#101 A Tale of Parting Mentor

You never imagine your mentor to retire and when they do, you feel powerless from inside to keep up! This is a blog post for one of my mentors who planned to take a dig into his new life!

Have you ever imagined giving a farewell to your boss or super boss? Who thinks that their boss has put down papers. This is such a far-fetched thought while you are working at an organization.

Am I saying that bosses don’t move? No, I am just saying that this thought never lurks your mind that your mentor can also quit. Take a moment to think how many bosses/ mentors you had at the corporate jungle who quit while you were there (Don’t count the ones you wanted to leave :P)

Very few or none right! And last month one of my mentors and key advisor chose to experiment with his life. While, me and my colleagues definitely wanted him to stay back, but we all think that he has taken a good call keeping his growth in perspective. So, this point of staying back was never in the picture for him; but everything just changed after his last day.

—Two cents on How I met him—

I first met him as my interviewer in MBA institute campus, and that was his first and last visit there. He came around the placement season, sharing his insights, giving pep talks and selecting for his team. I have a happy coincidence of my interviewers turning into my mentors and so I was to continue the legacy here as well. When the rounds finished and final list was announced, I went upto him to ask if he is looking someone for his own team or his vertical in general and he politely said I am looking for myself and if you choose to take the offer, I will rope you in. I was clear that I want to put my learning eggs into his basket and I took the offer.

Cut to Oct’20, when we joined as trainees under work from home structure; everyone was assigned a product to work in and I turned upto him for the final advice and I started working under him. Due to wfh, I couldn’t catch up much informally, but in that limited time I found a great mentor and advisor for self. And this bond remained unaffected when I took a time off from his team and then ofcourse, rejoined back last year.

"True mentors have this unique ability to pick up vibes that everyone else misses from within you.” – Ahmad R Kazi

—Why his moving out changed the team dynamics?—

If you meet him and just observe him in a usual working day, you will realize that he is like a magician who has spell bound everyone around him. Let me give you some context to his working day:

• You will never find him on his desk and you have to look for him on the entire floor

• Suppose you are walking with him, I am sure he will a lagger, not because he is slow but because on his way he will get atleast 5- 7 people to meet

• You will find him standing and chatting with anyone on the floor, his team or not doesn’t matter

• If you want to get his time, catch him off working hours, while he is on a drive to or fro from office (otherwise you will never find a slot in his calendar)

• “Ravi, I need to talk to you” is enough for him to get his time and mind space. No big emails, reasons and preparedness required to have a chat. You are sure to find him walking upto you and seeking your time

So, he is like a jack of all trades and master of all as well, if I can say so. He is quick, sharp, smart, busy and a person who everyone is finding on the floor right from (his) super bosses to his team to new joiners. He has a charm of making everyone comfortable with him. I was taken aback when people used to take his case and he used to be so grateful to them without a hint of attitude or anything.

He is not just a person with strong interpersonal skills, he is equally great at whatever he does. There is no question that he can’t answer and solve for when the team is in crisis. So, he is like a star for his team and out of respect, we take up work or projects that he put us on and people positively respond back to his trust and faith. Ofcourse, such a person leaving the team will be a hit to everyone and somewhere, that portion of motivation has gone by with his parting.

But the pertinent question is What did this man used to do differently to have such a respect and power of influence on everyone.

—Stealing some hacks from him—

1. Learning is a constant thing: It is difficult to comprehend a team lead saying I want to learn this from you, but this is the kind of energy this guy keeps which always triggers you. He is ready to learn everything under the sun just like a newbie, reminding you that how he got this far.

2. You can figure out everything: When I say everything, I mean it! Be it a compliance project or a tech project or any new data, everyone circle back to this one guy. Does he know everything everytime, No, but he has the eagerness to figure it out along with you with utmost sincerity.

3. Team Building is a time consuming activity: There is no team that has worked under him and rejoiced their time. Every two years with new products under his kitty, he loves managing new people and also giving away his trained folks to other teams happily. As a manager, I will be bit sad if I have to let go off my trained folk to others and get another person to train, but for him; it was like an easy job. He takes time to build that rapport, checks in and so easy to reach out to him

4. Office is not for work but for networking: If you tell him that there’s so much work which you couldn’t complete at the end of the day, you will surely find him saying this line. His humour kept aside, he means it that office is a place bit more than just your work, you have to meet new people, understand what and how others work. To my surprise, this is such an underrated advice from a mentor, but give it a shot and you will realize that you will find much better ways to work and a set of thinking perspective for same work we all do.

5. Focus time saves you- The only person who clocks in at sharp 9:30 but definitely the last one to leave the office is him. As a lead, if everyone needs your time during the usual hours, then only focus time can save you. His focus hours were silent but full productive time as he abstains from calls, or emails. No one needs 5 hours of focus to close work, yet just 2-3 hours to close all critical work at hand.

6. Find your work balance: Everyone talks about work life balance, having a passion outside work but everything falls flat the moment weekend hits. But you will find him running a marathon on weekends or going on a trek. This is how he switches off from work and find his balance. The idea is not just to talk about the balance but taking actions to put that into life spirit and he does it perfectly.

It is difficult to be like him, his aura outshines everyone but my endeavour is to imbibe some of his hacks into my life to get atleast a step ahead towards his teachings. Every time I think about him and mentors like him that I have into my corporate jungle journey, I always hit back to this great line by Maya Angleou

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

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