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The Art of Mentoring ?

An easy-to-read guidebook by Ravi Gundlapalli

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The Art of Mentoring The Art of Mentoring The Art of Mentoring
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Foreword

思利及人 or Si Li Ji Ren, always considering others’ interests, is the heart and soul of my family. Together with pragmatism, integrity, and constant entrepreneurship, Si Li Ji Ren runs through the veins of our business to remind us the importance of giving back to the community and sharing the fruits of our success. Growing up with these core values has not only shaped my leadership style but has also changed my outlook on life.

Mentoring is invaluable to me. My father Lee Man Tat was the pioneer of our family business’ core values and was my first mentor. His lessons in life and business boosted my leadership skills and constantly reminded me to help others. As Winston Churchill famously said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give,” our family is dedicated to paying our success forward and giving back to society.

Whether it’s in the home, at the office, or in our community, our core values encourage us to engage different perspectives, to keep others’ interest in mind, and to come up with solutions that benefit the collective. While my mentors have shared their teachings with me, I have become a mentor to others, and I hope that they can carry on the art of mentoring and sharing.

Whether it’s in the home, at the office, or in our community, our core values encourage us to engage different perspectives, to keep others’ interest in mind, and to come up with solutions that benefit the collective. While my mentors have shared their teachings with me, I have become a mentor to others, and I hope that they can carry on the art of mentoring and sharing.

One of the goals for any leader is to reduce friction for employees to get things done. There are many reasons for the friction to occur. One main reason is what I call “insight gap” - knowing what is the right way to approach things in that particular context to solve a particular problem.

A thriving network of mentors can help employees to bridge this gap and to quickly learn the necessary skills to propel the organization to new heights. In my recent book The Autopilot Leadership Model, I talk at length about leveraging on each other’s strengths. When you encourage such reciprocity of sharing and learning, it builds camaraderie and trust among your people and elevates the organization through synergy and collective wisdom.

Learning from another human being is powerful because it is both personal and contextual – an employee working on an RFP (Request For Proposal), or a student trying to get their first job, or an entrepreneur looking to win the first customer, or a senior executive looking to make a career change. In all these examples, learning from a mentor accelerates the learning process, which is a win-win for the individual as well as the organization as a whole.

I am delighted that Ravi has put together a guidebook to address both sides of the equation - how to help others as a mentor and how to receive help as a mentee. Being a good mentor and/or mentee is an important skill that is not taught in our traditional educational institutions today. I congratulate Ravi for providing a blueprint that people can refer to at any point in their career. There have been books on mentoring and on its power to transform organizations, but Ravi takes this one step deeper by discussing the best practices of engaging and building the most effective mentoring partnerships.

If you are someone who is aspirational and cares about others, then this book is for you. It will surely inspire you to help others and in the process become a more effective leader. Creating an effective mentoring network fosters a vigorous learning environment, promotes curiosity, and generates synergy to benefit all. Expand your definition of success beyond personal achievement because it is not all about the amount of wealth you build but the number of lives you have touched and helped that really matters.

Sammy Lee, Chairman & Managing Director
Author of “Get Momentum: How to start when you’re stuck” & “Your Best Just Got Better”
LKK Health Products Group Ltd
Author of The Autopilot Leadership Model

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