How Mentees deviate but True Mentoring remains un-conditional

The story of the Mentor comes from Homer’s Illiad & Odyssey. The story goes like this that King of Ithaca, Odysseus, fought in the Trojan War and he commended the care of his entire family to Mentor, who served as guide and teacher of Odysseus’ son, Telemachus. Thereafter the word Mentor has been used for meaning teacher, advisor, overseer, etc.

Stories from the Indian Epics like Ramayana & Mahabharata are replete with examples of mentoring, where the mentor (Guru) is whole-heartedly immersed in the process of giving unconditionally. There is no expectation of a prize in return although popular stories have idealized Guru Dakshina (Gratuity for the Mentor), which came from Mahabharata; Ramayana never had any reference to that. This gratuity was not in form of a reward for the mentor, mostly it was in form of a task to be performed by the mentee.

Most mentors in Epics lived the life of a sage, withdrawn from the worldly desires; single-minded pursuit was dedicated to the cause of imparting. Caring, loving or nurturing is what propelled them to this higher state of being, while they were at peace with their existence.

The art of giving also stems from this state of bliss; giving others and making a sacrifice gives you far more happiness than all worldly desires.

Think of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and the mentoring paradigm exudes the principles of learning, where the mentor is shaping the beliefs of the mentee, but not completely overpowering him with his sensibilities. Socrates is that quintessential conversationalist who is trying to make an emotional connection with his pupils through his dialogues. Later Plato immortalizes these dialogues in his treatise Dialogs.

The art of conversation also starts with Socrates, where it is through verbal engagements that thoughts are exchanged and debated. This was such a unique form that it caught the attention of the authorities that this process potentially could lead to a deviation from the existing beliefs of the times among the young pupils. It led to the death of Socrates.

Socrates leads us into Plato, who later produces the greatest thoughts of his times in the book, The Republic. But the basic tenet of his doctrine was based on Socrates’ idea of justice that the human conscience must go beyond the bounds of law. The spirit and courage of the society must be embodied in the principles of the Republic; Plato idealized these beliefs in The Republic.

Aristotle deviates in his thoughts from Plato, who happens to be his mentor, in more ways than one. First of all he develops Plato’s idea or ideal into material form, or the substance of being and he created the modern logic to take shape.

Aristotle’s mentee Alexander further deviates from all this and creates an example of leadership principles that has too few parallels. But the lineage must not be missed, each mentor added something to the other and the incremental persona was born in Alexander. This was a deviation that the world saw perhaps only a very few.

We have seen that deviation in the case of the Emperor Asoka in India, who may have been mentored by Chanakya. The terrible tragedy that befell with the war at Kalinga created the deviation in him to take up a life of philanthropy, which possibly could never have come from his mentor. But the art of clear thinking and reason came from Chanakya, which must have been a strong influence in Asoka in his days of transition.

This was mentorship in the golden age of Athens or in the times of Maurya dynasty in India. But what does it have for the world of business? Is there something close to unconditional mentorship in the world of business? Do mentees deviate?

In the world of business the mentors partake in the wellbeing of the mentees, if they excel in their careers, the sense of satisfaction is only then complete. This is where the world of business deviates and that is for good. It is conditional and it better be as nothing can be left to wishful thinking; the product must be good if the process is to be tested for adequacy.

The mentor finds his immediate reward in the good performance of his mentee, if he is a stakeholder in the same business. If he is not, he gets rewarded in more ways than we can think of.

If you are hiring someone, better find out who mentored the candidate. This is a clear way that a mentor finds his true worth no matter how well he or she got rewarded during the mentoring program.

But I must say a few words on deviations, which are common, every line of business cannot stay entrenched in the same paradigm of thinking and being. The mentee must find his bearing in the changing environment of business.

Warren Buffett got mentored by Benjamin Graham and his seminal book, The Intelligent Investor. The few things he learnt from him were that a stock was a way of owning a small part of the business or that there was a way to understand the margin of safety in a stock or that one had to consider the market as a servant not as a master. But at the same time Buffett deviated from Graham in many ways.

Graham’s investing style was finding out stocks that are undervalued and buy a mix of them to diversify risk. His book championed the idea of buying the low-risk securities with a view to gaining from the difference in the intrinsic and the perceived value. Buffett on the other hand truly believed that holding a stock was like owning small part of the company and the more qualitatively the company performed the stock’s worth depended on that. That is the reason Buffett went for outright purchase of entire companies like he did with BSNF Railroad or the Precision Cast Parts. Graham could never have dreamt of doing such things or prescribing for it.

Buffett also deviated from Graham as he relied more on qualitative analysis than quantitative, which was Graham’s forte. Qualitative analysis and judgment is what separates Buffett from Graham.

Mentees will deviate, but the mentorship principles are built on the foundations of trust and mutual understanding.

Is there a fine line? We will explore this in the next article in this Mentoring Series.