Meher Gaurav, Human Resources Senior Executive
Meher is a Human Resources Executive with 15 years of experience. She enjoys consulting with early stage ventures and startups. Prior to launching Eventzforce, Meher held several corporate HR leadership positions in Business Software (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Business Process Outsourcing and Meeting Procurement. She has extensive experience in setting up human capital infrastructure in several geographies, with a focus on developing and executing recruiting, talent acquisition, compliance, technology and employee relations strategies that represent the organization’s culture and values. She is currently pursuing her PGPX from UCLA Anderson School of Management. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and has been recognized by several accolades throughout her career including special recognition from the CEO in her last corporate engagement.
Q: Why do you choose to spend your time mentoring others?
A: The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. We rise by lifting others, and so I believe in helping others. Not everyone is lucky to get a mentor, especially when truly needed. In 2016, I took a sabbatical when my daughter was born. Once a successful woman, this new mother found it extremely hard to return to the workforce. I was judged and asked harsh questions, sometimes even by other women. I was a daughter, a wife, a mother, and above all, a woman. This was not a case of identity crisis but a typical case of rediscovering your career path and achieving your professional goals. At those crossroads, I missed someone who could hold my hand and help me in decision making. I now want to help anyone feeling lost and looking for guidance so that they can reach their destination without feeling lost and disappointed, as I once did.
“I now want to help anyone feeling lost and looking for guidance so that they can reach their destination without feeling lost and disappointed, as I once did.”
Q: What do you personally gain from mentoring?
A: Through mentoring, I have learned to interact, help, and support people I don’t know personally. This helps when you go up the ladder in leadership because you don’t always get to pick the perfect team. However, you can always make it a dream team by helping, supporting, and leveraging each other.
Also, I have learned to agree to disagree in a professional way. And honestly, in the corporate forum, when titles come into play, disagreement with your boss becomes difficult. Can I say “No”? But when you're mentoring, you are in a conducive environment of mutual trust and respect. As they say, it’s a risk-free environment, and you learn through the interaction. This has helped me grow on a personal level and how I approach leadership. Through this journey of mentoring, I want to share the message with a wider audience of supporting and encouraging women who come back to work. Support each other to make wonderful memories at the workplace and beyond.
Q: To what do you attribute your success?
A: The biggest factors to my success have been my perseverance, resilience, agility, and my mother’s mentorship. Growing up, my parents, unfortunately, never got along, which made for a difficult childhood. When I was a kid, I used to curse and say, "Why, why us? Why are we in this situation?" But today, when I look back in hindsight, I realize the situation made me a stronger person. It's made me persevere. It's made me look for a dream, make it my goal, go after it, and achieve it. And that's one thing that has helped me be who I am today. And definitely my mother's unwavering support. She’s my biggest supporter and mentor. She used to tell us, “Go after what you want to do, it's okay if you fail, because until you fail, you'll never succeed."
Q: What does good mentoring look like to you?
A: A good mentor:
Shares skills and knowledge.
Is willing to listen to the mentee – listen, not hear.
Provides guidance and constructive feedback
Treat others respectfully, the way you would like to be treated.
Q: What advice would you give to someone interested in mentoring?
A: Put your ego away because it's not about you. It's so much more valuable to hear people, support others, and let them fail. With my team, I have always encouraged them to drive their own solutions, while I stood at the back. If things go wrong, I stood by my team to take the onus of the failures, if any. I'm there to support them, encourage them, and to say, "It's okay, we did it. Let's find another way around it."
It’s important for any mentor, any leader, to let somebody else succeed, to help create leaders because it helps everyone move up the ladder. I don't understand the concept of one leader at the top because there's always more than one leader at the top of things for anything to succeed. You can't work in a silo, so take people up with you. And lastly, be a mentor only when you have the time and patience.
“Put your ego away because it’s not about you. It’s so much more valuable to hear people, support others, and let them fail.”
Q: How has mentoring impacted your own journey?
A: Mentoring others teaches you patience and how to bring out the best in others. I was reading something where it said that there is a very thin line between mentoring and telling someone what to do. You share with them your own experiences and allow them to make their choices. It's walking on that thin line of sharing your experiences, then allowing them to take what they must for their own benefit.
I'm a big fan of Chris Voss’s philosophy: hearing people not to answer. Listen to people because it's important to hear them. Don't listen to people because you want to jump to the answer for them. I have personally learned from the mentoring journey: how to hear people, how to be patient with people, and it's not one size that fits all. It's all these different ways you're learning and dealing with different types of people. And of course, when you give them advice, you tell them your own story, don't expect them to follow. It's not about ego.
Q: Why do you choose to mentor with Ceresa?
A: I want to be a part of any platform that allows me to support others, irrespective of the biases of gender. I love doing it because I feel that when you're at a crossroads, when you're in a dilemma or when you're confused, the experience of sharing and hand-holding makes a difference. I felt that during my transition from being a corporate woman to a mother, and then going back on my corporate journey. We should support each other and always lend a hand to each other because that is the only way you can build a stronger community, irrespective of gender. Please don’t judge women returning to work or taking time off. Instead, support them, encourage them, and provide flexibility so that we see more and more women joining the workforce.
Mentorship: integral to the Ceresa whole-person approach
At Ceresa, mentorship is an integral part of our leadership development process. The mentor-mentee relationship is a key component in providing the structure, and at the same time fluidity, necessary to facilitate pointed leadership and career growth for both the participant and the mentor.