Who is a silent mentor?

Mentor - the buzzword of the hour. By definition a mentor is a guide, guru, adviser, and everything in between. Imagine someone with salt and pepper hair, deep-set laugh lines and an aura of control.

Typically, here's someone who has been there, done that; you have immense respect for them. And so, they are to guide you. Help you stir your ship; make sense of the winds of change. Share insight on how you should swim through troubled waters.

That's a lot of pressure for anyone - especially once you label them your mentor. But more importantly, not everyone is lucky to have someone like this available to them through changing goals.

My first career goal was to be a magazine editor. But I hadn't the first clue. I did not know any editors, let alone anyone who worked at a magazine. I read magazines, I liked them, and so I hustled my way to an internship at India's best women's fortnightly (yes, even today).

There, I met my first mentor - one of my closest friends today. She volunteered advice and I soaked it up. I was hungry to learn and she was a true guide.

Ever since, I've always found a mentor where I went. That’s more than 10 years of attribution to the evolution of my mind thanks to someone else. Now, if you've shopped for a mentor with equity, you'll most likely scoff at this. Once you’ve looked, you know how difficult it is to identify this elusive human compass.

Enter, the silent mentor. I define this term as everyone who impacts your growth. Every single person you've worked with, junior or senior, who has helped you inch towards your goal at that time.

Goals change. Not everyone has a roadmap to where they want to be a decade from now. Not everyone can answer truthfully where they see themselves five years from now.

The concept of a single mentor is misguided. I've come a long way since my become-a-magazine-editor days. My goals have changed dramatically. I may not have always have had a sounding board but I've been surrounded by true leaders who've lived by example. And sometimes, silent mentors have been those nefarious elements who taught what not to become.

To all the silent mentors, may you continue to lead by example. And to you, for not realising you’ve been silently mentoring.