Should a Leader Be a Mentor?
One of the questions I keep coming back to is: should a leader also be a mentor? The answer isn’t simple.
The value of mentoring
Mentoring builds trust. It creates relationships that go beyond tasks and deadlines. It allows people to grow faster, because someone is walking alongside them — not just assigning work, but sharing experience.
As a leader, I’ve seen how mentoring moments matter: when a junior engineer asks a “simple” question and the explanation suddenly opens a new way of thinking. When someone feels stuck and just needs a safe space to talk it through. Those are the moments that strengthen not just individuals, but the whole team.
The challenge
But being a mentor isn’t always easy. Some people will give up along the way. They might lose motivation or decide the journey isn’t for them. That’s when leadership gets complicated: you invest time and energy, and you have to accept that not every story has the ending you hoped for.
And there’s another challenge: a leader cannot be a full-time mentor to everyone. The balance is delicate. Too much mentoring, and you risk neglecting strategy and vision. Too little, and people feel unsupported.
What mentoring really requires
From my own experience, mentoring as a leader means more than just “being there.” It asks for intentional effort:
- clearly defining goals,
- giving a lot of feedback — both positive and constructive,
- sensing when something is crossing the line (even mentors can assign tasks that are too heavy),
- letting people do things as independently as possible,
- teaching that mistakes are okay, and fixing them is not the end of the world,
- creating safety for people to say “I don’t want this direction anymore” — mentoring should never be built on fear,
- showing possibilities and helping others find their inner motivation.
Learning goes both ways
What I’ve learned is that leadership and mentoring are not opposites — they complement each other. A leader doesn’t have to be the only mentor, but they should create the conditions where mentoring happens. That might mean connecting people with peers, encouraging knowledge-sharing, or simply being present when it matters most.
And just as importantly: leaders need mentors too. I’ve learned as much from the people above me — and sometimes even from the people I lead — as I have given back. Growth goes both ways.
So should be?
So, should a leader be a mentor? My answer is yes — but not all the time, and not for everyone. A leader should be a mentor in the moments that count, and at the same time, build a culture where mentoring is natural and shared across the team.
Because leadership isn’t about being the only source of knowledge. It’s about making sure people have what they need to grow — and knowing when to step in, and when to step back.