This year, to commemorate International Mentoring Day, which is celebrated on the birthday of boxing legend Muhammad Ali on 17th January, a new book by author Mainak Dhar is being released.
The book aims to "close the mentoring gap".
Published by Bloomsbury India, the book, 'Leadership in 100 Words', is inspired by a popular series of Dhar's LinkedIn posts (#leadershipin100words), which garnered over one million views.
The book came out after conversations were sparked after reading the posts that Dhar was having with people whom he was mentoring. This made him realize that while he had been blessed with many great mentors throughout his career, many others did not have access to mentors to help guide them in life and career choices. These posts sought to address common questions people have about careers, through simple, straightforward advice- one hundred words at a time.
The COVID lockdowns of early 2020 made Dhar even more interested in mentoring. Seeing many young people facing career uncertainties, he made an open offer of help on LinkedIn, and soon was mentoring several dozen people- helping many of them think through their career choices in terms of what best fit them and playing to their passions and points of difference. That experience led him to write a book, 'Brand New Start', also published by Bloomsbury India, which equips people to create an authentic, compelling, and differentiated personal brand as a cornerstone of career success.
He did a survey on LinkedIn, which revealed a 'mentoring gap'. He found that those with mentors reported higher satisfaction with career progress and work-life balance, but 51% of those surveyed did not have mentors. While almost all of these (98%) said they would like to have a mentor, their biggest barrier to having one was a lack of access to senior leaders. What's more, those who most need mentoring were less likely to have mentors than those with several years of experience and thus broader networks to tap into. In the survey, only 25% of those with less than five years of experience had mentors, compared to 62% of those with over fifteen years of experience.
Dhar says that his book does not seek to provide answers, but rather provokes thought and introspection. He adds, "A good mentor does not tell you what to do, but makes you think of issues differently, to ask the right questions instead of giving you the answers", he says. He hopes his book helps bridge the 'mentoring gap' by making accessible his experience, and the accumulated wisdom of his mentors, to a large audience, who may not otherwise have access to mentorship from senior leaders. As the book's back cover says, it aims to almost become "A personal mentor readers can carry with them".
Mainak Dhar is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad, with twenty-five years of experience at blue-chip multinationals. In addition to being a senior business leader, he is also a prolific author. His last book, Brand New Start, won a Gold at the Non-Fiction Awards and a Bronze at the Reader's Favorite Awards in the United States. Leadership in 100 Words is available on Amazon and other online retailers and in leading bookstores.
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( With inputs from ANI )
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