​​Leadership Mentoring Programs: Examples of Skills and Discussion Topics

How do you improve leadership skills in the workplace? Mentorship. Leaders learn through direct experience and the advice of others. While leadership coaches are helpful with tactical advice, mentors act as role models and provide guidance to future leaders. Mentorship, in short, builds leadership skills.

Promoting employees internally to leadership positions has a number of benefits, including better retention rates. According to LinkedIn, companies with strong internal mobility programs see 53 percent longer employee tenures and 79 percent more leadership promotions. 

One way to prepare employees for more responsibility is through a leadership mentoring program.

Mentorship is the most effective way to build leadership skills

For anyone working within an organization with aspirations of becoming a leader, the path can seem frustrating at times. The skills acquired along the way don’t always reflect the job they want to do. For many employees, training comes in the form of online courses and classroom-style learning with endless paperwork, multiple choice questions, and reading. While this kind of training can teach someone how to do the basics to manage a team, or look after systems, it does not teach somebody how to be a great leader.

Mentoring, on the other hand, is effective at building leadership skills because the mentor is a role model and a teacher. Through active 1-on-1 conversations, mentees uncover areas where they need to improve their leadership skills. With the help of their mentor, mentees can identify ways to grow these skills and follow in their mentors’ footsteps.

What is a leadership mentoring program?

A leadership mentoring program is designed to help prepare employees to take on leadership positions. So, rather than placing them in a new role and expecting them to develop their skills on the fly, employers can provide a mentor for a more structured way to train employees. Through a workplace mentoring program, employees will cultivate the necessary skills to be successful leaders. 

The fact is that many issues and challenges that future leaders will need to be prepared for are similar to those that today’s leaders have already overcome.

Related: Download the High Potential Mentoring Program Handbook.

‍

Why should companies have leadership development programs?

There are many benefits that organizations can gain from having a leadership corporate mentoring program, such as:

It’s critical to retain key knowledge

The longer an employee is with your organization, the more knowledge they gain. This comes from solving challenges and problems they face during their career. And that knowledge has significant value. It’s know-how you don’t want to lose when they leave. 

With a leadership mentoring program, that key knowledge can be passed down to future leaders. So, whether your employees decide to retire or move, you’ll be able to retain that vital information.

Promoting internal mobility increases retention

When there is an opportunity for growth within a company, employees are less likely to leave. LinkedIn found that employees who made internal moves were 40 percent more likely to stay at a company for at least three years. 

Many employees are actively interested in career development and internal mobility, but not finding these opportunities in their current work setting. Over half (53 percent) of employees surveyed by INTOO and Workplace Intelligence said that they would appreciate more regular conversations with their managers about their career development, but their managers are too busy to have these conversations regularly. And this number jumps to 62 percent of Gen Z workers — the younger members of the workforce who crave this type of guidance. Instead of leaving it up to busy line managers, leadership mentoring programs can prepare your employees to take on higher positions by creating a pipeline for internal mobility. 

A bonus of encouraging internal mobility is that you’ll be able to attract higher-quality candidates who are more likely to have leadership potential.

Investing in employees’ learning is non-negotiable

Within the span of just a few years, we’ve seen the workplace transformed by new technology like generative AI. While we’re still in the early days of tapping into this technology, learning to boost work performance and productivity with AI is likely to become a requirement in the coming years. And employers need to actively provide support in the workplace so their employees can gain these new skills. According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report, “Skill building is no longer simply a perk for employees — it’s a priority for organizational success.” Training employees to adapt to these changes is vital for your organization to have a strong future.

