When I was much younger, I started a new job. Before I started I was handed an employment contract and somewhere in there it said I needed to stay with the business for at least 12 months.

Was it legally enforceable? I have absolutely no idea. But I’d signed it, and at that age that was enough for me.

About six months into the job, I’d had enough. I knew it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to work anymore, but I’d agreed to stay for 12 months. So I did. I stuck it out for another six months and, almost as soon as that year was up, I walked into the business owner’s office and handed in my resignation.

I copped an absolute earful.

After everything they’d done for me. All the money they’d spent training me. All the patience they’d shown me. The opportunity they’d given me.

Apparently, I was ungrateful.

I sat there and took it, walked out of the office, and didn’t think much about that business again for years.

Recently, though, I’ve found myself thinking about that conversation again because I keep hearing different versions of it from employers talking about young staff.

I understand why that hurts. Recruiting people takes time. Training them costs money. Supporting someone through their early mistakes takes patience. When you’ve invested heavily in someone and they resign just as they’re becoming really useful, it can feel incredibly frustrating.

But I think there’s an unwritten part of the employment relationship we need to talk about.

The emotional invoice

When I signed that employment contract, there was a fairly straightforward agreement between me and the employer. I would provide my time, labour and effort. They would provide employment, wages and the conditions we’d agreed upon.

In my particular case, I’d also agreed to stay for 12 months.

And I did.

What I hadn’t realised was that there appeared to be another agreement sitting somewhere underneath all of that.

When I resigned, I was effectively handed what I’d now describe as an emotional invoice.

Training. Patience. Support. Opportunity.

Everything the business had invested in me was suddenly added up and presented as evidence for why leaving was somehow wrong.

What was missing from the invoice was everything I’d contributed during those 12 months. I’d turned up. I’d worked. I’d learnt. I’d contributed to the business. I’d fulfilled the commitment I’d made when I signed the contract.

Yet somehow, because they’d given me an opportunity, I still owed them something.

I think this happens in workplaces more often than we realise.

When an opportunity starts becoming a debt

I find the phrase “we gave them an opportunity” interesting because sometimes employers genuinely do give young people extraordinary opportunities.

There are businesses that hire someone with very little experience and spend months teaching them. Managers who stick with young staff through mistakes, give them flexibility when life gets messy, introduce them to people who can help their career and trust them with responsibilities they wouldn’t have been offered somewhere else.

Those things absolutely matter.

But employing someone, on its own, isn’t automatically an act of generosity.

You had work that needed doing. You advertised a position. Someone applied. You decided they could provide something your organisation needed, and they decided the job could provide something they needed.

That relationship is already reciprocal.

The employee receives wages, experience and opportunity. The organisation receives their time, labour, skills and contribution.

That’s why I think we need to be careful about treating employment itself as something a young person should feel eternally grateful for.

Because “we gave you an opportunity” can slowly become:

We gave you something, therefore you owe us.

And that changes the relationship.

Gratitude feels very different when there’s an invoice attached

There’s an important difference between gratitude and indebtedness.

Gratitude sounds like:

“You did something meaningful for me, and I appreciate it.”

Indebtedness sounds more like:

“You did something for me, so now I owe you.”

Imagine someone gives you a thoughtful birthday present. They remembered something you mentioned months ago, went looking for it and spent their own time and money finding it. You’d probably feel genuinely grateful.

Now imagine they hand you exactly the same present and immediately tell you it cost $180, took them three hours to find, and they’ll be expecting something equally good when their birthday comes around.

Same present.

Very different feeling.

There’s an invoice attached now.

Research into gratitude has found an important difference between feeling grateful towards someone and feeling indebted to them. Genuine gratitude can strengthen relationships and encourage people to contribute back to others. Once the experience starts carrying an expectation of repayment, however, it can feel very different.

I wonder whether workplaces sometimes create the same problem.

When managers repeatedly remind staff how much training they’ve received, how flexible the organisation has been or how fortunate they were to get the opportunity in the first place, something changes.

The training stops feeling like development.

And it begins to feel like debts sitting quietly in the background, waiting to be collected.

Young staff still have responsibilities

I don’t want this argument to swing so far that employees suddenly have no responsibility in the relationship.

They absolutely do.

If someone employs you, there’s a reasonable expectation that you’ll turn up, make an effort, communicate, treat people respectfully, learn, accept appropriate feedback and contribute to the team.

