How to Build a Mentoring Programme That Develops Better Leaders

How to Build a Mentoring Programme That Develops Better Leaders

Leadership development does not always have to take place in a classroom, at a conference or through a structured training course. Some of the most valuable learning happens when leaders have an opportunity to discuss real challenges with someone who understands leadership, asks thoughtful questions and helps them examine situations from a different perspective. Particularly when there is no obvious right answer.

A well-designed mentoring programme provides a structured opportunity for this kind of learning. Its primary purpose is to develop better leaders by supporting their professional and personal growth over time. Unlike conventional leadership training, mentoring can follow the challenges a leader actually encounters, rather than a predetermined curriculum. The organisation benefits when its leaders become more capable, while the individual leader may experience greater confidence, competence and a stronger sense of purpose. Mentors can also gain valuable insights from the relationship, although developing the mentee remains the primary objective.

But how do you establish a leadership mentoring programme? Where should you find your mentors, how long should the programme last, and how can smaller organisations make mentoring possible without a large internal pool of experienced leaders?

1. Define what the programme is supposed to achieve

Before selecting mentors or planning workshops, establish a clear purpose. For a leadership mentoring programme, the main objective should be to help participants become better leaders. This may involve developing greater confidence, improving judgement, managing difficult relationships, handling uncertainty or becoming more effective in everyday leadership situations.

Different organisations will have different needs. A business with several recently promoted managers may want to support their transition from technical specialists to leaders. Another may have experienced managers who need new perspectives on organisational change, delegation or complex interpersonal challenges. These differences should shape the programme, but they do not necessarily require every participant to follow the same development agenda.

It is also important to consider motivation. A mentee should genuinely want to develop as a leader and be prepared to reflect on personal behaviour, decisions and assumptions. Mentoring is not something that can simply be delivered to a passive participant. The mentor supports the learning process, but the mentee must take responsibility for their own development.

Research provides a reasonable basis for mentoring as a development approach. A multidisciplinary meta-analysis published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior found associations between mentoring and several favourable outcomes, including career-related, motivational and interpersonal measures. However, average effect sizes were generally small, reinforcing the need for realistic expectations and careful programme design.

2. Select people who can mentor, not simply people with impressive careers

One of the most common mistakes organisations make is assuming that their most senior or successful leaders will automatically make the best mentors. Leadership experience is valuable, but mentoring requires additional skills that are not necessarily developed through holding senior positions.

A good mentor must be able to listen without immediately taking over the conversation, ask questions that encourage reflection and challenge assumptions without becoming directive. They should be genuinely interested in the mentee's development and understand that their role is not to provide a ready-made solution to every problem. Sometimes sharing personal experience is useful. At other times, the most valuable contribution is asking a question that allows the mentee to discover something independently.

Extensive experience can provide a mentor with examples, insight and perspective. Someone who has spent decades working with people may have encountered many difficult situations and learnt from both success and failure. Nevertheless, a mentor does not necessarily need twice as much leadership experience as the mentee. People with relatively similar levels of experience can have highly productive mentoring relationships, particularly when they come from different backgrounds or organisations.

Mentoring is a professional discipline in its own right. Mentors therefore need training before taking on the role. At a minimum, this should include role awareness, confidentiality, active listening, questioning techniques, boundaries and practical mentoring exercises. Mentors should learn how to support independent thinking rather than allowing their own opinions and experiences to dominate.

Group training also creates opportunities for mentors to learn from each other. This helps establish a shared understanding of the role and provides a foundation for continued professional reflection throughout the programme.

3. Consider mentors from outside your organisation

Many businesses naturally begin by looking for mentors within their own organisation. Large companies with offices across several cities or countries may have a substantial pool of potential mentors. Even so, there are strong reasons to consider external mentors, particularly when the objective is to develop leadership skills rather than specific organisational knowledge.

Leadership frequently involves sensitive relationships, difficult decisions, internal politics and uncertainty. A leader may be reluctant to discuss mistakes, disagreements with senior management or complicated workplace relationships with someone who belongs to the same organisation. Even when both parties have good intentions, established relationships, shared histories and competing interests can influence the conversation.

