We often recognise mentorship when it comes with a formal introduction.
A senior executive is paired with a young professional. An experienced entrepreneur agrees to guide a startup founder. A teacher takes a student under their wing. There is a defined relationship, an agreed purpose, and perhaps a series of scheduled conversations.
But consider another situation.
A new employee is struggling with a responsibility they have never handled before. Their manager is unavailable, so an experienced colleague offers to help. Rather than simply completing the task, the colleague explains the process, shares a mistake they once made, and shows the employee how to approach similar situations independently.
The conversation lasts fifteen minutes. There is no formal mentoring agreement, no programme registration, and no recognition for the colleague’s contribution.
Yet the employee leaves with more than a completed task. They leave with knowledge they can use again.
Was that mentorship?
If we define mentorship exclusively by formal roles and arrangements, we might overlook the significance of this interaction. But if we consider what mentorship is intended to accomplish, the answer becomes clearer.
Mentorship is not only about who is officially recognised as a mentor. It is also about how knowledge, experience, and guidance help another person develop.
This distinction matters because many people who could contribute to someone else’s growth underestimate the value of what they already know. At the same time, people who need guidance may overlook the learning opportunities available in their everyday environments.
The question, then, is not simply who qualifies to be a mentor. It is how we can become more intentional about helping others grow, even before we receive the title.
The Big Idea: Mentorship Begins With What You Do, Not What You Are Called
A title can establish responsibility, provide structure, and create opportunities for meaningful relationships. Formal mentorship programmes, in particular, can connect people who might otherwise never meet.
But a title does not automatically make someone an effective mentor.
The real value lies in what happens when knowledge is shared, experience is translated into useful lessons, and another person is better equipped to navigate their journey.
Someone may have decades of professional experience but be unwilling to share what they have learnt. Another person may have only a few years of experience but possess valuable insights that could help a colleague avoid familiar mistakes.
Neither seniority nor experience alone guarantees effective mentorship. What matters is how that experience is used.
This is especially important for young professionals, emerging leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, and people who are still finding their footing in their respective fields. You do not have to wait until you have achieved everything you hope to achieve before you can contribute to another person’s development.
You can share what you know while continuing to learn yourself.
You can offer guidance without pretending to have all the answers.
And you can help someone make progress without taking responsibility for every decision they must make.
The Marble: Knowledge Becomes Valuable When It Helps Someone Grow
In his Words on Marble, Dr. Clement Obadimu writes:
“The passing on of knowledge is the bedrock of effective mentorship. The major goal of a mentor is to lead his mentee to success.”
This thought offers a useful way to evaluate the role we play in other people’s development.
The first part emphasises the passing on of knowledge. The second directs that knowledge towards a purpose: helping another person succeed.
Both matter.
Knowledge that is never shared may remain useful to the individual who possesses it, but its potential to help others remains limited. On the other hand, sharing information without considering whether it helps the recipient understand or act can become an exercise in talking rather than mentoring.
Effective mentorship connects what one person knows with what another person needs to learn.
An experienced business owner, for example, may know how to negotiate with suppliers. Simply telling a younger entrepreneur to negotiate better is unlikely to be sufficient. Explaining how to assess a supplier’s offer, recognise hidden costs, and approach difficult conversations gives the entrepreneur a more useful starting point.
The knowledge becomes valuable because it helps the person develop their own judgement.
Dr. Obadimu adds:
“Put extra into the ordinary things you do and you’ll be called extraordinary.”
In the context of mentorship, this principle invites us to look more closely at everyday interactions. The extra effort may not be dramatic. It may simply involve explaining why a decision matters, listening before offering advice, or helping someone understand the lesson behind an experience.
These are small actions, but they can change what another person takes away from an interaction.
The question is whether we are willing to make that additional effort.
The Experience You Take for Granted May Be Exactly What Someone Needs
One reason people hesitate to guide others is that they underestimate their own experience.
We tend to measure our knowledge against what we have yet to learn. A young professional may think, “I’m still figuring out my career, so what could I possibly teach someone else?” An entrepreneur may believe their business is too small to offer useful lessons. A teacher may assume that because they are still improving their methods, they are not ready to guide a less experienced colleague.
