A mentoring mantra for managers

Managers are expected to deliver results. They need to be informed and inspired to ensure consistent performance. Amid the backdrop of rapid economic growth in Sri Lanka, this has become increasingly more significant. What has also risen in significance is the noble endeavour of mentoring.

As an overarching concept covering instructing, coaching and counselling, mentoring is a powerful personal development and empowerment tool. It's an effective way of helping people to progress in their careers and is becoming increasingly popular as its potential is realised. A partnership between two people (mentor and mentee) normally working in a similar field or sharing similar experiences, it is a helpful relationship based upon mutual trust and respect.

World history reveals myriad famous mentor–mentee pairs: Merlin, the legendary wizard, who was the mentor of equally legendary King Arthur, a British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries; Aristotle was a mentor to Alexander, the great conqueror; Kautilya, author of Arthashastra, was the mentor for Emperor Ashoka, as Krishna was to Arjuna in the Hindu scripts.