Essential mentoring leadership skills in 2025

What are the skills that mentors need to be successful today and in the future, especially if their goal is to coach the leaders of tomorrow? Here are a few of the essential qualities:

• Experience and expertise: Mentors should ideally hold a leadership position that’s similar to the mentee’s area of interest. For example, an up-and-coming individual contributor engineer should be placed with a senior manager, director, or VP of engineering. Having a mentor from the same functional area creates shared expertise and helps build a foundation of understanding and trust.
• Empathy and emotional intelligence: Mentors don’t simply impart knowledge to their mentees — they act as a supportive figure and sounding board for their personal and professional dilemmas. Helping mentees navigate challenging situations with sensitivity and understanding requires empathy and emotional intelligence.
• Willingness to invest time and energy: While mentors are generally in senior positions and already have plenty of professional obligations, they still need to have the time and energy to invest in this long-term relationship and make themselves available to their mentee. 
• Agility and adaptability: With all the rapid technological and market changes, successful leaders can’t be set in their ways — they need to be open to change and able to make decisions even when they don’t have all the information. These qualities will be just as important for the leaders of tomorrow, so mentors must be willing to help their mentees develop agility and adaptability.

The benefits of leadership development through mentoring

In the previous section, we looked at a few of the essential skills or qualities that make a good leadership mentor. Now let’s consider what exactly a mentor can offer their mentee in a leadership development program. 

• Guidance built on real-world experience: A mentor who has faced and overcome similar challenges can share practical solutions that are grounded in reality. 
• Credibility and trust: As someone who has risen through the ranks to a leadership position, a mentor has a track record of success, often in the same field or industry as the mentee. A mentor’s deep subject matter expertise and ability to share relevant learnings and insights with their mentee creates a sense of trust.
• Relevant advice and strategies: As experienced leaders, mentors have worked in a wide range of roles and contexts, so they can tailor their advice to specific situations and offer strategies that have been tried and tested in the field. 
• Career path insights: A mentor with a robust career history can offer a roadmap, sharing insights on career progression, potential pitfalls, and industry trends, helping their mentees to make informed decisions about their career paths.
• Network and opportunities: An experienced mentor often has a well-established network and can open doors to new opportunities, collaborations, and resources to help junior employees advance in their careers.

The essential elements of an effective leadership mentoring program

Why have a leadership mentoring program? To provide a structured way to train employees and help them cultivate the skills they’ll need to be successful leaders. To set up such a program, make sure you have the following:

• A well-designed framework: Mentors and mentees benefit from having structured guidelines to refer to, which can be tailored to fit their specific goals and preferences. This framework serves as a roadmap for the mentoring journey.
• A diverse range of learning experiences: While the typical mentor-mentee exchange is a conversation, mentors should be empowered to offer various types of training, including introducing their mentees to other people to help build their network and giving them the opportunity to develop skills through hands-on practical experiences. 
• A robust support system: Successful mentoring relationships require a solid support system to navigate potential conflicts or issues. Provide resources and support so both mentors and mentees can focus on growth and learning without unnecessary obstacles.

Remember: Your goal is to create a nurturing environment where future leaders gain the insight and experience that will help them excel in the future.

💡 Looking to foster leadership development through mentoring? Get your leadership mentoring program started with Together. Book a demo with us today. 

‍

Mentoring for leadership development: 5 steps to take

Now that you understand the key qualities of mentors and benefits future leaders can get from mentorship, you might be wondering how to set up a leader mentorship program at your company. Here are a few steps to go through:

Step 1: Gather employee insights

Start by listening to what your employees need. What are they hoping to gain from a leadership mentor? What are their short and long-term goals? You may also want to ask potential mentors about why they’re interested in participating, how they’d like to contribute, and what they’re hoping to gain from the experience.

Step 2: Establish flexible guidelines

You don’t want to send mentors into these relationships with zero guidance, but you shouldn’t be dictating the details of every interaction, either. Provide guidelines that they can use as reference points, but make it clear that mentors and mentees are encouraged to tailor their interactions based on their unique goals. Provide them with templates and conversation starters, but give them the freedom to chart their own course.

3. Make your program as inclusive as possible

A successful mentoring program promotes diverse leadership. This means recognizing and addressing the specific challenges different employee groups may face. Ensure your program minimizes entry barriers, so employees from a wide range of backgrounds feel welcome and encouraged to participate.

