Offering Mentorship Programs

You DON'T need more experience to mentor others. Here's how to get started as a mentor and make a difference TODAY: 1. Don't wait Why: It will help you grow, serve others, and improve this skill. How: ↳Identify individuals who are at a stage you were in 2-3 years ago. ↳Reach out to potential mentees or mentoring programs. ↳Share your interest in mentoring with your network. 2. Ask questions Why: Helps gather necessary inputs for guidance and brings the mentee along the journey How: ↳Ask open ended questions (e.g. what makes you think that)? ↳Limit "why" questions to avoid sounding judgmental. 3. Actively listen Why: Foundational to understanding the situation and guiding the conversation How: ↳Listen to understand, not to respond. ↳Be present, eliminate distraction. ↳Periodically summarize what is being said to ensure understanding. 4. Understand Mentee Why: The more you know about your mentee, the more tailored and effective your guidance can be. How: ↳Ask open ended questions to learn more about them (e.g. background, aspiration). ↳Encourage them to share with you relevant artifacts. ↳With their permission, reach out to stakeholders they work with for first-hand input. 5. Suspend Judgement Why: Create a safe, trusting, open environment encouraging vulnerability and growth. How: ↳Don't make assumptions, ask. ↳Avoid labeling things as good or bad. ↳Emphasize learning from past events. 6. Set Expectation Why: Clear expectations ensure the relationship is effective for both sides. How: ↳Establish ground rules for mentorship. ↳Discuss and agree on the frequency and format of meetings. ↳Regularly review and adjust progress and expectations. 7. Provide guidance Why: It's important that the mentee makes their own decisions, as they are both accountable for the outcome and know their situation best. How: ↳Provide inputs vs. telling the mentee what to do. ↳Encourage additional perspectives to be considered. 8. Be Courageous Why: Mentoring sometimes involves challenging the mentee (e.g., how they think). Having these crucial conversations is foundational for growth. How: ↳Focus on being kind rather than just being nice. ↳Provide support. ↳Stretch mentee beyond their comfort zone. Bonus: 0. Be Excited Why: Your positivity radiates to the mentee and the relationship How: ↳Celebrate progress (no matter how small) ↳Use supportive and uplifting language ↳Smile and have fun PS: Mentorship is one of the most rewarding professional experiences - for both sides. ---- Follow me, tap the (🔔) Omar Halabieh for daily Leadership and Career posts.

It is hard to define what a mentor is. Of course, you can try. But what happens in reality is that as a mentor, you need to put on different hats to adjust to what your mentee might need. That's not easy, but it's beautiful. Because imho that's how you can have a real impact as a mentor, as flexibility gives you better chances of actually being of help. A while back, after talking to mentors we have in our own program, and L&Ds organizing mentoring programs internally, I came up with this simple visual to show how complex and diverse the role of a mentor can be. A mentor is not only someone who shares knowledge. The reality is a bit messier, and the truth is that a mentor can: ✨ Keep you accountable ✨ Ask you the right questions ✨ Listen to you carefully ✨ Share opportunities with you from within or outside your company ✨ Offer feedback on your work ✨ Share their own experiences So at any point, they can be a challenger, a coach, a connector, a cheerleader, a sparring partner, or a guide. I think, as a mentor, you always need to: 1️⃣ Spend some quality time understanding what your mentee needs the most at the beginning of your mentoring relationship 2️⃣ Do recurrent check-ins to see if the needs have changed 3️⃣ Just listen to your mentee, because the answer is usually in what they're already sharing Someone recently asked me if they could use this little framework for their internal purposes, and I'm here to say to everyone, please do! Open-sourcing my work is my favorite thing to do, so if it helps someone else, I'm more than happy to share it! I also wrote a more in-depth article a few years back about designing mentoring programs with help from some other peers 👉 https://lnkd.in/dcjf4Fgg As always, curious to hear your thoughts and experiences as mentors & mentees 💬. #learninganddevelopment #mentoring #mentoringprograms

