mentors foster the ambition of the person by giving a framework and professional advice”. Mentorship is about helping a person reach his/her full potential not only through motivation but also through guidance and self-awareness of one’scapabilities.

What does it involve?

Mentorship is a two-way street. It’s the engagement between a mentor and protégé. In a specific training program, on a more advanced note, a receiver mostly receives or interacts with people. Mentoring is different from training and coaching. It is not single goal oriented like other training programs. It can span as long as the mentee needs it or the set objective is achieved or till the potential is tapped. Mentoring encompasses a wide range of fields. Mentors can take on the role of coach, trainer, facilitator or counsellor in line with the requirements of a mentee. It is an enriching relationship between two parties. Subba describes mentorship in three words: engagement, acceptance and passion. It mainly involves one to one engagement with a mentor and mentee over a period of time with frequent meetings at prescribed intervals. Ous opines mentor-mentee relationship is like dating where both parties need to find a connection with each other to put equal effort or else the mentee should seek another mentor if the relationship is not working. It is about regular meetings where the mentor gives tips on what the person should try out in order to improve At the next meeting, the mentor should ask how the tips/framework of the last meeting went and if it was helpful, then customise the framework to the needs/ behaviour of the mentee.

Is it fruitful?

[caption id="attachment_5261" align="alignright" width="193"] Rockstart program and mentorship was a turning point in our business. It helped us strengthen our sales and marketing.
Nhurendra Shakya, Chief Technical Officer, Luniva Tech[/caption] Taking on a journey alone with your own set of skills and knowledge is brilliant but having someone you can turn to when you need the support is always better. The notion of ‘I can do it on my own’ isn’t always helpful. Even if you have the ideas and funds to proceed, you may not know how to begin or scale your business. Having someone on your side makes a colossal difference in decision making, planning and execution. With expert help, the probability of success is higher. “Mentorship is a guide to success. Sometimes you just want to have a bigger brother or sister that went through the same struggles you have right now that would advise and guide you. Learning from your own mistakes is often more painful than learning from someone else’s mistakes. That’s why, I believe having a mentor by your side can get you to success faster and with fewer shortcomings,” says Ous. Subba says mentoring brings challenges to the table, both struggles and accomplishments. The process allows a mentee to gain fresh perspective and handle the problem, untangle the bothering issues, find solutions in least bothered areas and create opportunities. Nhurendra Shakya, Chief Technical Officer of Luniva Tech says, “Rockstart program and mentorship was a turning point in our business. It helped us strengthen our sales and marketing. Previously we were more focused on technical aspects of our business but afterwards we started doing market analysis, making strategy and pivoting our products”. Luniva Tech is one of the beneficiaries of Rockstart Impact program. The start-ups failure rate is high everywhere. It has become a universal phenomenon. Lack of motivation, formal knowledge, formal mentoring is generally considered to be the major reasons behind it. Nikita Acharya, Co-Founder of Urban Girl, an online shopping site shares,“We started out on our own; however, in between there were times when we were caught in a Catch 22 situation. There were wide options available. If we had someone to look up to, things could have been a lot easier”. Vidhan Rana, Founding Partner at Biruwa Advisors, has been mentoring entrepreneurs and start-ups since the last ten years. “Mentorship definitely helps in reducing failure rate through sharing of common pitfalls and experiences with young entrepreneurs thereby ensuring that they don’t repeat the same mistakes and by assisting in discovering the opportunities,” he opines. Mentorship works only when the protégé has a defined purpose. If the person on the receiving end has a clear idea about his objectives, is flexible, open about needs and situation, the journey can be fulfilling. A mentor also wants that the effort they are putting in is paying off. Subba shares mentorship works only when the mentee is ready to harness the full benefits. For this you need an open mind, be ready to accept feedback, and make the commitment to improve.

What is the right time to receive mentorship?

Ous says mentorship is needed at any point in your career. Even if you are a CEO of a big company, you can still find mentorship useful. Mentors can help you gain reality check and think along with you about what you are doing and what you should be doing. Subba echoes the same. He believes mentorship is important at every stage and most importantly at the time of on-boarding and getting ready for new leadership roles. Even top executives transitioning into new positions have been found to be profiting from mentorship. “I know many large Fortune 500 companies whose C-Suite executives and board directors have profited from mentorship,” informs Subba.