And if someone genuinely goes out of their way to support your development, acknowledging that matters too.

If a manager has invested hours helping you build confidence, introducing you to opportunities and sticking with you through mistakes, saying thank you isn’t an unreasonable expectation.

Healthy workplace relationships need something from both sides.

What I struggle with is the idea that one of those responsibilities becomes:

“Because we invested in you, you have to stay.”

People can appreciate everything you’ve done for them and still resign.

They can genuinely respect their manager and accept another opportunity.

They can be grateful for everything they learnt in your workplace and eventually realise they’ve outgrown the role.

Leaving doesn’t automatically prove a lack of gratitude.

Sometimes leaving is exactly what development looks like.

What do you want them to remember?

Imagine someone joins your business at 19.

They’re nervous. They ask endless questions. They need reassurance. They don’t understand the industry yet and occasionally make mistakes that leave you wondering how on earth you’re going to get through the week.

You invest in them.

Over the next few years, something changes. They become more confident. They develop skills. They start making decisions without checking everything with you. Eventually, they’re the person helping newer employees settle into the workplace.

They become someone you trust.

Then one day, they walk into your office and tell you they’ve been offered another opportunity.

And they’re going to take it.

Of course that can hurt. Losing good staff has a real cost. Particularly when you’ve spent years helping someone grow.

But there are two very different ways you can view that moment.

You can think:

“After everything we’ve done for you.”

Or you can look at the person sitting across from you and think:

“Look at who they became while they were here.”

I think that second response changes the way we understand what it means to give someone an opportunity.

If you genuinely helped someone grow, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll remember it.

They may recommend your business to someone else. They may send another great employee your way. They might become a customer, refer work to you or return five years later with skills and experience they didn’t have when they left.

They might simply spend the next twenty years telling people:

“That was a great place to start my career.”

Give people something worth being grateful for

If you want young staff to appreciate the opportunities they receive in your workplace, the answer isn’t to remind them how fortunate they are.

Give them experiences worth appreciating.

Teach them properly. Trust them with responsibility. Notice when they’re improving. Advocate for them. Back them when they make a genuine mistake. Give them useful feedback. Be flexible when it matters. Introduce them to opportunities and help them become better at what they do.

Then resist the temptation to keep score.

Don’t repeatedly remind someone how much their training cost. Don’t use the support you’ve provided as leverage when they make a decision you don’t like. And when someone eventually decides it’s time to leave, don’t hand them an emotional invoice on the way out.

People remember the managers who believed in them.

They remember the person who gave them a chance when they weren’t particularly confident. They remember who stayed back and patiently taught them something for the third time. They remember the manager who trusted them with responsibility before they entirely trusted themselves.

And they remember the workplaces where they grew.

Maybe that’s a better measure of whether we’ve genuinely given someone an opportunity.

Instead of asking:

“How do I make young staff grateful for the opportunity we’ve given them?”

Ask:

“What kind of workplace will they be grateful they experienced?”

You might keep them for longer.

Eventually, they might still leave.

But if you’ve genuinely invested in them, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll know it.

You won’t need to tell them they should be grateful.

Three simple things managers can do

If you’re thinking about how this applies to your own workplace, you don’t need to completely rethink the employment relationship. Start by paying attention to some of the small ways gratitude, opportunity and loyalty show up in everyday conversations.

1. Listen to the language you use

For the next week, notice how often you or other managers say things like,

You don’t need to beat yourself up for saying it. Just notice it. Then ask yourself whether you’re describing a genuine act of support, or whether an expectation of repayment has quietly become attached to it.

2. Invest without keeping score

Choose one young staff member and do something that genuinely supports their development. Teach them something new, give them responsibility, introduce them to someone useful, advocate for an opportunity or spend some time helping them build a skill.

Then leave the invoice in the drawer.

You’re developing someone because good workplaces develop people. If appreciation comes from that relationship, it’ll mean far more when it’s freely given.

3. Think about how you want people to leave

Eventually, some good employees are going to resign. When that happens, pay attention to your first response.

Before talking about what the organisation has invested in them, acknowledge what they’ve contributed and what you’ve seen them develop while they’ve been with you.

A simple

“We’re disappointed to lose you, but I’m really proud of what you’ve achieved here”

can shape how someone remembers your organisation for years.

