Prof. (Dr.) Geer Mohammad Ishaq
Mystic, persian poet and sufi saint Moulana Jalaludin Rumi has said, “The fruits of my life are no more than three words, I was raw, I was cooked, I was burnt”. It is a well-accepted fact that, “One day of mentoring can change one life, be that mentor”. While narrating the importance of mentorship Moulana Rumi has written in honour of his mentor, Shams Tabrezi as under:
ta gulame sams tabrezi na shud
In this verse Moulana Rumi credits his mentor Shams Tabrezi for taking Rumi into his servitude because Tabrezi was not only his mentor but his spiritual teacher too in whose longing he wrote more than 40000 verses and more than 3000 ghazals in his compilation Shams Nama when Tabrezi left him and disappeared for never to return. However, a mentee need not be a servant of a mentor for gaining requisite knowledge and skills from him. Hazrat Ali (R.A) has also said that, “If a person teaches me one single word, he has made me his servant for a lifetime” though this analogy cannot be applied and implemented in the present-day context since in contemporary times mentorship is more like a mutually beneficial commensal relationship based on mutual respect, trust and confidence hinging on mutual collaboration and cooperation rather than on one-upmanship and hierarchy of superiority. While Rumi could never have thought of having more than one mentor it is possible in contemporary times to have more than one mentor for different purposes simultaneously and the mentor could even be younger than the mentee too owing to his experience and expertise in a particular field. Allama Iqbal wrote in Bang-e-Dara, “Nigah-e-Mard-e-Moomin sey badal jatee hain taqdeerain” and Henry Brooks Adams has also said that, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops”. Therefore, only a jeweller knows the true worth of a diamond and the visionary mentor can identify the strengths of his mentee and promote the same bringing them to a new zenith and glory.
History is replete with numerous examples where great men and women have emerged successful in their life and career after being mentored by great visionaries and luminaries in their own fields.
• Shams Tabrizi & Rumi.
• Socrates & Pluto.
• Mahatma Gandhi & Martin Luther King Jr.
• Oprah Winfrey & Maya Angelou (celebrated author and poet)
• Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his four companions
• Guru Nanak Dev ji and Guru Angad Dev ji
• Lord Krishna and Arjun in Mahabharata
• Steve Jobs & Mark Zuckerberg
• Mother Teresa & Father Celeste van Exam.
• Warren Buffett & Bill Gates.
• Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great
Mentoring is not same as teaching, coaching, advising, counselling or consulting the students. Mentoring entails offering long-term guidance and advice to a less experienced individual. Mentor is a trusted counsellor and guide who not only advices and guides but inspires and motivates his mentees too to achieve their goals. Coaching means providing focused, short-term skill development training and instructions. Teaching implies imparting knowledge or skills in a structured manner whereas a Consultant is someone who offers professional services and expertise and an Advisor is someone who gives an advice or recommendation on what should be done. Mentors on the other hand have one or all the attributes of a great coach, consultant, counsellor or an advisor and have decided to give it back by taking on a relationship with you at no charge. 'Mentoring’, is a term used to refer to a structure of interaction between someone who is experienced at what they do (Mentor) and someone who wants to learn from that experience (Mentee). It is believed to be a great way to achieve personal and professional growth for both the Mentor and the Mentee.
Mentoring primarily includes activities related to personal, professional and career development of the mentees and their psychological counselling, capacity building, enhancement of their motivation level and efficiency besides an overall upgradation of their aptitude, skills, competencies, knowledge, understanding, proficiency and positive mental attitudes. Mentoring is a partnership between two people built and based on trust. It is embedded in a strong emotional bond between the mentor and the mentee. That is what makes it different from consulting, coaching, advising or teaching. There is a deep sense of belonging in mentoring besides a feeling of mutual acceptance and sharing of the credit of success or the burden of failure. Mentor and mentees are co-travellers in their professional journey with interlinked urge to reach their destination (goal) safely, successfully and well in time. Whenever at the crossroads, not able to decide and facing a dilemma, a mentee seeks guidance from his mentor to steer through the obstacles, challenges, pitfalls, hurdles, hiccups, barriers and help him in decision-making, choice-making and estimating the inherent benefits and risks involved in this process.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Mentoring is in essence a lifelong
process that in effect starts from the day when we are born. Right from our
birth, our upbringing by our parents, our company and acquaintance, our likes
and dislikes, choices, abilities, attitude, background and circumstances shape
our personality, influence and determine our mindset, thinking and the path of
life that we ultimately choose for ourselves. Mentoring is a continuous and an
ongoing process of self-awareness, self-discovery and self-accomplishment of
one’s goals, fulfilment of one’s dreams and ambitions. It can help us make the
right choices not just for our career but also for our life. Role of mentoring
is to shape our future, change our outlook on life as well as our insights and
ability to progress and succeed in life. Mentoring is a perpetual process of
making choices and goes on persistently for the whole life, in some selective
cases even beyond one’s age of superannuation. Main goal and objective of mentoring
is to equip our youth with the skills, understanding, abilities and knowledge
that they need to make important decisions and choices throughout their life.
Right kind of mentoring helps one realize one’s full potential as well as one’s
true self and enables one to attain the highest level of psychological
development, where personal potential is fully realized after basic bodily
needs have been fulfilled and this process of transformation of the state of
one’s mind has been described by the psychologists as “self-actualization”.
