Page 94 - DMGT517_PERFORMANCE_MANAGEMENT_SYSTEM

Unit 8: Mentoring and Coaching

Mentoring, from the Greek work mentor, is best described as a sustained relationship Notes
between a youth and an adult for guidance and assistance to the former. Through continued
involvement, the adult, who is usually an older and experienced person, offers help and
support to the younger person during the growing-up phase. In this manner, the mentor
shows the right way in the turbulence of life to the mentee. Viewed from this perspective,
mentoring can be referred to as an initiative meant for the overall growth and development
of the mentee.

In modern times, the concept of mentoring has found application in all walks of life. In
academics, a mentor is often used synonymously with a faculty adviser. In families where
parents are either unavailable or unable to provide responsible guidance for their children
mentors can play a critical role. In business houses, mentoring is being used as a tool for
social integration, assimilation and development of newly joined employees. Further,
this is also being used as a powerful instrument for enhancing the performance level of
employees in the corporate world.

Mentoring Initiative: Need in NTPC
Right from inception, NTPC has laid a lot of emphasis on managing and developing
talent through an integrated human resource development and management system. This

philosophy of integrated human resource development is reflected in the HR strategy of
NTPC which focuses on building competence, commitment, culture and systems. Further,
the same spirit is also expressed in the HR vision of NTPC which is to enable our people to
be a family of world-class professionals making NTPC a learning organization.
The process of attracting and developing talent is a way of life at NTPC Executives in
NTPC is mostly inducted through the Executive Trainee Scheme and the same talents are
nurtured, developed and grown to future leadership roles through comprehensive and
innovative induction, orientation and other HRD practices.
The engineering and other professional talents hired through the NTPC Executive Trainee
scheme are put on a one-year training period with the right mix of classroom and on-the-job
training to inculcate in them the right attitude, value systems and functional competencies.
This process has helped NTPC in infusing the right attitude and skills amongst newly
hired young engineers and other professionals who join NTPc fresh from colleges and
other institutions. Although the overall comprehensive training module is designed to
instill the required technical, behavioural, managerial skills and internalize in them the
right culture and other value systems of the company, we are sensitive to the possibility

of the trainees not finding their bearings in a large multi-unit organization. Being fresh
from colleges and other such institutions, they sometimes need tuning and orientation to
the NTPC ethos, its values and cultures. Therefore, it was decided to introduce a system to
guide and counsel the young talents through a personal touch for better socialization and
thus facilitate effective integration and assimilation in the organization.
As such, mentoring as a formal system/HR initiative was introduced in NTPC in the year
1998 as an extension of the orientation practice in the workplace and township to meet the
trainee’s needs during and after training.
Objectives of the Mentoring System at NTPC
The mentoring system was launched in NTPC to achieve the following objectives:
1. To guide and direct the new entrant during the vital and formative years in the
organization;
2. To clear doubts and apprehensions faced by the new entrant;
3. To enable the entrant to assimilate and adapt to the organizational culture;

Contd....

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