You can’t control whether every good employee stays.

You can control whether they leave feeling grateful they worked for you.

This week’s episode of Not Work Ready explores the other side of this conversation: why genuine gratitude does matter in workplaces, what research tells us about gratitude and mutuality, and why managers may need to model the behaviour they want to see from their staff.

Not Work Ready is written and hosted by Jono Van Der Ploeg, from Confidence in Mentoring, helping workplaces become better places for young people to start, grow and stay.

Research mentioned

Bartlett, M. Y., & DeSteno, D. (2006). Gratitude and prosocial behavior: Helping when it costs you.

Algoe, S. B., Haidt, J., & Gable, S. L. (2008). Beyond reciprocity: Gratitude and relationships in everyday life.

Grant, A. M., & Gino, F. (2010). A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior.

Kurtessis, J. N., et al. (2017). Perceived organizational support: A meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support theory.

They’re too sensitive. They can’t handle feedback. They fall apart when something goes wrong. Managers feel as though they’re constantly walking on eggshells, worried that one difficult conversation, unhappy customer or unexpected setback will become a much larger problem.

Perhaps some young staff are less prepared for certain workplace pressures. Perhaps they’ve had fewer opportunities to practise difficult conversations, recover from mistakes or work through uncomfortable situations. Every employee arrives with a different level of experience, confidence and support behind them.

But deciding that an entire generation lacks resilience doesn’t help a manager very much.

The more useful question is this:

What kind of workplace helps people become more resilient?

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When support becomes rescue

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from managing a team you don’t believe can cope without you.

You take the difficult customer because you’re worried a young staff member won’t know what to say. You rewrite their email because it might be misunderstood. You avoid giving feedback because they’re already having a difficult week. When something goes wrong, you step in quickly, smooth everything over and carry the pressure yourself.

It can feel like supportive leadership. You’re trying to protect your staff, keep the work moving and prevent a small issue from becoming something bigger.

Over time, though, a pattern starts to form.

Your staff become more dependent on you, while you become increasingly overwhelmed. Every difficult decision reaches your desk. Every mistake becomes your responsibility to fix. Staff begin checking with you before doing anything unfamiliar, and you start wondering why they don’t show more confidence or initiative.

The uncomfortable truth is that we can’t develop resilience in people while continually removing the experiences that allow it to grow.

Resilience isn’t the absence of stress

Resilience is often described as the ability to bounce back after difficulty. That sounds simple, but it’s easy to confuse resilience with ignoring emotions, tolerating poor treatment or pushing through until someone burns out.

Real resilience allows someone to experience difficulty, recover and continue moving forward.

That recovery matters.

A resilient employee can feel disappointed after receiving feedback. They can feel nervous before making an important phone call. They can feel embarrassed after making a mistake. The difference is that those feelings don’t permanently stop them from trying again.

This ability is developed through experience.

Think about some of the hardest tasks you now manage as a leader. Giving difficult feedback may once have kept you awake at night. Calling unsuccessful job applicants may have felt dreadful. Presenting to executives may have created days of anxiety.

Those situations may still be uncomfortable, but they probably don’t carry the same level of stress they once did.

You’ve built experience.

You’ve learnt what to say, how to prepare and what to do when the conversation doesn’t go perfectly.

Your young staff need opportunities to build that same experience.

Challenge without support isn’t development

The answer isn’t to suddenly hand every difficult situation back to your least experienced employee and tell them to figure it out.

That isn’t resilience building. It’s abandonment.

Employees are unlikely to grow from challenges that leave them completely overwhelmed, unclear about what’s expected and frightened of the consequences if they make a mistake.

The most useful challenges sit slightly beyond what someone can already do.

There should be enough difficulty to stretch them, with enough support to keep them engaged.

A young employee who has never handled an upset customer may not be ready to manage a serious complaint alone. They might be ready to observe you handling one, then lead part of the next conversation while you remain nearby.

Someone terrified of public speaking may not be ready to present to the executive team. They might be ready to explain one slide during the next staff meeting.

An employee who constantly asks what to do next may not need another set of instructions. They may need you to ask what they think the next step should be, then help them work through their reasoning.

The goal isn’t to remove all stress.

It’s to create manageable pressure in an environment where people can learn.

Psychological safety still includes discomfort

Psychological safety is sometimes misunderstood as creating a workplace where nobody feels nervous, challenged or uncomfortable.