4. Match mentors and mentees thoughtfully

Matching mentors and mentees effectively can significantly influence your program's success. Carefully design your questionnaire to capture mentees' and mentors' objectives, needs, and skills to ensure that both parties will benefit and grow from the relationship.

5. Integrate mentoring into your company culture

For mentoring programs to thrive, they must become a cultural norm within the company. Encourage senior staff to actively engage in nurturing talent and championing the program's benefits. 

How to mentor someone for leadership

We’ve considered how you can design successful leadership mentoring in general, but let’s take a closer look at what a leadership mentor needs to do in order to be successful in their role. 

Be committed

Mentoring takes time and energy from both participants, so both mentors and mentees should be dedicated to playing their part in building a strong relationship. You can enhance this commitment by actively involving employees in the design of mentoring programs, as we covered in the previous section.

Have an agenda

The conversations between mentors and mentees should go deeper than superficial topics. Encourage mentors and mentees to agree on an agenda before their meetings. This will help keep them stay focused and prevent them from feeling like they’ve wasted their meeting time. Remember: You can provide guidelines and templates as resources, but you shouldn’t tell participants exactly what they should do in their time together.

Set boundaries

Mentors and mentees should set boundaries, including when and how often to meet, the best ways to contact each other, and what each party expects from the relationship. Developing and sticking to these boundaries creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and provides a good opportunity for developing communication skills.

A deeper dive into mentoring topics 

Leadership styles

Now that we’ve covered how to set up a mentorship program, you might be wondering what mentors and mentees should actually discuss during their time together. One area that might be worth exploring is introducing mentees to different leadership styles.

There are a number of different types of leadership styles but most employees will use several different ones, depending on the situation they face. These are some of the most common types of leadership styles:

1. Autocratic. Those using this style of leadership will often take control of the decision-making process regardless of how others feel about the issue. Although this style is less likely to be used in today’s workplaces, it may still have its advantages. In particular, if a decision needs to be made quickly you may want to use the autocratic style of leadership. 
2. Authoritative or visionary. Authoritative leaders are more open than autocrats. These leaders will often explain the reasons behind their decisions. You can recognize an authoritative leader by their confident manner and clear direction. They are good to have in the workplace because they help others get on board with the organization’s plans and vision. 
3. Democratic. With this leadership style, everyone feels like they are a part of the decision-making process. A democratic leader asks others for their input on a situation before they take any action. This style is good for promoting team spirit and cooperation among employees. 
4. Coach. A coach-style leader is another way to enhance a team atmosphere among your employees. Leaders who employ the coaching style focus on helping others develop their full potential. 

Leadership and mentoring skills examples

Being a leader in an organization requires a mix of know-how or hard skills and soft skills, like emotional intelligence. While some of these skills take time and require on-the-job experience, others can be taught in leadership training programs. 

Boston Consulting Group's Roselinde Torres studies what makes great leaders tick and how to teach others those skills. In her TedTalk, she shares “three simple questions would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.”

Skills mentees can learn from high-quality mentors include:

• How to communicate effectively. A LinkedIn Learning report found that communication was one of the most important leadership skills for employees to learn. Seventy-four percent of talent developers thought it was a vital skill to learn. Mastering the art of communication means excelling at different ways of sharing a message with others, including presentations, phone calls, cold emails and one-on-one conversations. A leadership mentoring program presents an ideal space for employees to practice these skills. 
• How to hold others accountable. While being responsible for individual performance is one aspect of accountability, it also means being accountable for the team. Leaders need to know how to encourage a team and motivate them towards success. Having a mentor allows employees to gain more wisdom about problem-solving. It also helps them be accountable for their role in the mentorship. 
• How to grow your network. Not everyone is a born networker. Some need more guidance than others, and a mentor can help in this respect. Mentors can open the door to other connections for mentees. Additionally, mentees gain confidence through mentorship as they see their own skills and abilities develop. This confidence can help them reach out to others and get to know people, expanding their network. 
• How to actively listen to others. Hearing and understanding what others are saying is a crucial skill for leaders. Successful mentorships require good listening skills so that mentees can fully benefit from the experience and the advice offered. 
• How to strategically solve problems. Finding workable solutions is a trait of an effective leader. Employees can learn how to find answers through the guidance, encouragement and advice of mentors. 
• How to guide others. Good mentors have a lot of things to teach, but they can only impart their knowledge if they know how to guide others effectively. Mentorship is not so much about telling a mentee what actions to take, but rather guiding them on their journey to make the best possible choices. 

