Tanu Aggarwal | Software Development Engineer, Global Customer Operations in Gurgaon

It was started when one day my manager called me and said he has nominated me for the Step Up Mentee program saying it will give me an opportunity to build up my network and grow in my career and requesting me to submit the Statement of Purpose (SOP).

The idea sounds great as I was already struggling in figuring out what next?

So, I thought why not lets write the SOP and that’s is when I have realised it is so satisfying to revisit the journey you had so far. How have you grown over all of these years and all the more important is who all have been mentoring you, supporting you in your journey already. This made me realize how important a mentoring program could be and has made me more confident in getting selected as one of the mentees.

From the very first day the Step Up Mentee program started helping me in identifying my areas of strengths and weaknesses. All of the selected mentees were asked to take the psychometric test called DISC which was followed by an orientation session where all selected mentees shared their purpose of joining the program.

During this session Tanya Bahuguna and Pallavi Tondon helped not just understand the DISC assessment but also made me figure out the areas which are my strength and those areas which sometimes are my weakness. This was the first time where I was able to talk my heart out by relating to the assessment analysis and sharing how apt the assessment by seeing how have we been conducted myself so far at both professional and personal front.

Orientation session was followed by a session where we all need to come up with the themes which we would like to discuss and talk about throughout the program.

We come with these  themes

• Building business acumen for strategic foresight and transitioning from tech mindset to a business mindset
• The art and science of enhancing performance through feedback
• Enhancing personal brand equity to fuel career ambitions
• Building meaningful relationships through impactful communication

The best part of this program is being a group mentorship circle it has made me learn from each other experiences. It has always been great listening to the challenges what other mentee is facing and realising that in some way or the other you have faced such challenges too. Thus the techniques which are shared are helpful to others too.

Our first theme-based session started with Eman Barhoumeh, the VP of the Insurance and Assurance Business in Expedia.

She is a great leader, she has various ways to make us not just to speak up and give words to all the challenges we are facing, but also help us understand why possibly we could be in that situation and then trying help and guide us by providing various techniques.

She came up with a framework or a model to associate with each and every problem we raised. That has not only made things so relatable but also made me feel that I am not the only one facing these problems. And, these are known issues and concerns and there are solutions for it already. I just need to understand and apply in my daily routine.

Eman has conducted various working session to made us understand the perspective of other side of the problem too. She made us play the role and understand the point of view of all the parties involved. We have also been asked to apply techniques discussed during the sessions in our daily routine whether office or home. This has brought a significant change in my thought process in facing situation day to day basis.

This program is a wonderful initiative and has not only given us chance to learn how to grow as a better professional but as an individual too. And at the same time it has  also given us the opportunity to interact with different ECP leadership team and discuss with them our growth plan and seek their guidance.A big thank you for conducting this program.