SHRM26 Debrief · Leadership & Development · #2135
Mentorship Is Dying: And We Are Pulling the Plug
with Yogi Mueller
"We're standing around an open grave site. The important part is the grave is not filled yet."
What it was about
Mentorship isn't dead but is on life support because organizations have become transactional, remote, and busy, and both overt organizational failures and covert personal fears are killing it; reviving it requires shared ownership of development and treating mentorship as a culture, not a checkbox program.
By the numbers
37%
of employees actually report having a mentor
75%
of executives say mentoring played a key role in their careers, according to ATD
70%
of workplace mentoring programs fail within the first year, according to HR.com
Key notes
- Ask a third question in every one-on-one and team meeting beyond 'what did you do' and 'what do you need to do': 'what did you learn?'
- Make development a shared organizational responsibility rather than something owned solely by HR or a single manager.
- When onboarding a new employee, immediately ask them two questions: 'Where do you want to go?' and 'How can I help you get there?'
The contrarian takePaying mentors a stipend to fix a struggling mentorship program is likely to backfire ('shoot ourselves in the foot'), because it treats a culture and engagement problem as a money problem. Mentorship dies faster when it's turned into a paid assignment rather than an organic relationship.
Take this back Monday
Do this for your team
In every 1:1 this week, add a third question after status updates: 'What did you learn?'
Say this in your next leadership meeting
70% of formal mentoring programs fail in year one because we treat mentorship as a checkbox, not a culture.
Watch out for
- Confusing formal programs (onboarding, coaching, development plans, weekly check-ins) with real mentorship, which is personal, relational, and sometimes uncomfortable.
- Treating mentorship as an assignment or checkbox (calendar invites, a monthly latte, a certificate of participation) rather than an organic culture.
- Overloading managers with product, sales, and metrics responsibilities, so mentorship (important but not urgent) is the first thing to fall off their plate.
Fun fact · Yogi Mueller
He built his HR foundation at Walt Disney World and wrote a book on mentorship called The Great Slapping.
If this landed, see these
↳ Go deeperOnboard to Engage: Four Critical Questions to Ask Your New HireTurns the day-one mentor questions into a full four-question onboarding script.⇄ The counterpointThe Skills (R)evolution: Preparing Employees for Tomorrow’s JobsPushes back: treat development as a designed system, not something that just happens organically.✦ The unexpected oneThe Hidden ROI of Mental Health: Building Recovery-Ready Workplaces That Retain and Revitalize TalentSame bet on informal peer support paying off, just measured in recovery outcomes instead of retention.