An external mentor may be better positioned to provide independence and confidentiality. They are less likely to be involved in the same internal conflicts or organisational dynamics, making it potentially easier for the mentee to speak openly. They can also challenge assumptions that people within the organisation may have come to accept as normal.

There can be additional value in selecting mentors from different industries. A manufacturing manager and a leader from healthcare, technology or public administration may work in very different environments, but they frequently encounter similar human challenges. Their approaches to communication, delegation, motivation and decision-making may differ significantly, creating opportunities to learn from each other's perspectives.

This does not mean internal mentoring is inappropriate. Internal mentors may be particularly valuable when the aim is to understand organisational culture, internal processes, specialised professional practices or the expectations of a particular business. However, when the primary focus is leadership development, selecting someone from outside the organisation deserves serious consideration.

Mentoring between people from competing businesses can also work, provided that clear boundaries are established. The relationship should focus on leadership and personal development, not on exchanging commercially sensitive information, customer details or business strategies.

4. Small and medium-sized businesses can build programmes together

For smaller businesses, the biggest challenge may be finding enough suitable mentors and mentees within a single organisation. A company with 30 employees might have two managers who would benefit from mentoring but very few suitable internal mentors. This does not mean the company needs to abandon the idea.

An effective alternative is to collaborate with other businesses. A mentoring programme can be organised through a business association, an industry cluster, a professional network or a partnership initiated by one company.

Imagine five businesses deciding to establish a shared leadership mentoring programme. Each contributes two mentors and two mentees, creating a group of ten mentors and ten mentees. The mentors receive training, and participants are paired across organisations where appropriate. This provides access to a wider range of experiences and makes it possible to organise shared workshops, mentor development sessions and structured support.

As a practical starting point, we generally recommend aiming for at least ten mentoring pairs in a collaborative programme. This provides sufficient diversity and scale for meaningful group activities and peer learning. It is a programme-design recommendation, not a scientifically established minimum. Smaller arrangements can also succeed.

The participating organisations need to agree on administration, responsibilities, costs and the contribution each will make. There is no universal model. Some organisations may contribute more mentors, while others may have more employees who want to participate as mentees. Since both mentors and mentees can benefit from the programme, cost-sharing should reflect the value received and the resources contributed.

5. Match participants and establish clear expectations

Matching mentors and mentees matters, but it does not need to become an unnecessarily complicated exercise. Rather than searching for identical personalities or backgrounds, begin by identifying practical considerations, previous relationships, potential conflicts of interest and other factors that might make a pairing unsuitable.

The mentee's development needs and reasonable preferences should also be considered. However, a productive mentoring relationship does not require both participants to have similar personalities, industries or career histories. Indeed, differences may become an important source of learning.

Once a pair has been established, the mentor and mentee should have an introductory conversation and agree on the purpose and structure of their relationship. A simple written mentoring agreement should cover the mentee's objectives, meeting frequency, availability, responsibility for arranging conversations, confidentiality and what happens if the relationship does not work as expected.

Confidentiality is fundamental. The contents of mentoring conversations should remain private between the participants, subject to any applicable legal limitations agreed in advance. Employers and programme administrators may need information about attendance and overall progress, but they should not receive reports about the personal matters discussed during mentoring sessions.

The programme should also provide a straightforward process for changing mentors. Even careful matching cannot guarantee that every relationship will work. Participants should have the opportunity to request a change without feeling that they have failed or that someone is being blamed.

6. Allow enough time for trust and development

Strong mentoring relationships take time. During the first meetings, participants are still learning about each other and exploring what they want from the relationship. It may take several months before the mentee feels comfortable discussing uncertainty, personal weaknesses or particularly difficult leadership experiences.

For this reason, we generally recommend that mentoring programmes last at least six months, and preferably one or two years where circumstances allow. The right duration depends on the participants, their development objectives and the organisational environment.

Regular meetings provide continuity. Monthly or fortnightly conversations can work well, with additional contact during periods when the mentee faces particularly demanding situations. The ideal arrangement allows the mentor to provide support when it is genuinely needed, while respecting the practical limitations of both participants.

Group sessions can complement individual mentoring. They allow participants to explore relevant leadership topics, exchange experiences and learn from people beyond their own mentoring relationship. These sessions also give programme administrators an opportunity to evaluate progress and adjust the structure if necessary.

