Ravi is glad for the assignment. In his words, he is being given "real work" now. Albeit boring, a due diligence assignment indicates that the company trusts him with taking important calls. They are watching him, he says. He was made senior consultant late last year. And if he works smart on his project pipeline, which includes a retail study and a feasibility report for a private power company, he will be in line for his next promotion soon.
A major part in Ravi's dramatic rise within the company has been played by his mentor, a vice-president (VP) who has watched Ravi's back from Day 1. The company has a culture of mentoring new recruits but the personal relationship that Ravi has developed with his mentor goes beyond that.
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The consultancy started in 2006 and has quickly made a name for itself as a respected mid-size operation. Those who joined early on have grown by leaps and bounds. Ravi's mentor, in particular, has proved to be the dark horse. Picked up from a mediocre B-school, he rose fast on the dint of his ability to convert leads, short for getting new orders. Ravi looks up to him and often burns the midnight oil to make sure he is noticed.
It wasn't always like this. Ravi was a debilitatingly tongue-tied young man when he left home to work at IBM in Bangalore. His childhood in Pune was typical Tam-Brahm territory. Wake up in the morning, dab sandalwood paste on the forehead and immerse yourself in textbooks. He was a topper in school and great at quizzes but rather uncomfortable with social interaction.
Bangalore changed him. The shock of living away from family forced him to open up. The friends he made there introduced him to the sort of life - whacky, furtive, even rowdy - that his cloistered existence had not afforded him. Away from family and struggling to make emotional ends meet, he finally developed a connection with strangers by letting himself be subsumed by their big-heartedness.
When he joined the consultancy after passing out from B-school in 2010, Ravi was a far more confident man. Never a natural reader, he developed an interest in Indian business books and looked for opportunities to share his enthusiasm for, say, The Incredible Banker. He laughed a lot more and, although a vegetarian and teetotaller, comfortably partied with his drinker buddies.
However, when it came to presentations he was still, let's just say, a babe in the woods. He would speak very fast and gesticulate wildly. He wanted to finish everything quickly for fear he would miss an important detail. Hours of hard work spent on the presentation would come to naught because the client, naturally, thought that he was rushing because he was ill-prepared.
While Ravi had tremendous resources at his command, including alumni networks and professional assistance, it was the little things that he needed immediate help with. These also happened to be areas he was rather diffident seeking help about.
This is where his mentor stepped in. He spent long hours with Ravi, helping him with presentation skills, speech modulation and body language. He made Ravi give presentations to him, slide by detailed slide, before Ravi went to the client. He noticed that Ravi's problem was not too little preparation but too much. He taught Ravi where to focus and what to let go. Ravi began to see that his low confidence stemmed from his inability to parse the relevant from the avoidable. His presentations improved.
Furthermore, the mentor went out with him to help him choose shirts that were muted and more corporate-style than the loud checks Ravi was used to wearing. He took Ravi on numerous client meetings and told him what to observe and how to glean information. He invited Ravi home and served him generous helpings of traditional Tamil fare.
Today, Ravi is doing the same with a new recruit who is six months old in the organisation. For a few days initially, Ravi saw him coming to office all sweaty. It turned out he walked to office since it was merely 10 minutes away. Ravi insisted that he use a cab so that he looked crisp when he entered office. Bashed by Ravi's forthrightness, the mentee took umbrage.
Ravi sat him down and explained to him his role as his mentor. That he wasn't just there to guide him professionally but also to help him overcome any day-to-day missteps that the mentee might make. That he would sometimes do this proactively but it was all for the mentee's benefit. And finally, that the mentee should trust him with looking after his best interests.
Things have been smooth since then, and Ravi feels like he is passing on a baton that was so helpfully thrust into his hands by his mentor.
The author has switched too many jobs in the past and hopes he can hold down this one