Every single person needs to have in life at least one Mentor; having multiple is a luxurious gift of circumstances. The Mentor(s) in our lives are meant to do mentoring of us, firstly as individuals and then lead towards the development of technical skills.
There is hardly a person who requires no mentoring. All do. Even the Apostles of God need mentoring… they receive it directly from Divinity and, in some cases, the Infinitely Divine Wisdom imparts it through other ordinary men (not recognised as Prophets or Apostles) to His Chosen Prophets. Moses was mentored by the “knowledgeable one” (Khizar is the generally accepted name). Moses was taught several lessons whilst he travelled along with Khizar, at his own request and against the advice of Khizar, who thought Moses would not have the patience to bear the burden of events. (Readers may refer to the chapter titled The Cave or Kahaf in the Holy Quran).
Generally, mentoring as an exercise is seen to mean that it has to be from a person of substance to be able to offer it to mentees. In reality, we are under the “mentee mode” all the time in our lives — this mentoring is silent, unannounced, informal, and comes from several directions. In the initial years, mentoring is done by parents, siblings, and the extended family; followed by teachers at school, college, and university. Our friends and other segments of society are also continually “mentoring” us without it being pronounced or obvious.
It is not unusual to be a recipient of quality mentoring that arises from unique situations and circumstances. A run on the bank is the worst nightmare of a banker. I faced one arising out of rumour-mongering during the global financial crisis of 2008. The pressures of the moment brought to me a new and fresh attitude of response to negative market conditions. Every day, during that grilling blitz of three weeks of turmoil, brought to the fore a new set of circumstances that helped me and my colleagues to “sharpen the saw” (term borrowed from Stephen Covey). The crisis was mentoring us on how to remain calm, placid, and pacific when being in the eye of the storm. Tranquil behaviour and response were adequately learnt.
Mentoring has to be looked at with a wide-eyed lens that allows for a panoramic assessment of both professional and personal needs. Almost everyone thinks that mentoring is restricted to professional life. Nay. There is an inadequacy of understanding of the fact that the quality of personal life has a major influence and bearing upon professional goals and objectives.
Those who can find in their respective environment a person who will provide mentoring on both fronts would qualify for inclusion as a fortunate and lucky person. In my career, I was extremely fortunate and lucky to have found several such people. To seek mentoring, it is not a necessity that the mentor should be a ‘senior’ either in age or position. Again, several young colleagues quietly and in an unannounced manner “mentored” me at some given time, situations, or over a period of time. The time required for mentoring could be an event, a single day, or even a lifetime. Hence, the need to have several “mentors” spanning a long period of time is a desirable indulgence.
Mentees have the option and right to choose their Mentors. This is possible when there is no structured mentorship programme at the corporate level. Each individual can seek out a mentor at the workplace who may or may not be a direct supervisor. I did this too on a few occasions. From an entirely different business line, I sought mentorship from a person I admired when in London at the Headquarters. It was an informal arrangement, but it helped me immensely in clarifying to myself the professional goals to look at and pursue.
In the corporate environment, there are several entities that run efficient, well-structured, and adequately planned mentorship programmes. Since the demand is for several mentors, the programme normally includes mentors from various levels of hierarchy. In this approach, the CEO, who is supposed to be the CIO (Chief Inspiration Officer), rarely takes a formal role in mentoring colleagues. In fact, I have found supervisors showing scant respect for developing the second in command for their own position and/or for other positions of critical importance. I believe the CEO of any institution must wear the title of being the “Chief Mentor”. Of course, the CEO cannot be a direct mentor to everyone in the organisation, but he/she can and should take up a formal role in mentoring. Here, a serious recognition is necessary that not all CEOs will have in them the wherewithal to be a good Mentor.
In my view, the best Mentor any can find has to be the CEO of the organisation. From the vantage point of overseeing the formulation of strategy to actually instituting processes and resources for implementing it gives the CEO a unique insight into organisational dynamics and its related management structures. This positioning allows the CEO to pick up people for their distinct skills and abilities or, alternatively, to allow individuals to discover their untapped, hidden, and obscure — to oneself — differentiating abilities.
Personally, this scribe enjoyed excellent relationships with several supervisors who, willy-nilly, did play the role of being a mentor to me — sometimes this fact, during the currency of this training, remained unbeknownst to us.
In almost the final leg of my career, the CEO of the institution took upon himself, without my asking for it, the role of being a “Mentor” to me. This mentoring was not restricted to the acquisition of technical proficiency at his hands; it transcended to areas tilted and concentrated towards the development and refinement of soft skills. Mr Saleem Akhtar, as the CEO, taught me lessons in management by letting me get closer to him while he was managing the large bank. A considerable paradigm shift took place in the way and manner I had begun to view business considerations, learning the art of balancing between speedy growth and steady growth, between short-term gains versus long-term sustainable growth. He would give independence to operate under his watchful eyes, evaluating continually the judicious or otherwise use of authority.
To be a Mentee and a Mentor at the same time is a recognition of both strength and weakness. A Mentee can be as proud as a Mentor. I endeavour to remain a perpetual Mentee.
Sirajuddin Aziz
The writer is a Senior Banker & Freelance Columnist.