Leadership · Mentoring and People
Mentoring Begins by Removing an Obstacle
Helping someone grow can start with the everyday barrier that keeps them from doing their best work.
The talent the process hides
A manager sees a capable employee who seems ready for more responsibility, yet the employee spends much of each day chasing an approval or correcting incomplete requests. A conversation about future goals may be welcome, but it will feel detached if the immediate obstacle remains. In his Servant Leadership Stories presentation, Dr. Tom DePaoli links leadership with taking care of people and removing bureaucracy that blocks their work. Mentoring can begin there. Ask the employee what they want to learn, then ask which recurring task consumes the time or confidence they would need to practice it. The answer may be less glamorous than a development program, but more useful this week.
The choice a manager can make
The manager can offer advice and leave the system intact, or use their authority to investigate the obstacle. Sit with the employee and watch the task. Find out why the approval exists and who depends on it. If a simpler rule is possible, test it with the people affected. If the step must remain, look for another way to reduce repeated work. Tom’s notion of reverse apprenticeship is helpful: the leader should let the employee teach the task before deciding what to change. That practice recognizes expertise already present in the team. It also makes the eventual improvement something the employee helped shape rather than a favor handed down from above.
Make room for growth
Once the barrier is reduced, give the employee a defined opportunity to lead. They might explain the revised process to colleagues, gather feedback after a trial, or take responsibility for a small improvement. Share the context they will need and remain available without taking the task back at the first difficulty. Tom measures leadership partly by whether colleagues become more capable and less dependent on one manager. Removing friction and sharing responsibility support each other: one creates time and trust; the other creates practice. Praise the employee’s contribution publicly when appropriate, while accepting responsibility if the first version of the change needs correction. That balance is part of the servant-leadership lesson in the presentation.
Return to the person, not only the metric
A month later, ask two questions. Did the changed process make the work easier for everyone involved? And did the employee get a real chance to develop the skill they named? If not, the mentoring plan needs adjustment. A manager may discover that a new obstacle appeared or that the employee wants a different kind of responsibility. Keep the conversation specific and leave room for the employee’s own judgment. The video introduces Tom’s stories about service and care; the related book gives a fuller account. In daily practice, mentoring is less a speech about potential than a pattern of listening, clearing a path, offering a challenge, and checking whether the person can move forward. That pattern can begin with one ordinary work problem today.
The employee should have a say in what growth looks like. A manager may imagine promotion; the employee may want technical mastery, a quieter way to lead, or time to teach a colleague. Ask before assigning the next challenge. If the answer changes, update the plan without treating that as a lack of ambition. Tom’s emphasis on caring for people asks leaders to see the individual, not just the role they hope the individual will fill.
Hear Dr. Tom explain the idea in the book presentation, then explore the book for the full account.