Brain Drain: Is a Lack of Mentorship Killing Business?
Not long ago, most managers saw part of their job as developing the next generation. They took time to coach, correct, and guide, even when it wasn’t hard-written into their job descriptions. Today, it seems that’s become rare.
Too many mid-career professionals are being left to figure things out alone, and it’s starting to catch up to us.
The Shift in Mentorship
I’ve been working with managers for over 10 years now to help them identify and find talent. I’ve noticed fewer managers take mentoring seriously. Many are overworked, stretched thin, or unsure of how to develop their teams. Others have never had mentors themselves, so they don’t know how to pay it forward.
As I talk with candidates who wish to leave their jobs, the overwhelming majority tell me that they don’t have a mentor, and they feel stuck doing the same repetitive tasks every day. As I talk with hiring managers, more and more of them want to hire someone with skills so they don’t have to train and develop.
And while all of this is happening, companies are slowly losing something - the middle layer of skilled, experienced people who used to be the backbone of these organizations. In many professions, there’s a visible gap between entry-level hires and executives.
We’re approaching a tipping point, and it’s going to cost us.
The Cost of Losing Mentorship
When mentorship disappears, businesses lose more than just knowledge. They lose continuity.
What we’re seeing is high-level experience concentrated at the top, and even though some of our individual contributors have learned skills on their own, without the chance to practice those skills and learn from people who have been there and done that, we’re losing the wisdom that comes from applying those skills.
It’s one thing to learn about something in a textbook. It’s another to be in the situation and know what to do, and the nuance of applying our knowledge to the problem.
I also see many middle managers burn out because they don’t know how to grow their teams. The problem runs deeper than simply “managers don’t want to or have the time to be mentors.” Our organizations aren’t passing down wisdom and teaching managers how to mentor others. Mentorship in itself is a skill and has a learning curve.
And this has resulted in more senior leaders complaining that no one is ready to be promoted. There’s no talent shortage. But we do have a development shortage.
The quiet truth that no one seems to be saying out loud is this. You can’t build a strong organization on weak relationships. Mentorship used to fill those gaps. Now it seems to be replaced with spreadsheets and Teams messages.
Over 80% of the time, when I ask candidates what they’re looking for from their leaders, these two things come up (in one form or another): competency and compassion. What our teams aren’t telling us is that they don’t view our leaders as competent and compassionate - and that’s a big problem.
What’s Causing the Breakdown
Unfortunately, there aren’t many reliable studies around this topic, but here are some ideas to get us all thinking.
Our over-reliance on technology in a remote communication world has put new strains on mentorship. Many leaders still haven’t figured out how to provide good mentorship in these new environments.
“We’ve automated feedback, outsourced training, and streamlined management to the point that no one has the capacity to teach anymore. Mentorship doesn’t fit neatly into a quarterly KPI, so it gets left behind.”
There’s too much focus on metrics and output and not on development and problem-solving. We’re creating a generation of workers who cannot think about their work because they are too busy doing the work and going through the motions to please their corporate superiors.
Many organizations are much flatter and this may contribute to the removal of natural mentor roles.
Mentorship didn’t just die overnight; it’s been slowly eroded. Even when managers want to mentor, they don’t possess the ability to do so because no one taught them how or they’ve been removed from it for too long.
Many managers are promoted for performance, but the skills to perform well as an individual contributor often have nothing to do with the skills needed to help a team perform well. In my opinion, it’s easy to become great at something, but it’s a lot more challenging to get a group of others to be great at something. Instead of promoting managers based on performance, we should examine who has the people and leadership skills needed to perform well in a management role.
Burnout, doing more with less, and time pressure have reduced managers’ capacity to mentor at all. Oftentimes, managers are running on fumes with reduced resources and staff, but are expected to produce the same level of output, and this leaves nothing left for mentorship.
Why Mentorship Is Still the Competitive Advantage
The companies that do invest in mentorship will win. They won’t just retain talent, but they will innovate. When people feel guided and supported, they stay longer, learn faster, and lead better.
That’s not soft stuff; that’s ROI. Mentorship creates loyalty that no signing bonus can buy. A long-term contact of mine is a CFO who has always taken mentorship seriously. I’ve witnessed him build high-performing teams at three companies over the past 10 years.
He rarely has a recruiting need. His staff can handle anything. He always has someone to promote if an opening does occur. He always has referrals for openings. And he never needs temporary help because his staff is so well trained, not only in their primary responsibilities, but in their coworkers’ as well. His staff often wants to follow him to new jobs, and it’s very rare that anyone leaves.
I can’t put an exact price tag on all of that, but I’m sure he’s saved millions of dollars over the years just by taking time to prioritize mentorship and teach his management team how to do the same.
Here are some of the things I’ve seen him implement that aren’t difficult to start right away.
He pairs senior and junior employees for monthly one-on-ones.
He builds mentoring into performance goals.
He rewards managers who grow people, not just profits.
Everyone Can Make a Difference
We talk a lot about the “war for talent,” but we’ve forgotten how to train the troops we already have.
The brain drain that is happening in business today isn’t because people don’t want to work, it’s because we stopped showing them how and we stopped giving them a reason to want to do so.
If you’re a manager, mentor someone. If you’re a leader, make mentoring part of your culture. The future of your company might depend on it.
I’d love to hear your comments about what mentorship has looked like at the companies you’ve worked for. Drop a comment and share your experiences.
Other Articles In This Edition
Inside the Recruiter’s Inbox: What Happens After You Apply?
How to Be Thankful at Work (Even If You’re Ready to Quit)
What Recruiters Are Looking for Right Now (Before Year-End)
Fall Hiring Trends 2025: Which Industries Are Still Adding Jobs?
Cole Sperry has been a recruiter and resume writer since 2015, working with tens of thousands of job seekers, and hundreds of employers. Today Cole runs a boutique advisory firm consulting with dozens of recruiting firms and is the Managing Editor at OptimCareers.com.
