Who has been the best mentor in your career/life? Why? Makrand Pandit (Mak) has had a great impression on my professional life. He is talented, a man of great repute and managing skills are extraordinary. Mak allows you to grow as a professional. His mentoring skills are methodical and exemplary. He provides you a scenario and allows you to solve the problems by your own reasoning. Extremely polite and calm at situations, Mak teaches you the basic values of life and yet remains humble. He is the best mentor any one could have. Mak has made a great impression on my professional life. Watching him work is a lesson in itself.
Can you recall a couple of specific instances where your mentor’s guidance helped you do the right thing?Yes, the situation is very much fresh to this day. I was fresh to technical writing and much like every newbie followed the various technical writing mailing lists.Once I gathered some encouragement to respond one of the queries that was received with flak by a lot of people. Disheartened and dismayed, I decided to unsubscribe from the mailing list, but then I received an email from Mak. He then had a call with me and discussed where I was incorrect. We went through the email once again, and this time he showed and underlined the errors committed in the email. There were mistakes in grammar and sentence composition, but the manner in which he made me realize was a lesson. I become far more confident after that day.
Who has been the best mentee for you? Why?: I have been mentees to couple of my students. It will be bad if I take their names for confidential purposes. But, the gentleman who lost his job during the recession phase of last year and yet took the STC India Mentorship program needs a special mention and applause.
What do you think are the top 3-5 reasons for successful mentor-mentee relationships? I believe whatever you do you need to see that the other party listens. So participation is by far the most important thing that you need to have for successful mentor-mentee relationship. The second thing, which ticks is learning from both the ends. A mentor should make it a point to test the mentee' knowledge during the completion of the program and acknowledge if he/she has learnt something new. And, finally, you do not boss around in this relationship. When two person agrees to get into this relationship, they should consider both of them as equal parties seeking knowledge. Only then can the seeds of successful relationship work.
What makes the mentor-mentee relationship go wrong? What would be your advice to mentors and mentees to avoid such situations? Do not have bossy attitude, refrain from false conviction and statements, do not make false promises, stop making fun of each and be professional- I guess all of the points mentioned by me needs to be avoided for mentor-mentee relationship to not go wrong.
Advice to mentors- Understand and analyze the mentee' profile even though the mentorship manager may look into it but still you should make the final call,ask the mentee to come up with a list of key areas that she/he wants to cover up in the program and prepare your agenda based on the program, keep a diary and record the important points, listen to mentee' confusion/dilemma, be emphatic, observe mentee' growth, give exercises to test the mentee' aptitude and skills, never scold them and allow them to make mistakes but teach them carefully, be punctual and keep it as much professional as you can.
Advice to mentee'- have your objectives set and get it ratified by the mentee before the program starts, clear your doubts as and when you have, do not call up at wrong times and instead write emails, be inquisitive and punctual, never shout at your mentor but correct them if he/she is wrong.
