"Mentee Always" - Importance of Mentorship

Last Friday, May 17 2019, I delivered a project speech in my Toastmasters Club, Delhi One Toastmasters. I shared my few experiences, which I think may benefit people outside the club as well. Following are a few excerpts from the speech:

My Official Mentor Rippan Rai is someone who never asked me to things this way or that way, and that shows the patience. What I learned from this is, It's never like mentors are not concerned about your growth, but they allow you to grow in your personal space and grow the way you need or want to grow. Along with this, he always encouraged to try new things and explore more opportunities.

The other mentors, kind of unofficial mentors I got are Nimesh Bansal and Roli Sinha, I got to learn work ethics from them. Whatever kind of situations or dilemma I had, consulting them has always helped, here comes another lesson, mostly mentors have travelled the path you are about to take, their personal anecdotes may give the direction or at least will decrease the confusion.

The time when a person is a mentor, still they learn a lot. I got the chance to implement all the learnings when I was asked to Mentor an entirely new Corporate Club in Honeywell UOP Gurugram, New Delhi. The club was able to achieve distinguished recognition in a very short span of time. I knew what I have to apply from the past - patience, being ethical and encouragement to explore new things.

Another person I admire in my Toastmasters Club is Ankur Shrimali. His commitment to assigned work and enthusiasm have always silently inspired me. He is one of the people I look up to, to be like him :)

The best part is yet to come :D

My Co-Founder, Dr. Jitendra Singh (General Secretary, Indian Medical Association) asked me to deal with a German Client. First, I was afraid, but then he intentionally asked me to handle the case since he doesn't have enough time free. I due to anxiety and stress explored all ways possible to pitch and convince that German Client to do business with us. I was glad when I was able to close the deal in positive. Now I feel very happy that I have started dealing with foreign clients as well. Later, Dr. Jitendra told me why he asked to deal with the case myself because he knew he won't be there available every time, this wasn't a big deal but there would be more big deals coming. He indirectly mentored me to bring the best out of me without letting me know the same.

All these people have influenced my way of thinking and working. In one of the speeches delivered by Roli Sinha, I could relate to the message and would quote the same here, letting me be more of me.

The final message I would like to highlight is, it's always the best experience to have mentors. Not just you will get the timely help but the learnings in the process are valuable that can never be taught in any classroom or in any online or offline courses.

Even if you are a mentor, the learnings never stop from different people around and different situations and you would agree to the statement: You will be a mentee always ;)

Anirudh Kumar, President - Delhi One Toastmasters