That isn’t realistic, and it won’t prepare people particularly well for work.

Difficult conversations are uncomfortable. Feedback can be uncomfortable. Taking responsibility for a decision can be uncomfortable. Trying something unfamiliar can be uncomfortable.

A psychologically safe workplace doesn’t promise to remove those experiences. It gives people confidence that they can move through them without being humiliated, abandoned or punished for an honest mistake.

Staff should know they can ask questions. They should be able to admit when they’re uncertain. They should trust that their manager will help them reflect when something goes wrong.

They should also know their manager believes they’re capable of attempting difficult things.

Someone can feel nervous and still feel supported.

Someone can make a mistake and still feel valued.

Someone can find a task difficult and still believe they’re capable of learning how to do it.

That’s the environment where resilience grows.

Managers shouldn’t have to carry everything

When managers remove every uncomfortable situation from their staff, the stress doesn’t disappear.

It moves.

The difficult customer still needs to be handled. The mistake still needs to be fixed. The decision still needs to be made. The emotional load is simply transferred from the employee to the manager.

That may work occasionally. It becomes unsustainable when it happens across an entire team.

Supportive leadership isn’t measured by how much stress you absorb.

It’s measured by how well you help people gradually carry responsibility themselves.

Sometimes that means standing beside someone while they attempt something difficult. Sometimes it means preparing them before the situation begins. Sometimes it means staying quiet long enough for them to think through their own answer.

And sometimes it means helping them recover after the outcome wasn’t what they hoped.

Your staff don’t need every obstacle removed.

They need a manager who can recognise which obstacles will help them grow, provide the right level of support and stay present when things become uncomfortable.

Five Steps for Building Resilience in Young Staff

Resilience isn’t built through one motivational conversation. It grows through repeated experiences where someone faces a manageable challenge, receives appropriate support and reflects on what they’ve learnt.

The following process can be used with difficult customers, feedback conversations, presentations, unfamiliar tasks, decision-making and other situations that currently create anxiety or dependence.

Step 1: Identify where you’re taking over

Start by choosing one young staff member you regularly step in for.

Think about the situations where they quickly hand responsibility back to you. It might be responding to an unhappy customer, making a phone call, explaining an error, speaking during a meeting or deciding what to do when instructions aren’t completely clear.

Then ask yourself why you’re taking over.

Are you worried they’ll get it wrong? Are you trying to save time? Are you concerned they’ll become upset? Is it simply easier for you to handle the situation yourself?

You don’t need to criticise yourself for stepping in. The goal is to notice the pattern.

Takeaway task

Write down one situation you regularly take over and answer these questions:

1. What am I currently doing for this person?

2. What could they reasonably begin doing themselves?

3. What support would make that possible?

Choose one responsibility to gradually hand back.

Step 2: Select a manageable challenge

The next step is to choose a challenge that stretches the employee without overwhelming them.

The task should sit just beyond what they can currently do independently. It shouldn’t be so easy that nothing new is learnt, or so difficult that they’re likely to shut down.

You may need to break a larger responsibility into smaller parts.

Instead of asking someone to manage an entire customer complaint, ask them to lead the opening of the conversation.

Instead of asking them to deliver a full presentation, give them responsibility for one section.

Instead of asking them to solve a complicated problem alone, ask them to return with two possible options.

Small challenges create evidence that the person can cope.

That evidence slowly changes the way they see themselves.

Takeaway task

Complete this sentence:

The next manageable challenge I’ll give this employee is...

Then clarify what success will look like. Success may simply mean attempting the task, using an agreed process or asking for support at the appropriate time.

It doesn’t need to mean doing everything perfectly.

Step 3: Agree on the support before they begin

Employees often become overwhelmed because they don’t know what support is available or when they’re allowed to ask for help.

Before the task begins, explain what you’ll do and what you expect them to do.

You might practise the conversation together, provide a short checklist, let them observe someone experienced or agree on a point where they should pause and check in.

Be clear that you’re available without suggesting you’ll immediately take over.

You could say:

“I’d like you to take the lead on this. Let’s spend five minutes preparing first.”

“I’ll stay nearby, but I want you to have the first attempt.”

“Have a go at working through it. If you get stuck, come back with the options you’ve considered.”

This gives the employee support while keeping ownership of the task with them.

