WORKPLACE SPECIAL................ MENTORS ON THE MOVE

 MENTORS ON THE MOVE 

In today’s dynamic workplace, mentoring is no longer just a one-on-one exercise. Companies look at new models — from group programmes to speed mentoring and shadow boards. Some techniques

    LEADERSHIP development has evolved over the past few years, as companies deal with challenges in an ever-changing business environment. Organisations are realising the importance of growing talent in such an environment, and customising grooming strategies to meet their immediate as well as long-term needs. Here’s how some of them are going about it.

IBM: IN A ‘FLASH’
Mentoring usually involves one person (mostly a senior) taking another through a process of discovery and learning over time. But IBM has cut to the chase with “speed mentoring”. “We have a strong tradition and history of the classic mentoring process,” says Sripada Chandrasekhar, VP and head (HR), India and South Asia. “But this process has its limitations.” It is not very scalable when you have to reach out to large populations of employees. And it has too long a gestation period for a company growing at breakneck speed. The mentoring usually takes place in a large conference room, where 30-40 mentees are split into groups of five or six, while a clutch of mentors rotates between the groups, spending 30-45 minutes at each table. This ‘round robin’ system helps groups of employees to be exposed to as many as five mentors in a short period of time. “Mentors also learn in the process. Being stuck to a mentee for a year provides limited learning and exposure than if a mentor interacted with 30 people in four hours,” says Chandrasekhar. This process is followed up with a more customised relationship, should a mentee request it. An informal polling of mentees ahead of an event usually throws up certain themes, which form the subject of discussion at these mentoring sessions. The process has worked well for Sharmilee Das, who is a part of the global business services team in Bangalore. “As a project manager, I find myself hard-pressed for time,” she says. “I can’t afford long-drawn-out mentoring sessions. Flash mentoring, where she can access “a lot of information within a short span of time” and “learn about new ideas from several senior people” at one go, is much more helpful to her. Onthemanagementside, says Chandrasekhar, the session helps mentors spot talent in a more natural way, and in an informal environment. In a company where less than 30% is considered top talent, this is certainly helpful.

RPG: SHADOW BOARD
The RPG Group believes that the best way to hone young talent is to throw it into the deep end of the pool. One of its most coveted mentoring programmes is the Young Executive Board, formerly known as the shadow board. This is a carefully-selected group of 10 highpotential youngsters, in their 20s and 30s, who work as a ‘shadow’ to the top management; they work on solutions to challenges that preoccupy the senior-
How the YEB Works
TEN HIGH-POTENTIAL employees work as a ‘shadow’ to the top management
YEB is thrown all kinds of challenges
ONE PERSON from the top management team is appointed to mentor the YEB
What the Company Hopes to Achieve
Develop high-calibre talent within the company
sessions built around each. The mentees are usually in the 28-32 year age group, and often include fresh hires at the AVP level. People like Jayashree Rajan, regional operations and service manager based in Chennai, who joined the bank in 2012. She has attended four group mentoring sessions so far and found them useful. “The middle years are tricky,” she says. “It’s when your formative years in the organisation are over and your senior management years are about to begin. In some cases, people carry over the outlook and attitude of their junior years, into the senior positions and might need some help recalibrating this.”

PWC:

HIGH POTENTIAL MENTORING
In 2011, as part of a general stocktaking, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) paused to think about how it could get more young leaders into its India leadership team. The solution staring them in the face was to have more new partners
How Speed Mentoring Works

30-40 MENTEES are split into groups

A CLUTCH of mentors rotates between the groups EMPLOYEES CAN be exposed to as many as five mentors in a short period
What the Company Hopes to Achieve
Mentors spot talent in a more natural way, in an informal environment
youngsters with some experience, who could handle the challenge of going from employee to owner; from being part of a team to managing one. That’s when PwC instituted the Young Partners Forum, an 18-24 month mentoring and training programme.
The YPF comprises six partners, usually between 35 and 45 years, and each of them is handpicked (from PwC’s different service lines) by — and reports directly to — chairman Deepak Kapoor. He provides the group with specific challenges: The problem of attrition, finding innovative ways to grow business, employee engagement and anything the company deems pressing at the moment.
The six-member YPF team goes through a rotation every two years, and two of the members stay back, for the sake of continuity. “The forum is the company’s way of creating future leaders and exposing them, early on, to the business challenges the organisation faces,” says Sanjay Tolia, a tax partner with the company, and a part of the first batch of members.
For Tolia and his YPF batch, this mentoring programme has helped in multiple ways. “It opens your eyes to things that we have been insulated from so far, because the senior management takes care of it,” he says.
“On a personal level, it has made me conscious of what I contribute to the company.”
How the Forum Works
SIX PARTNERS, between 35 and 45 years, are handpicked by the chairman
HE PROVIDES the group with specific challenges, and they provide solutions
THE YPF team goes through a rotation every 2 years, and 2 members stay back
What the Company Hopes to Achieve
Prepare new partners to take on more responsibility and bigger roles in the organisation
most levels of the company. “We consider about 10% of our management population to be high-potential, and we have mentoring programmes for some of them,” says Arvind N Agrawal, president (corporate development and human resources). “The young high-fliers in the YEB are drawn from different functions but they work as a team, and report directly to the CEO [of their company; each RPG subsidiary has its own YEB].” One person from the top management team ensures that the YEB remains on

DEUTSCHE BANK:

 GROUP MENTORING
How Group Mentoring Works
ONCE A QUARTER, 20 team leaders and assistant VPs meet for a session conducted by a senior manager or expert
KEY THEMES are identified for each session: Maximum You, Maximum Career, Maximum City and Maximum Woman
What the Company Hopes to Achieve
Ease in fresh hires into the Deutsche way track. The young members also learn how to conduct meetings, analyse information, deal with the bureaucracies of the organisation and present showstopper ideas and proposals.
A YEB is “our attempt to develop high-calibre talent within the company and have young people bring in new ideas,” says Agrawal. This mentoring initiative, adopted some years ago, has been effective enough for the YEB to throw up ideas that the company has now operationalised. For instance, the YEB at RPG’s transmissions company KEC has developed a renewable energy strategy that takes a fresh look at the power industry’s conventional modes of transmission and distribution and will soon be incorporated into the company’s business strategy.
When a bunch of people have the same issues and problems, it’s probably a good idea to let them find a solution together as well. That’s why Deutsche Bank adopted its group mentoring programme in 2011. Once a quarter, some 20 team leaders and assistant VPs meet for their group mentoring session, which is usually conducted by a senior manager or an external expert. Key themes are identified — the ones running currently are Maximum You, Maximum Career, Maximum City and Maximum Woman, variations of the modern-day concerns of negotiating leadership styles, gender and geography at the workplace

Labonita Ghosh ET131008