Learn from the right people, then pass on what you know.
AI can now answer almost any question whose answer has been written down. Ask how a sales pipeline is measured or how a CFO evaluates an investment, and you will have a sound, general answer in seconds. What it cannot tell you is how the people around you make those calls: which deals your strongest sales leader walks away from, what a client’s executives weigh before they commit, or why your firm dropped an approach two years ago. That knowledge lives in people, and it passes from one person to another through working relationships.
As AI takes on more routine tasks, fewer of those lessons come from simply watching an experienced colleague through a normal week. That makes mentoring more valuable, in both directions. The leaders who grow fastest choose who they learn from based on what they need to know next, and they pass on what they know in a way others can use. Any rising leader can build both habits, and each makes the other stronger.
Choose Mentors for What You Need to Learn Next
Most mentoring relationships start by chance, with a manager who took an interest or a colleague who worked nearby. They are valuable, and they rarely cover everything a growing career needs. A better starting point is the work ahead of you. Look at the next role you want or the larger responsibility you expect, name the two or three things you understand least, and find people a few steps ahead of you who do those things well.
The best way to learn from them is often to work with them. Helping on something they care about gives you a reason to spend time together and a close view of how they think and decide. Update your list as your role changes.
When I wanted to understand how sales plans, executes, measures, and sets strategy, I sought out senior sales leaders with a record of growing the business and partnered with them to connect marketing to their plans. Working alongside them showed me first-hand how they ran their business and sharpened my own understanding of selling. I have done the same in every organization since, learning what the strongest sales leaders share and what is unique to each one’s craft.
“The leaders who grow fastest choose who they learn from based on what they need to know next, and they pass on what they know in a way others can use.”
Look Beyond Your Function and Your Company
Mentors who share your background tend to see problems the way you do. People in finance, sales, operations, or human resources can show you how their side weighs the same decision. Mentors outside your organization, such as a leader at another company, a client, or someone from an industry association, can tell you what is changing in their markets, often before it reaches yours.
Early in my career, while building my own business, my expertise was narrow. I found mentors in finance, human resources, and sales through recommendations from friends and family and through professional associations, and I went into each conversation knowing which skills I wanted to improve. My capabilities grew quickly as a result.
One of the most valuable lessons came from a mid-market CEO in my network whom I often turned to with questions. Along the way, that CEO taught me what quality pipeline and quality revenue look like, something I had never asked about directly. I used it to reshape where my business focused, the work we took on, and our mix of clients, which increased our repeat revenue and the return on our time and money. Spotting which revenue is worth pursuing, and focusing marketing and sales on it, has become one of the skills CEOs and sales leaders have relied on me for, and I learned it from a mentor.
Make Every Conversation Count
A mentor’s time is limited, so arrive prepared. AI makes the background work fast, so read up and work through the basic questions before you meet, then bring the specific decision where their experience matters most. Leave room for the unexpected, since some of the most useful lessons come up on the way to answering something else.
Afterward, follow through. When you act on a mentor’s advice, tell them what you did and what happened, which shows their time was well spent and lets them refine the advice. Look for what you can offer in return, such as a view of your part of the business, an introduction, or help with something they are working on.
One of my clients became a mentor, and we spoke periodically about how our solutions and our delivery of them were going. Each conversation sharpened what we offered, especially which problems it solved and why businesses needed it. The relationship helped our business development, and it made me a more accountable leader. I always wanted progress to share when we spoke, because he took the same interest in my success that I did, and he cared as much about how I was growing as a leader as about how my business was doing.
Mentor Others in Words They Understand
Becoming a mentor yourself widens your impact, because what you know becomes far more useful once others can act on it. Experience builds its own vocabulary of industry terms, internal shorthand, and assumptions that feel obvious after years of use. Good mentors learn the other person’s background first, use examples from work that person already knows, and choose plain words. On global teams, this takes extra care, since terms and expressions that are clear in one country can confuse people in another.
Pace matters too. Sharing everything at once overwhelms people, and little of it stays with them. Pass on what you know in portions tied to the work in front of them, and check what has stuck before adding more.
When we launched a marketing and sales strategy across a number of countries, I partnered with each one to connect what we sold, and how we marketed and sold it, to that region. Each used some different terminology, spoke different languages, and was at a different stage of market maturity and technology. I had to learn quickly what each term and practice meant for our strategy and plans, then map it so the whole team could understand it. I led the initiative and owned that shared understanding across countries, so every region could align around the same plan.
Give Your Mentees Context and Connections
Some of what you know cannot be explained in one conversation: how the business makes decisions, which leaders care about which outcomes, and who to call when a client situation gets complicated. The most practical way to pass that on is to give people work that puts them close to it, and to introduce them to the people who know the rest. Each introduction gives them someone new to learn from and starts a network of mentors of their own.
Over the years, I have created a number of new roles and opportunities for people. One gave a rising professional ownership of our marketing success stories. They worked with senior marketers and business and sales teams to find where marketing was making a difference, then wrote and published short accounts so every team could see what was working, which helped us keep improving our strategy and tactics. To make the role work, I introduced them to many senior leaders. Those leaders, along with me, became a network they learned from about our business and marketing, and it helped them grow as a leader across several roles that followed.
Keep Learning in Both Directions
Choosing mentors deliberately keeps what you know current, and passing it on turns that knowledge into capability your team can draw on long after any one conversation. This month, name one thing your next role will ask of you that you understand least, and the person you will learn it from. Then name one thing you know that someone on your team needs, and teach it to them on the work in front of them this week.
About John Fildes
I grow the top line by connecting marketing to business strategy. By leveraging powerful positioning, content marketing, and client insights, I help organizations drive qualitative and quantitative results at scale.
I've built an amazing network of incredibly talented people over the years. What I've appreciated most is those who have invested in me, mentored me, and helped me become the talented professional I am today. I pay it forward by doing the same for other high performing professionals and entrepreneurs.
Learn More: Growth Leader | Business Builder | Leadership Multiplier
All views are my own and not those of my current or prior employers.
