A Description of a Mentoring Relationship and the most Effective Solution to Solve Problems

I am working in EDA (Electronic Design Automation ) Industry and have most of my friends in this industry. These are my thoughts on mentoring : Most people would not feel comfortable with the idea they could use a coach. For some reasons, a coach is not a commonly discussed concept in business, and so low is the profile of the role, that it commonality is probably underestimated. Many times we are really fortunate in our business relationship to have a mentor or a confidante.

Our lives would be particularly hard without those who we can trust deeply, where there’s no feeling of competition, and with whom we can be open around significant matters. Often our friendships develop according to their potential to satisfy these needs, and I find myself referring to specific people on specific, personal matters like health. Sometimes I prefer chose neighbors or old friends, and sometimes I chose a work colleague and always highly value these relationships. I can now identify an occasion, quite recently, in which I had the role of mentor. Idid not seek the role, it was more like I was told by my manager that I can help this new person assimilate in our group and he said ” Mukta you are now his mentor”. A couple of years ago, in the process of changing employers, I met and got to know the senior applications engineer of the large organization I was joining. He was a veteran in his position and the circumstances surrounding our work were highly changeable, but in any case we established a relationship that was deeper and broader than that directly required for me to do my work in his part of organization. He always referred to his experience and perspective and helped me out under various situations.

Questions were freely asked, opinions sought and given, plans developed, and actions taken. One thing was clear, he was clearly in the position of authority and I sought his advice there was no political intrigue. We had no need to present ourselves to each other in any way other than as we were. It was driven by principles like honesty, and fairness. Our interactions enriched each other as we were learned from each other, a mutuality that appears to be the primary pattern in a mentoring relationship. Now as a Senior Applications Engineer in my job I have sought to become mentor and help other ‘newbies’ just as I was. My conclusion is that my ability and drive to contribute dependscompletely on the quality of the relationship I develop with the person I mentor. My technical contribution usually concerns a customer issue and is around specific design or flow issues. I also make sure that solutions are documented and develop reports and recommendations, but these don’t produce results as effective as I expect. Sometimes I initiate new conversations and offer alternate perspectives to help others discover their possibilities and potentialities. Most effective is the situation where we co-create a strategy, our learning is accelerated. I learn a lot about his reality and he discovers how he can learn a lot about others’. There was a sense of openness and a sense of responsibility on the part of my Mentor for my success and I feel the same way now. Mentoring is a relationship building processes that increase the capacity to resolve problems and achieve objectives.

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