Mentoring could be described as the facilitation of learning and preparing towards long, medium and short term goals. It has been recognized that behind every successful person, there is one elementary truth - somewhere, someone cared about his growth and development, this ‘someone’ is a 'mentor’. In searching mentor on the web, one finds that the name of a mentor appears behind most successful persons."CEOMentor” is a support program for senior management executives to manage their learning and preparing in order that they upgrade their skills, improve their performance and maximize their potential for own and company’s benefit.
A mentor is a guide who can help the executive- the mentee, to find the right direction. The mentee could be the Managing Director, a board member, the CEO or CXO-a functional head or any other senior member of a management team.
Mentoring is increasingly being recognized as an important tool in executive development. Senior management cadre executives including MDs, Directors, CEOs, CXOs/VPs, GMs need mentoring because their performance, diligence, experience, talent, competence, passion has either brought them to where they have reached now or fallen short of where they could have reached. In both the situations, they realize that they have a need to talk to someone in an uninhibited manner for understanding the way-forward and unlocking the potential that each one of them possesses.
But, can the senior level executives talk to their employer, board, or subordinates? They usually have their reservations on doing so. Senior guys normally operate in a vacuum and it is here that the role of a mentor becomes important. They need someone with objectivity and with no hidden agenda to guide and take them to where they think they belong.
The graph below depicts that without mentoring support-internal or external, an executive is more likely to travel the path “OB” instead of "OA" after hitting “O”- the point of inflection.