ننشان یہی ہے زمانے میں زندہ قوموں کا
کہ صبح و شام بدلتی ہیں ان کی تقدیریں
خودی سے مرد خود آگاہ کا جمال و جلال
کہ یہ کتا ب ہے ، باقی تمام تفسیری
جب عشق
سکھاتا ہے آداب خود آگاہی
کھلتے ہیں غلاموں پر اسرار شہنشاہی
Kurt Goldstein, a physician specialist in
neuroanatomy and psychiatry in the early twentieth century conceived
self-actualization as the ultimate goal of all living organisms and observed
all kinds of behaviours and drives as manifestations of this overarching
motivation. American psychologist Abraham Maslow placed
self-actualization at the pinnacle of hierarchy of all human needs that include
physiological needs like food, followed by safety needs and the need for love
and esteem. As per Maslow, only after these needs are met can an individual
begin to be motivated by the need for self-actualization. Characteristic
feature of the self-actualized people is that they accept who they are despite
their flaws and limitations and they possess an inherent drive to be creative
and innovative in all aspects of their lives. Appropriate mentoring and
planning strategies help our students advance upon a hierarchy of competence,
through four main levels viz., from unconscious incompetence to conscious
incompetence to conscious competence and finally to the level of unconscious
competence. Fully comprehending this stages-of-learning model can help a
student understand and identify his present status, predict his future progress
and figure out what he should be focusing on in his learning at the any point
of time in his career.
According to “The Dreyfus Model”
put forth by Stuart E Dreyfus and Hubert E Dreyfus in 1980 that identifies five
stages of skill acquisition and helps learners gain deep insights into
assessing where they stand, a sustained process of deep learning, Mentoring and
counselling takes students through five stages of development viz., from
‘novice’ to an ‘advanced beginner’ and steers him gradually through
‘competence’ and ‘proficiency’ towards the penultimate destination of
‘expertise’.
Modern day teacher has to be a
friend, a philosopher, a guide, a counsellor and a mentor. Apart from teaching
he has to mentor, guide and counsel his students, handhold them and steer them
towards the right path of seeking new knowledge, improving their intellectual
capital and motivating them to achieve great heights in life. Mentors need to
guide their mentees with a view to produce multi-dimensional, well-rounded
individuals equipped with all types of knowledge, skills, competencies and
know-how about life, people, places, arts, sciences, languages and
technologies.
Apart from building capacities,
enhancing abilities, shaping attitudes, promoting aptitude and proficiency,
improving motivation and efficiency, holistic mentorship has to be offered to
build their character, persona, intellect, physique, positive insights and
outlooks and transform them into ethical, rational, compassionate and caring
citizens, while at the same time preparing them for gainful, rewarding and
contributing employment that enables them to leave a rich legacy behind and pay
back to the society in one positive form or the other.
Mentor-mentee relationship is fast
gaining momentum worldwide in this regard. A teacher just teaches and delivers
content whereas a mentor’s role is to guide and to inspire; to give advice and
to support the mentee. A mentor can help his mentee improve his or her
abilities and skills through observation, continuous assessment, monitoring and
counselling. Good mentorship evokes and engages practical and analytical
thinking, critical evaluation, constructive mindset and problem‐solving
skills that can be applied in a variety of settings and perspectives. It leaves
a positive impact upon mentees’ values, commitments, ideals and mindsets.
Mentoring is critical to good teaching, especially to teaching emotionally
disturbed, stressed and behaviourally challenged students.
Mentoring provides an ample
opportunity to know the students’ world in the way that they live it, to
interpret that understanding back to the pupil, and then provide boundaries of
reality so that they may function more competently. Mentoring is also needed by
the students looking for fully or partially funded opportunities for higher
education, scholarships, fellowships, internships, both within and outside
India.
We need to create a pool of
mentors having a philanthropic spirit, who are always willing to guide our
youth in this regard at no additional costs. They need to be networked for
offering timely help to budding youth in search of guidance.
A big question staring right into
the eyes of all teachers on this very day is whether we harness and exhibit
empathy in our day-to-day teaching or we fail to inspire awe or for that matter
even touch the hearts and minds of our students in a manner that is essential
to foster a positive and constructive change. This is where we need to pool all
our efforts for regaining the lost glory of this pious profession.
“What is most thought-provoking in
these thought-provoking times is that we are still not thinking”, Martin
Heidegger once said. ‘Thinking’ here includes a set of cognitive activities
that we use to process information, make connections, solve problems, take
decisions and create new ideas. It will be prudent to take a pledge on the
teachers’ day today to transform our students into thinkers – creative and
analytical thinkers.
Only when they become good
thinkers, they can be creative innovators, knowledge seekers and credible
nation builders. Creative thinking refers to the ability to conceive new and
innovative ideas by breaking from established thoughts, theories, norms and procedures.
It involves putting things together in new and imaginative ways. It is often
referred to as “thinking out-of-the-box.”
Tony Gaskins, an American motivational speaker, author and life coach has very well said, “If you do not build your own dreams, someone will hire you to help him build his dreams”. Therefore it is high time to choose our mentors and set forth on our journey towards success, accomplishment and fulfillment of our dreams under the guidance of our mentors.
