A recent global culture audit by TRANSEARCH uncovered something surprising: mentoring ranked higher than coaching in terms of potential impact. In hindsight, perhaps it makes sense. With talent harder to find, change accelerating, AI looming, new generations reshaping work, and hybrid working now the norm, leaders need more than technical skills or performance support – they need perspective.
Mentoring is hardly new. From the apprenticeships of medieval guilds to Leonardo da Vinci learning from Verrocchio, it has always been about sharing lived experience. The difference today is that organisations have not fully unlocked its potential. Too often mentoring is confused with coaching or left to chance, when in fact it is a powerful lever for integration, retention, learning, and succession.
Reverse mentoring adds another dimension. Imagine a young AI specialist guiding a seasoned executive – both learn, both grow. The exchange is mutual, and organisations that overlook it miss out on a rare win-win.
What stands out is that every successful leader has, at some point, benefited from a mentor. Not just a coach, not just training – but someone who had been there before, who could help navigate the politics, the pitfalls, and the pressure. Above all, someone they could trust.
The challenge is not whether mentoring matters. It does. The challenge is building the structures and skills to make it work across the organisation – so that mentoring is not a privilege for the few, but a leadership capability for the many.
John O. Burdett is founder of Orxestra® Inc. He has extensive international experience as a senior executive. As a consultant he has worked in more than 40 countries for organisations that are household names. John has worked on organisation culture for some of the world’s largest organisations. His ongoing partnership with TRANSEARCH International means that his thought leading intellectual property, in any one year, supports talent management in many hundreds of organisations around the world.
