“Nothing great is ever accomplished alone.”
First of all I want to answer the question that WHY MENTOR? Why nothing is ever achieved alone? My answer is that Mentoring, at its core, guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, assures them they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter. Research confirms that quality mentoring relationships have powerful positive effects on young people in a variety of personal, academic, and professional situations. Ultimately, mentoring connects a young person to personal growth and development, and social and economic opportunity.
As, water is the compulsory ingredient for the plant growth. Similarly, mentor is like an ingredient of your successful career. In this picture i have taken water as a mentor and plant as a mentee. As water is important for the health of plant growth and in the same way mentor is important for the mentee growth in each and evey field of life.
“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction” John C. Crossby
Neither everyone have mentor and nor everyone have a great mentor. Mentors are found by interest and passion and aligning their interest with yours and making the most of it.
I had a great mentor in the form of my mother, who had supported me and guided through every walk of my life and made me who I am today. She made countless sacrifices for me. She inspired me to study and be successful. It is her inspiration that I am standing here and successful.
In professional life here in my university department Hailey College of banking and finance, I got to meet a very bright and talented teacher who is very much successful and renowned by his brilliant teaching. His name is Prof. Fida Hussain Bukhari, He is the Assistant Professor. He is very humble and very cooperative. I consider him my mentor.
I asked him for some time and he asked me to join him in the campus. When we met I shared following tips which I learned through Mr. Sohail Rizvi’s lectures. He listened carefully and said: these are very excellent tips to grow in your career.
PART-A:
1. Put your time in: Everyone starts out doing grunt work till trust is proven
2. Don’t talk badly about the company or about your boss
3. Take control of your relationship with your boss and team members
4. Find a mentor and manage the relationship strategically
5. Join a professional body and build your network
He said that strong relations with your boss, team members and workers built a connection between you and others. But do not take these relations personally or friendly because bosses generally do not like friendly relations. They always maintain some limits because it is very necessary and most people try to get extra benefits from those relations. Good relations help you to discuss your problems, your work progress with your boss, team members in a friendly manner and according to research friendly environment can enhance work performance up to 60% because bosses, managers and team members always there to help you at any moment.
At work, you have to try to make yourself very attentive. Never ever use harsh and bad words about company and your manager. If you do this, then you have to prepare yourself for results. Because every organization has some good and bad things. Don’t react to bad things. Try to work hard and gain experience. Experience is essential in order to pursue some career options and may also help clarify your career-related ideas. Even if experience is not directly relevant to the career path you wish to pursue, it can provide an opportunity to develop transferable skills that you may not readily develop in your current position. Whatever the reason, it can offer variety but do consider what you wish to achieve.
Also find a mentor or such a person who can lead you in an organization and in future, because these people have very much experience about practical field and industry. And can guide you better. Don’t share your personal stories with them. They will think that you are trying to getting some personal help from them and professional people hate these things. They can guide you, they can teach you but they can’t help you as you want. Build your professional career without others help. It builds confidence and makes you suitable candidate for starting your own business.
Networking in professional life is everything. Without networking, you cannot survive. It is a digital world and organizations and companies love to see your performance through social networks. And LinkedIn today is most usable and perfect social network. Where companies observe your performance very easily. So, make your profile excellent. It is important to take opportunities to develop networks — you never know when a contact may be valuable — or when you might be able to help someone else. Go to seminars, meetings and conferences; join groups such as professional bodies, staff associations and networks, and unions. Explore ways of using online social networks. Concentrate on areas where you need to increase your contacts. Don’t confine your networking to the workplace, especially if you are keen to explore other career avenues. Ensure that you keep contact details up to date and try to keep in touch by email or phone.
Online networking is the most accessible platform for networking with larger groups and works best as a follow-up to a positive face to face encounter or with personal introductions from colleagues. Social networking sites enable you to access a professional community, use the people you know to make contacts and give access to tools that facilitate networking.
Sir always used to say that even you are in the digital life but, you cannot ignore the importance of journaling. He also said that always make a performance sheet on which you must mention your work details. After one month, you will see that there are some fluctuations and things that can be improved by working on them.
PART-B:
- What is your life of purpose?
He related this question with different stages of life. At this stage of life my WHY is to share my knowledge and expertise with the students. I want enlight the students with my knowledge which I have gathered over many years. There was also a stage of life where I was passionate to work for the economic betterment of the Pakistan. Which I did for many years. But due to some reasons I switch my career, and joined this institute. And I am pleased with my current and past life. He further explained that having a purposeful life is good, but never try make your purpose to harm others.
2. What is the pain (sacrifice) that you are willing to sustain to reach your goals?
He responded that pains are the part of life. Can you find a single person for me who is passing or passed his/her life without pains. I also faced a lot of pains. One pain which was hard to bear for me in my boyhood was that I had to share my sorrows with myself during my boyhood. I was never reluctant to make friends, which was only to save myself from long and funny gatherings. And in my workplace I faced pains of being truthful all the time. I never involved in any kind of workplace politics, never tried to hide facts which sometimes cause pains. But these pains helped me a lot to reach my destinations.
He quoted: “If you are not facing any pain in your life, it means you are not doing anything great with yourself.”
3. What are you passionate (or burdened) by?
Passion comes from someone who feels strong emotions towards something that interests oneself. When I am asked what I am most passionate about, tons of random thoughts will scatter in my brain to search for the answer. The answer is, there is no one answer. :) Passion comes from different angles of emotions. I am passionate anything that pulls me in to be more of myself. But currently I am not passionate to towards any achievement. I am totally burdened by the thought that how I will be able to face the hardships of hereafter.
I am very grateful that Sir gave me some time. I thanked him for this conversation. And also forward him a thank you mail.