Additional leadership discussion topics

In addition to the themes and topics mentioned above, mentors may wish to discuss these leadership topics with their mentees:

• Transitioning to a leadership role. Moving into a position with more responsibilities can be intimidating. Leadership mentoring programs can help employees learn tips and tools on how to transition into a leadership role.  
• The mindset of leaders. Employees who are being prepared for leadership roles need to adjust their mindset. This means becoming more accountable for a team’s success. It also involves thinking about how to develop more effective methods of work. Leadership programs need to help future leaders understand how to think for success. 
• How to motivate others. Leaders need to know how to motivate others to accomplish tasks. Learning how to encourage and reward others is essential for successful leadership. 
• Conflict resolution. No matter what size of workplace you have, conflicts between employees are inevitable. Knowing how to resolve these situations and reinstate a cooperative atmosphere is vital. 
• Active listening. Listening and understanding others and letting them know you hear them can help leaders avoid conflicts with their teams. It can also promote loyalty among employees who feel more respected when they can share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns with leadership. ‍
• Delegating tasks. Leaders need to master the art of delegating. Employees being trained for leadership positions should discuss how to assess the skills and capabilities of their staff so they know when and to whom they can delegate tasks.
• Optimizing their team's tech stack. As a leader, it is possible that your team is not maximizing their efficiency due to the lack of software. Teams have unique workflows that require specific tools to help optimize their productivity, and a mentor could advise their mentee on tools to optimize their team's workflows. For example, a mentor could recommend trying an anonymous feedback tool, or one-on-one software.
  

How employees can find leadership mentors on their own

If your company doesn’t currently offer a formal mentorship program, you can still help ambitious employees to seek out their own mentors. Keep these tips in mind.

Encourage employees to explore their personal networks

Let employees know that the best place to start looking for a mentor is with their personal network. It’ll be easier for them to organize an introduction when they have a loose connection rather than reaching out to a complete stranger. You can suggest they go through the following steps:

Start with LinkedIn: 

• Tell them to look at the people in their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd order connections whose positions or lifestyles are interesting. 
• Shortlist these people.
• Explore the connections they have in common. These people may come in handy when trying to make an introduction. 

After they build a list of 3–5 individuals who could potentially be mentors, they can plan how to spark an introduction with them.

How to spark mentoring conversations

Once the prospective mentee has found a mutual connection with their potential mentor, they can reach out to them and ask them to make an introduction. Common ways to break the ice include mentioning a project or piece of work they’re known for or are knowledgeable about. It’s generally a good rule of thumb to ask people to talk about topics they’re passionate about, and their LinkedIn profile, articles they’ve written, or presentations they’ve given are generally good indications of what they’d be excited to discuss. 

Start a mentorship program for future leaders

Mentorship programs in the workplace allow you to train future leaders for your company and get the most out of your biggest asset: Your employees. 

When each of your departments has a mentorship network that enables employees to connect and learn, you’ll be able to identify potential leaders in your ranks. 

Learning from mentors and peers is one of the best ways to enhance your teams’ collaboration. And Together’s mentoring software is here to help you run impactful leadership mentoring programs. Get your leadership mentoring program started today—book a demo with a Together expert.