Who is a Mentor and what is so special about this person? How important mentor-ship is in career development and how does they help develop your skills ? In my opinion, not everyone that offers advice is a mentor, rather mentor-ship is a perfect blend of knowledge, experience, passion and humility.
On my first job at Ad-Innovation (the advertising company), there was this decent, elegant, long white bearded individual with a forever smile on his face and was just over 40. He had a certain attraction to him and everyone instantly feels comfortable with. His name is Syed M. Nabeel and I am proud to call him my mentor. Funny thing is, Nabeel sahb was not my supervisor and later I did few projects under his supervision, yet I always was pulled towards him for advice. He was a well respected person, which I later learned is not because of his connection or necessarily because of his knowledge but because of his kind behavior and humility. Also it would be unfair not to mention my supervisor at the time, Syed Wajih ul Hassan, a pointdexter, dork, competent and not much social guy. He did not command the same of level of respect in social meaning, but he was the brain of that company and he worked as Head of marketing Department. In any sort of difficulty or technical advice, everyone looked up to him. Both of these people were and still are my mentor and everything I learned was mostly following them.
I started out as a fresh graduate I had no knowledge of advertising industry or what is expected of a professional. These individuals taught me everything, and I don’t just mean work skills but social and people skills as well. While I was working on my first P&G Mini Market 1 project, I was working under his supervision. It was over a Million PKR project, to be finished in 2 months. While on the project, there was this responsibility of dealing and updating client about the progress on weekly basis and pressure handling, not just from Client but also inside the organization among different departments i.e. Designing, Fabrication, Printing, admin, finance and Store. Collaboration between departments is more than simply “cooperating” with other teams. It involves a shared vision, mutual respect, and in-depth understanding of each other’s role in a project with the goal of achieving excellent business outcomes and outstanding customer experience. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks the same way and see eye to eye for same level of efficiency.
It was very confusing thing for me and being part of marketing team, I feel I have to “fight” on battle grounds both inside and outside of company. This is where my mentors taught me the most important thing in life, how to get along with people. You have to be humble with others and keep good respectable relationship in order to work together as a team. Sometimes there is a dispute between people of different departments that would affect processes within the company and interrupt the entire work flow. Also there is a strong sense of office tribalism among the team members of every department. I had to push every department for timely execution of their responsibilities because in the end I was the one giving progress report to client and to higher authorities. All of this was a new revelation to a fresh graduate and I am very lucky to have these mentors to guide me in the process.
Thinking about those days, I realized it was the sense of respect, humility and a clear urge to learn and grow that attracted mentors. The situation was like a well or stream where there is a lot of water and how much water a person can drink depends upon how thirsty he is. In my experience, a person with knowledge and experience is like an open book and they will teach that knowledge to whoever asks for it and proves he is really interested and worthy of their time. Treating with respect doesn’t just constitute working hours, but we build informal personal relation with such people that may be on lunch or during holidays. Good mentoring requires empowering the mentee to develop their own strengths, beliefs, and personal attributes to be successful in the field. An my mentorship doesn’t end there. I kept in touch with them and I ask for their advice before making a big career decision. However, there is always room for more Mentors in different roles and authorities that can guide me further into the unkown.