🌿 The Power of Genuine Mentorship Over the last few years—and more visibly in this past year—I’ve reflected deeply on what truly defines good mentoring. It’s easy to assume that mentorship is about sharing frameworks, introducing contacts, or offering advice on business problems. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned by observing some of the finest leaders I’ve known—people like Pankaj Rai (He/Him/His), Santhosh Cherian, Pramod Chandrasekhar, tatavarthy sekhar, Bharat Joshi Sir, S. A. Anwar Jaffari (Jaff Bhai), Christina Vijaykumar, Aarti Joshi, Aparajit Varkey, Gurpreet Singh sir and Pramila Rayapudi—it’s this: ✨ Real mentorship is a human connection first. I still remember my mentee Neelima Bawa Mishra sharing her experience after a conversation with Pankaj Rai (He/Him/His). She said: "He spent 80% of the time asking personal questions—Who are you as a person? What is happening in your life? What shapes your choices?—and only after truly listening did he move to the business challenge. And then, in the same breath, he offered his network to help." That is mentorship that transforms. My own approach has been shaped by such examples. I believe that if you want to mentor someone meaningfully, you have to: ✅ Spend quality time understanding them from every angle—behavioral patterns, thinking styles, emotional needs. ✅ Notice whether a word is enough or if they need a phrase, or sometimes just your quiet presence. ✅ Watch how they process input—do they act immediately, or do they sit with an idea for days? ✅ Understand their personal circumstances, because no professional aspiration is free from life’s contexts. These insights don’t happen in a single conversation. They happen in countless one-on-ones, in the small, unglamorous hours when you choose to show up. I often think back to Santhosh Cherian, who never missed a one-on-one with me, not once in a year. Those 30 minutes were sacred—he was fully present, sharing insights, offering clarity, and sometimes teaching us something as simple (and profound) as: When to write an email and when to pause. If you look at Sai Acuity this year, the initiatives are not random projects—they are outcomes of this cumulative, collective mentoring: ✨ The Monday Morning Learning Podcast ✨ The Trio ✨ The DualLens ✨ InkSpire ✨ LaunchPad ✨ The InnerOffice ✨ Campus Catalyst ✨ The Silent Boardroom Every conversation with leaders like Sanjiv Agarwal, Sunil Kumar M, Srikanth Chengalvala, Poonam Gupta Khan, Saraswathi Ramachandra (She/Her/Hers) and so many others has helped shape these platforms. I genuinely hope—and trust—that these efforts become a global movement. A movement that helps students and professionals navigate the corporate corridors with a little more ease, a little more purpose, and a lot more humanity. Grateful to every mentor who shaped me, every mentee who trusted me, and every fellow traveller who reminded me why this work matters. #Mentorship #Leadership #Purpose #SaiAcuity

My younger daughter just wrapped up an internship at a large US investment bank. She was lucky. Her manager mentored her, taught real-world skills, and trusted her with real responsibility while giving her the support to succeed. It reminded me of the mentors who shaped my own career, and of the people I’ve had the privilege to mentor. Great mentorship isn’t coffee chats. It’s a working relationship with outcomes. What great mentors do • Set the bar, then lift it. Share clear expectations and the “why,” then add a stretch assignment with guardrails. • Teach judgment, not just tasks. Narrate trade-offs, risks, and how you decided. Let them see you think. • Give visibility. Put them in the room, give them a speaking role, share credit in public, and coach in private. • Offer specific feedback. Point to the behavior, the effect, and the fix. Make it timely and kind. • Sponsor, not only advise. Open a door, make a call, attach your name to an opportunity. That signal compounds. • Build safety and ownership. Create space to ask “naive” questions, and insist on owning the deliverable end to end. What successful mentees do • Show up prepared. Bring a one-page update with goals, progress, blockers, and a draft to review. • Ask for feedback on real work. “Which two changes would most improve this note?” beats “Any advice?” • Take the stretch. Say yes to hard things, then clarify scope, resources, and deadlines. • Close the loop. Send a crisp follow-up with what you heard, what you’ll do, and by when. Then do it. • Build a learning log. Capture decisions made, what worked, what you’d change next time. Share it. • Pay it forward. Teach someone else the thing you just learned. Teaching locks in mastery. A simple frame I like, for both sides REAL mentorship: Responsibility, Exposure, Accountability, Learning. Give and take real responsibility. Create exposure to rooms and decisions. Hold each other accountable for commitments. Turn every project into a learning cycle. Rituals that work • A standing 45-minute 1:1 each month, plus ad hoc check-ins when decisions are live. • Shadow, then lead. Observe once, co-pilot once, then fly solo with a safety net. • Post-mortems without blame. Three questions, what surprised us, where were we lucky, what will we change next time. To Shreya ‘s manager, thank you for modeling the craft. To my mentors, I’m still drawing on your lessons. And to everyone who mentors or seeks one, what practice on your side makes the biggest difference?

