asmisra
Mar 22, 2013
Graduate / I was assigned as a trainer & mentor; A situation where you failed. [4]
@ mhss - Thanks for the valuable suggestions; those were really helpful pointers.
I have further shortened the essay. However, still need to get it around 250 words.
While working in HCL, I was assigned to train and mentor a fresher about my module. Earnestly, I shared my knowledge and expertise on the module with him. Unfortunately, he showed little interest and avoided independent assignments. To motivate him, I invited him to our kick-off meetings and client-calls where he actively took part. However, in his individual tasks, he was careless and tardy. Being the supervisor for his assignments, often, I ended up doing most of the work myself. This resulted in loss of productivity and effort which made me further frustrated. Eventually, after three months, I reported his lack of commitment to my manager with compunction and he was reassigned due to poor performance.
Looking back on this incident, I have to admit that I failed in my objective of making this fresher a better performer. Stressed by the need to meet deadlines and exasperated by his insincere and careless attitude, I rushed to get him out of my hair. Probably he needed more time and effort than I could afford.
Following this incident, I have become more patient. Volunteering for an NGO and teaching poor, young kids has taught me to be much more tolerant and perseverant. Now, I make sure to give them fair amount of time and effort to make them understand before imposing deadlines on them.
I reckon I was too eager and impatient to make him perform, that I would have prevented him from learning the concepts well enough. If I could go back with the current experience, I would handle the situation differently. But as they say, our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure.
@ mhss - Thanks for the valuable suggestions; those were really helpful pointers.
I have further shortened the essay. However, still need to get it around 250 words.
While working in HCL, I was assigned to train and mentor a fresher about my module. Earnestly, I shared my knowledge and expertise on the module with him. Unfortunately, he showed little interest and avoided independent assignments. To motivate him, I invited him to our kick-off meetings and client-calls where he actively took part. However, in his individual tasks, he was careless and tardy. Being the supervisor for his assignments, often, I ended up doing most of the work myself. This resulted in loss of productivity and effort which made me further frustrated. Eventually, after three months, I reported his lack of commitment to my manager with compunction and he was reassigned due to poor performance.
Looking back on this incident, I have to admit that I failed in my objective of making this fresher a better performer. Stressed by the need to meet deadlines and exasperated by his insincere and careless attitude, I rushed to get him out of my hair. Probably he needed more time and effort than I could afford.
Following this incident, I have become more patient. Volunteering for an NGO and teaching poor, young kids has taught me to be much more tolerant and perseverant. Now, I make sure to give them fair amount of time and effort to make them understand before imposing deadlines on them.
I reckon I was too eager and impatient to make him perform, that I would have prevented him from learning the concepts well enough. If I could go back with the current experience, I would handle the situation differently. But as they say, our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure.
