Why Great Leadership Means Mentorship, Not Cloning
- Liz Short
- Sep 10
- 2 min read
Let’s be honest: too many leaders think mentorship means “do what I did, the way I did it.”
That’s not mentorship.
That’s cloning.
And that's weird.
If your idea of leadership is creating an army of mini-mes, you’re setting your team (and yourself) up for failure.
True mentorship isn’t about passing down a step-by-step playbook.
It’s about uncovering the unique strengths, skills, and perspectives your people already have and showing them how to amplify those talents.
Because here’s the truth: everyone has their own superpower.
Everyone has their own way of getting things done.
Your job as a leader isn’t to override that, it’s to recognize it and help them grow into it.
Why Cloning Fails in Leadership
When you teach people to follow your exact path, three things happen:
They feel stifled. Not everyone thrives by working the way you do.
They stop innovating. Creativity dies when all you reward is sameness.
They leave. Because nobody wants to be stuck in someone else’s shadow.
Leaders who cling to the “be like me” model end up with disengaged teams, high turnover, and stagnant growth.
That’s not leadership.
That’s control dressed up as guidance.
What Real Mentorship Looks Like
Great leadership through mentorship flips the script.
Instead of molding people into your image, you dig in and learn:
What drives them?
How do they solve problems?
Where do they shine without even trying?
When you focus on helping your team leverage their natural strengths, the results are undeniable:
They perform better
They stay longer
They grow in ways you couldn’t have scripted
That growth?
It doesn’t just benefit them.
It expands your entire team’s capacity, resilience, and impact.
Leadership Is About Their Journey, Not Yours
Here’s the leadership mic drop:
mentorship isn’t about reliving your journey through someone else.
It’s about helping them discover their own.
Think about the mentors who shaped you.
The best ones didn’t force you to follow their exact playbook.
They pushed you to think differently, to step into your own confidence, to sharpen the skills you already had.
They gave you permission to be you...only better.
That’s the mark of great mentorship.
Not “Here’s how I did it,” but “Here’s how you can do it, your way.”
The Leadership Challenge
If you want to develop true leaders instead of clones, here’s your challenge: stop teaching your story and start amplifying theirs.
Next time you’re guiding someone on your team, resist the urge to say, “Here’s how I handled it.”
Instead, ask, “How would you approach this? What do you already bring to the table?”
Then, listen.
Really listen.
That’s where the gold is.
Want to transform how you lead and mentor? Let’s chat! Book some time today and learn how to elevate your leadership by unlocking the unique strengths in your team. Remember: Leadership means mentorship!
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