Example: A mentoring programme with ten active months

The following is an illustrative structure running from February to January, with breaks from organised programme activities in July and December. Preparation, recruitment and initial programme design take place before the formal start.

This is one possible arrangement. Some organisations may need more face-to-face workshops, while others may prefer digital meetings and greater flexibility. The essential requirement is to balance sufficient structure with the freedom needed for each mentoring relationship to develop naturally.

7. Monitor the programme without intruding on the relationship

A mentoring programme needs a clearly designated programme manager. This person should ensure that participants understand the structure, meetings are taking place and any difficulties are addressed. They should not attempt to monitor the contents of confidential conversations.

Evaluation should be planned from the beginning. Standardised questions for mentors and mentees provide a useful minimum, and selected in-depth interviews can help explain what has worked well or needs improvement.

For mentees, relevant questions may concern confidence in the leadership role, the ability to reflect on difficult situations, perceived competence and how mentoring has influenced everyday leadership practice. Asking comparable questions before, during and after the programme can help track change. Self-reported improvements are useful indicators, although they do not establish on their own that mentoring caused the changes.

Mentors should also evaluate their training, the support they received and their experience of the programme. These insights are valuable when deciding how to improve future cohorts.

Experience from TEAM NORSO's mentoring programme for Lederne

TEAM NORSO has developed and delivered a tailored mentoring programme for Lederne, a Norwegian professional organisation for leaders. The 2026 programme involves 12 mentors and 12 mentees and combines mentor training, participant matching, individual mentoring relationships and a series of physical and digital gatherings.

An important part of the programme is preparing mentors before they begin supporting mentees. Training and practical exercises provide the foundation for developmental conversations, while joint sessions create additional opportunities for learning and reflection.

Feedback from an August 2026 programme gathering was encouraging. All 20 evaluation respondents rated the gathering either 5 or 6 on a six-point scale, and 95% reported gaining new perspectives or increased awareness of their own development. These findings concern the specific gathering and should not be interpreted as evidence of the programme's long-term effects.

The programme is being further developed for 2027, including more extensive preparation and interviews with both mentors and mentees before matching.

Read the TEAM NORSO case study about Lederne.

Common mistakes when establishing a mentoring programme

Three problems deserve particular attention. The first is failing to train mentors. Simply bringing together an experienced leader and someone who wants to develop does not guarantee a productive mentoring relationship. Without an understanding of the mentor role, conversations can easily become a sequence of advice and personal opinions rather than an opportunity for the mentee to develop independent judgement.

The second is a lack of clear expectations. If participants have not agreed on meeting frequency, responsibilities or objectives, mentoring can gradually become an activity that takes place only when there is spare time. In demanding working environments, this often means that meetings become irregular or disappear altogether.

The third is insufficient programme management. Individual mentoring relationships need privacy and flexibility, but the wider programme still needs coordination, mentor development, shared learning opportunities and evaluation.

Successful leadership mentoring therefore combines a trusted personal relationship with a professional structure around it.

Building a mentoring programme in your organisation

A well-designed mentoring programme can help leaders become more reflective, confident and capable in their everyday work. It can also create opportunities for experienced leaders to develop their own skills through supporting others.

Smaller organisations do not need to establish these programmes alone. By working together, businesses can create a diverse network of mentors and mentees, share resources and provide leadership development opportunities that might otherwise be difficult to access.

TEAM NORSO helps organisations design, establish and deliver leadership mentoring programmes. We can manage the entire process, including programme design, mentor recruitment and training, matching, workshops, follow-up and evaluation. We can also support individual elements of a programme that an organisation wishes to manage internally.

Are you considering a leadership mentoring programme? Contact TEAM NORSO to discuss how one could be designed for your organisation, or how several businesses might work together to establish a shared programme.

Contact TEAM NORSO.

References and further reading

• Eby, L. T. et al. (2008). [Does Mentoring Matter? A Multidisciplinary Meta-Analysis Comparing Mentored and Non-Mentored Individuals.](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2352144/)
• CIPD (2025). [Coaching and mentoring.](https://www.cipd.org/en/knowledge/factsheets/coaching-mentoring-factsheet/)
• EMCC Global. [Global Code of Ethics for Coaches, Mentors and Supervisors.](https://globalcodeofethics.org/)