This thinking overlooks an important distinction: you do not need to know everything to know something useful.
Consider someone who has recently navigated their first job search. They may not be a recruitment expert, but they understand how to prepare for an interview, organise applications, and handle rejection. Those lessons could be useful to someone preparing for their first professional opportunity.
Similarly, an entrepreneur who has experienced a failed product launch may have learnt lessons about customer research, pricing, or market demand that another founder has not yet encountered.
The value of the experience lies not in whether the person has reached the end of their journey, but in whether they can share relevant insights honestly and responsibly.
This does not mean presenting personal experience as a universal rule. What worked in one situation may not work in another. Good guidance acknowledges context, limitations, and uncertainty.
The goal is to help another person think more clearly, not convince them to copy your journey exactly.
A practical starting point: Identify one challenge you have already navigated. What do you understand now that you wish you had known at the beginning? That lesson may be a useful contribution to someone else’s growth.
Ordinary Interactions Can Become Opportunities for Development
Mentorship does not require every conversation to become a formal lesson. In fact, trying to turn every interaction into an opportunity to advise someone can become intrusive.
The more useful approach is to recognise moments when an additional explanation, a thoughtful question, or a little guidance could make a meaningful difference.
Imagine a supervisor reviewing a team member’s report.
The supervisor identifies three errors and returns the document for correction. The immediate issue has been addressed, but the team member may repeat the same mistakes because they do not understand what caused them.
Now imagine the supervisor explains the underlying problem, demonstrates how to identify it, and asks the team member to apply the lesson to the next report.
The second interaction develops a skill, not just a document.
The same principle applies in other settings:
- In the classroom: Rather than simply marking an answer wrong, a teacher helps the student understand the thinking that led to the mistake.
- In business: Rather than telling a younger entrepreneur what decision to make, an experienced founder explains the factors that influenced a similar decision.
- In leadership: Rather than correcting every error personally, a leader helps team members develop the judgement to identify and address problems themselves.
- In everyday relationships: Rather than rushing to solve a friend’s problem, someone listens carefully and helps them consider their options.
Dr. Obadimu’s instruction to put extra into ordinary things is not a demand to do more for everyone at every opportunity. It is an invitation to bring greater intention to the things we already do.
Sometimes, the extra is five minutes of explanation. Sometimes, it is the willingness to share a difficult lesson. And sometimes, it is knowing when to listen rather than speak.
The point is not to make every interaction extraordinary. It is to stop overlooking the potential value of ordinary ones.
Good Mentorship Builds Independence, Not Dependence
There is a difference between helping someone solve a problem and helping them develop the ability to solve similar problems in the future.
Both forms of assistance have value. When a situation is urgent, direct intervention may be necessary. But when the goal is development, the way we offer help becomes particularly important.
Imagine a young professional who regularly asks a more experienced colleague how to handle difficult workplace conversations.
The colleague could provide a script for every situation. This might help the professional navigate immediate conversations, but it may not prepare them for circumstances that fall outside those scripts.
Alternatively, the colleague could explain how to prepare for a difficult conversation, distinguish facts from assumptions, consider the other person’s perspective, and communicate a clear objective.
The professional now has a framework they can adapt.
This is an important principle of mentorship: the objective is not to make someone permanently dependent on our answers. It is to help them develop the confidence and judgement to find their own.
Dr. Obadimu’s reflection on leading a mentee to success becomes especially meaningful when success includes greater independence.
A mentor does not have to make every decision for the person they guide. They can ask questions that reveal overlooked assumptions, share experience that expands perspective, and help the individual assess possible consequences.
They can also acknowledge when a situation falls outside their expertise and encourage the person to seek more appropriate guidance.
The most useful mentoring relationships make room for questions, disagreement, learning, and independent thought.
A question worth asking whenever you help someone: Am I only helping this person resolve today’s problem, or am I also helping them become better equipped for tomorrow’s?
Knowledge Must Move From Conversation to Action
Dr. Obadimu offers another principle in his Words on Marble:
“No knowledge can come to profit without action being taken on it.”
