When you’re growing as fast as Infosys, you’ve got to pay attention to training and development. Infosys is a multinational information technology services company. They say that they “help Global 2000 companies win in a Flat World.”

The company was founded in India in 1981 with seven employees and U$250. Today, Infosys has offices in more than thirty countries. Revenues increased by almost 8000 percent between 1995 and 2005. They hire 15,000 people a year.

They want to keep and develop those people. Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani says, “Our people are our capital. The more we invest in them, the more they can be effective.”

That’s the philosophy behind the company’s Global Education Center in Mysore. And it’s the philosophy behind a tiered mentoring program that was described in detail in Workforce Management.

Infosys splits its leaders into three tiers. Each tier mentors people on the tier below. The top tier is mentored by board members.

The mentoring program is part of a sophisticated leadership development program based on what Infosys calls nine dimensions of leadership. Leaders are evaluated on each dimension and that evaluation forms the basis for creating a personal development plan.

That’s very impressive. But what happens if you don’t work for a company that provides all those personal development resources? Then you have to develop your own plan.

What if you’re on a different Career Path than the one we call “managerial?” Then you have to develop your own plan.

But here’s something to think about. Even if you’re at a company like Infosys that has a sophisticated development program, you still have to develop your own plan.

You may need mentoring that’s different from or in addition to what you get from your company-assigned mentor. You may have strengths you want to develop, but that your company doesn’t see as valuable. You may want to spend time exploring your options.

The bottom line is that your development is your responsibility. That’s why you’ll want to check back here at Momentor as we develop a site that offers you resources and connections to help make your career the best it can be.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Mentoring and Coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.