Many leaders give feedback once-a-year. Most employees wish it was a weekly conversation. That gap is where frustration starts. And where performance quietly leaks. One conversation per year feels manageable. It isn't feedback. It's administration. In back-to-back steering environments, feedback gets postponed until it's overdue. By then, it costs more for everyone. Over 63% of employees want more regular input. Not more feedback events. More contact with reality. Timely and specific feedback builds trust. And trust reduces the threat response your brain generates before every difficult conversation after. Here's what actually shifts things: 1/ Build check-ins into the flow of work Short and frequent beats long and annual. Continuous feedback cultures show higher engagement and more sustainable performance. 2/ Be specific and behavior-based "When you did X, it had this impact. Here's what to try next." Not personality labels. Observable actions and clear next steps. 3/ Start with what's working People are more receptive to coaching when they feel seen first. Strengths before learning opportunities. 4/ Make it a two-way conversation "How did that go for you?" The more someone feels heard before feedback lands, the better they receive it. 5/ Close the loop Schedule a quick follow-up. When people see feedback leads to visible support, engagement rises. And so does trust. Your legacy isn't how many reviews you ran. It's how many people grew because of a conversation you had with them. 📌 You can't give feedback that lands when your own cognitive load is already full. The CORE assessment measures your performance capacity across 4 dimensions and gives you your score in minutes. https://lnkd.in/dTah6_z2 🖋️ Follow Maria Luisa Engels for more on high-performance leadership. 🖊️ Save this before your next high-pressure week. Sources: Forbes, Gallup/Workhuman, Unleash.ai, Zippia, Betterworks and others. Full list in comments.

The concept of SKILL MATRIX was created by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in the 1970s.   Growing a team that serves business growth is the real challenge leaders face. It is important to get to know the team and learn about where they best fit for growth. A way to understand the team members can be based on the firsthand assessment of individual skills and their willingness to get involved and grow. HIGH SKILL, HIGH WILL: These individuals are highly competent and highly motivated. They are self-directed and can take on complex tasks and projects with minimal supervision. They thrive on challenging work and are eager to learn and grow. Leaders must recognize them and provide them with autonomy and the opportunity to take on leadership roles within the team. They may also benefit from mentoring or coaching to help them further develop new skills. If these individuals are ignored, they usually leave the organization. HIGH SKILL, LOW WILL: These individuals have the skills and knowledge to perform their jobs, but they lack motivation. They may be bored with their work, feel undervalued, or lack confidence in their abilities. Leaders should invest their time to understand the root cause of their low motivation and provide targeted support to help them regain their enthusiasm. This may include setting challenging goals and opportunities for them to feel valued for their skills and potential career development. LOW SKILL, HIGH WILL: These individuals have a strong desire to learn and grow, but they lack the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their jobs effectively. Leaders should provide these individuals with structured training and support to help them develop the skills they need to succeed. This may need more handholding, guidance, and relevant training to enhance their performance. LOW SKILL, LOW WILL: These individuals may be struggling to understand their role or may not see the value in their work. In some cases, they may be in the wrong job or may not be a good fit for the team. Leaders should provide clear feedback and guidance on what is expected of them and may need to consider providing additional support or training to help them develop their skills. In some cases, it may be necessary to replace such individuals who are not a good fit for the team. By understanding where each team member falls within these quadrants, leaders can tailor their style to best motivate and support each team member. To create a high-performing team and grow the next generation of leaders, it is important to identify where you invest your time in mentoring, coaching, and facilitating training for your team members.   #Leadershipdevelopment #Personaldevelopment

You can’t mentor everyone the same way. And you shouldn’t try. I once mentored someone who didn’t respond to any of my suggestions. At first, I thought I was failing. But then I realized — I was mentoring them the way I wanted to be mentored. Not the way they needed to be. Some people need step-by-step directions. Others need space — and quiet reassurance. Some respond with blunt honesty. Others grow better through subtle nudges. Early on, I treated mentoring like a checklist: Same questions. Same feedback. Same structure. It didn’t work. So I stopped leading with advice — and started leading with observation. I paused. I listened. I asked: “What does this person need right now — not just what do I want to teach?” That shift changed everything. There’s no universal script. No one-size-fits-all framework. Just people — each with their own pace, path, and way of learning. Mentoring isn’t about giving your best advice. It’s about creating the conditions for them to grow. And that means meeting them where they are — not where you came from.