This thought highlights a common gap in learning. We can listen to excellent advice, attend valuable workshops, read insightful books, and participate in meaningful conversations without changing what we do.
The information may be useful, but its practical value remains unrealised until we apply it.
Mentorship can help bridge that gap.
Suppose a young entrepreneur receives guidance on improving customer retention. They understand the advice and agree that it makes sense. But if they never examine their customer feedback, test a new approach, or review the results, the conversation may have little effect on their business.
A mentor can help translate the discussion into a manageable next step.
What is the most important issue to address first? What can be tested on a small scale? How will the entrepreneur know whether the change is working?
These questions help turn an abstract idea into a practical process.
The same approach works in professional development. Someone who receives advice about improving presentation skills can identify an upcoming opportunity to practise, apply one or two techniques, and reflect on the outcome.
The action does not need to be ambitious. In many cases, a small and deliberate step is more useful than a long list of recommendations that never gets implemented.
This is also why follow-up can matter. Asking what happened after someone tried a new approach creates an opportunity to reflect on the result and decide what to do next.
The process becomes a cycle: knowledge is shared, an action is taken, the outcome is examined, and new understanding develops.
That is how a conversation can contribute to lasting growth.
How to Practise Mentorship Before You Have the Title
Recognising the value of everyday mentorship is only the beginning. The next step is learning to act on those opportunities without overstepping boundaries or assuming that everyone needs our advice.
Here is a simple framework to guide your approach.
Step 1: Recognise an opportunity.
Pay attention to the questions people ask, the challenges they mention, and the skills they are trying to develop. Do not assume that every difficulty requires your intervention; begin by understanding what the person actually needs.
Step 2: Share what is relevant.
Offer a lesson, explanation, or perspective that connects to their situation. Be honest about your experience and acknowledge where your knowledge has limits.
Step 3: Help them think.
Ask questions that encourage the person to examine their options and develop their own judgement. Avoid treating your preferred solution as the only possible answer.
Step 4: Encourage a practical next step.
Help the person identify one action they can take. Where appropriate, invite them to reflect on what they learn from the experience.
Step 5: Respect their ownership.
The person you guide remains responsible for their decisions. Offer support without assuming control of their journey, and recognise that they may choose a different path from the one you would take.
This framework can be applied in workplaces, schools, businesses, and communities. It does not replace the value of structured mentorship programmes. Instead, it helps create environments where sharing knowledge and supporting development become part of everyday practice.
Practical Takeaways: Three Things to Do This Week
If you want to begin practising mentorship before the title, start with these three actions:
- Identify a lesson worth sharing. Think of a challenge you have overcome and the insight you gained from it. Consider who might benefit from hearing that lesson.
- Make one ordinary interaction more intentional. Explain the reasoning behind a task, offer constructive feedback, or help someone think through a decision.
- Connect knowledge to action. When you share guidance, help the other person identify a practical step they can take and encourage them to learn from the outcome.
You do not have to do everything at once. The objective is to become more aware of the opportunities already present in your everyday environment.
Reflection: Who Could Benefit From What You Know?
Mentorship does not become valuable only when it is formally recognised. Its value emerges when knowledge and experience help another person understand more, make better-informed decisions, or develop the capacity to navigate future challenges.
You may still be learning. You may have more questions than answers. You may not yet occupy the position you hope to attain.
None of that automatically disqualifies you from sharing what you have learnt.
Dr. Clement Obadimu’s Words on Marble remind us that passing on knowledge, putting extra into ordinary things, and acting on what we learn are essential parts of meaningful growth.
The opportunity is not to present yourself as someone who has everything figured out. It is to recognise where your experience can be useful, share it thoughtfully, and remain willing to learn from others in return.
So, who around you could benefit from something you already know, and what would it take for you to share it?
From the Tower
At Mentors Tower, we believe that personal and professional growth should not have to happen in isolation. Meaningful mentorship creates opportunities for people to exchange knowledge, learn from experience, and approach challenges with greater clarity.
Through intentional relationships and a community committed to growth, we want to make these opportunities more accessible to people at different stages of their journeys.
You do not need to wait for a formal title to contribute to someone else’s development, just as you do not have to navigate your own growth without support.
Your Next Move
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