10,000 hours of practice? Yeah, they still matter, but they only pay off when each hour rides shotgun with immediate feedback. Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman told Inc. Magazine that relevance and real-time correction are the multipliers that turn long practice into fast mastery. If practice is water, feedback is the cup that keeps it from spilling out all over the place. When repetition runs on autopilot, your brain quietly holds on to every flaw. A crisp critique, whether from a coach, a peer, or an AI copilot, snaps you back into conscious control. It rewires the pattern before it hardens, and delivers the small win that keeps motivation rolling for the next rep. Practical ways to blend those hours with high-velocity feedback: 🏹 Set micro-targets for every session Name one measurable outcome before you start (trim thirty seconds off a 5K split, refactor a function to cut runtime by five percent, open a discovery call without filler words). End only after you check that metric. 🏹 Build a same-day feedback channel Pair each practice block with a critic who can respond within twenty-four hours: a mentor dropping Loom notes on your sales call, an AI pair-programmer flagging inefficient loops the moment you hit Save, or a training app overlaying bike-fit angles on video right after your ride. 🏹 Run a five-minute post-mortem Immediately jot what worked, what flopped, and the single tweak you will test next time. Reflection turns raw data into insight while the memory is still warm. 🏹 Track velocity over volume Count iterations per week, bugs squashed per hour, objections neutralized per call, or whatever. Share those numbers publicly so the team celebrates speed of improvement rather than brute hours logged. If 10,000 hours is tuition, feedback is the scholarship that lets you graduate early. Which feedback ritual shaved months off your learning curve? Share so we can tighten the loop together. Welcome to Tuesday, ya'll!

One of my coaching clients recently discovered something counterintuitive that transformed her team's performance: the smaller the correction, the bigger the impact. For years, she’d only provided feedback around major issues. She would typically focus on these “big” conversations during quarterly reviews—but wasn’t seeing enough positive change. At my suggestion, rather than waiting, she began making continuous micro-adjustments through course-correction coaching. She decided to address everything that mattered, immediately and consistently. A comment in a meeting was slightly off-strategy? She’d mention it after the meeting. An email missed the mark? She’d have a quick conversation about it the same day. A decision that was good but could have been better? She’d provide immediate spot coaching. She found the results shocking. Not only did course-correction coaching prevent major problems, but it also caused her team to begin self-correcting, further reducing the need for her to intervene. Here’s the paradox my client discovered and mastered: the more frequently you course-correct, the less correction you need to provide. Many leaders hoard feedback, build a reservoir of notes and then deliver them all at once. But people don’t benefit from “feedback events!” Rather, they need a more constant flow. Follow my client’s lead and start making micro-adjustments through course-correction coaching today. Your team will appreciate the guidance and you’ll collectively achieve more.

Annual reviews don’t drive performance. They slow it down. Here’s why these corporate rituals need to die: 1/ They look in the rear view mirror ↳ Judging past performance doesn't drive future growth ↳ By the time feedback arrives, it's often stale and too late to act 💡 Replace with quarterly growth conversations 2/ They create unnecessary stress ↳ 70% of employees feel disengaged after a review ↳ Anxiety blocks learning and innovation 💡 Switch to continuous coaching conversations 3/ They judge a year in one day ↳ Recent events overshadow 11 months of work ↳ One mistake near the review can eclipse consistent performance all year 💡 Use data-driven check-ins throughout the year 4/ They waste a lot of time ↳ Managers spend weeks on paperwork and calibration meetings ↳ Yet only 14% of employees feel reviews inspire them to improve 💡 Invest those hours in real-time mentoring instead 5/ They stifle individual growth ↳ Cookie-cutter assessments miss unique strengths ↳ Standard metrics flatten out creativity and innovation 💡 Shift to personalised growth plans that reflect real strengths The modern approach: ✅ Small, frequent check-ins ✅ Real-time feedback and course corrections ✅ Development tailored to individual strengths ✅ Technology that tracks progress continuously Tools that make it work: ↳ Use lightweight platforms for weekly check-ins and goal tracking ↳ Instant feedback tools built into your daily comms (like Slack or Teams) ↳ Project trackers that make visible progress across teams ↳ People platforms that support 360-degree feedback and growth planning Stop living in the past. Start building a feedback culture that actually works. 💬 Which of these 5 problems hit closest to home? ♻️ Share to help others escape outdated practices 👉 Follow Maryann (MJ) for daily career insights