Takeaway task

Before the next challenging task, have a short preparation conversation covering:

1. What are you responsible for?

2. What outcome are we aiming for?

3. What support will be available?

4. When should you ask for help?

5. What will you try before handing the problem back?

Keep the conversation calm and practical.

Step 4: Resist the urge to rescue

This may be the hardest step for experienced managers.

When a young staff member pauses, looks uncomfortable or begins fumbling for an answer, your instinct may be to jump in.

Give them a little more time.

An awkward pause doesn’t always mean the person can’t cope. They may simply be thinking.

You still need to intervene if there’s a serious risk to safety, the customer or the organisation. In lower-risk situations, allow some space for learning.

Instead of taking over, use a short coaching question:

“What do you think needs to happen next?”

“What options do you have?”

“What have you tried so far?”

“What part are you unsure about?”

These questions keep responsibility with the employee while showing that they aren’t alone.

Takeaway task

For the next week, choose one phrase you’ll use instead of immediately providing the answer.

For example:

“Talk me through what you’re thinking.”

Use it whenever a staff member brings you a problem they may be capable of working through themselves.

Step 5: Debrief the experience

The debrief is where much of the learning happens.

Without reflection, a difficult task may simply remain an unpleasant memory. The employee remembers feeling anxious but may fail to recognise what they handled well or what they learnt.

A useful debrief doesn’t need to be a formal meeting. Five or ten minutes can be enough.

Start by letting the employee describe the experience in their own words. Then help them identify what worked, what they’d change and what they’re now more prepared to handle.

Avoid turning the debrief into a list of everything they did wrong.

The purpose is to help them extract useful experience from the situation.

Takeaway task

After the challenge, ask:

1. What happened?

2. What went well?

3. What was the hardest part?

4. What did you learn?

5. What would you do differently next time?

6. What support will you need when you try it again?

Finish by naming something specific they handled well.

That helps the employee connect difficulty with growth rather than failure.

Your seven-day resilience challenge

Choose one employee and one manageable workplace challenge.

Use the five steps:

1. Identify where you’re taking over.

2. Choose a manageable challenge.

3. Agree on the support.

4. Resist rescuing too quickly.

5. Debrief afterwards.

Don’t judge the exercise entirely by whether the task went perfectly.

Ask whether the employee learnt something, took greater responsibility and became slightly more prepared to handle the situation next time.

That’s how resilience develops.

It grows through small experiences where people discover:

This was difficult, but I handled more than I thought I could.

Thanks so much for reading. This article partners with my podcast episode where I explore how challenge, support and repeated experience help people become more capable of dealing with workplace setbacks.

Follow Not Work Ready on Apple Podcasts for more practical conversations about supervising, developing and retaining young staff.

I was sitting in a forum with a room full of employers when one business owner spoke up.

“Young people just aren’t loyal anymore.”

He spoke about how difficult it had become to run a business. You spend weeks recruiting someone, invest time training them, support them through those first nervous months, and just as they start becoming productive, they’re gone. Looking around the room, it was obvious he wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Heads nodded in agreement. Someone else said staff used to stay for years, but now they’re always looking for the next opportunity. Before long, the conversation had settled on one conclusion.

“Loyalty is dead.”

I sat there listening, and while I completely understood their frustration, I couldn’t bring myself to agree with the conclusion. Losing staff is expensive, disruptive and exhausting. Every employer in that room had experienced it, and their frustration was genuine. But as I listened, I found myself asking a different question. Have young people really stopped being loyal, or have we misunderstood what loyalty actually is?

I don’t think loyalty is something people arrive with on their first day of work. I think it’s something that develops over time through the experiences they have once they walk through your door.

Loyalty is built through everyday experiences

Imagine starting a new job.

You don’t know anyone. You’re trying to remember names, learn new systems and work out what’s expected of you. You’re hoping you don’t make a mistake, and if you do, you’re wondering how people will respond. You’re paying attention to everything around you. How do people speak to each other? Is it okay to ask questions? Does anyone actually have time to help?

Those first few weeks shape far more than we probably realise.

Long before a young employee decides whether they’re going to stay for three years, they’re making much smaller decisions. Do I feel welcome here? Can I trust my manager? Do I feel respected? Am I learning? Can I see myself building a future here?

Every interaction either answers those questions positively or chips away at them.

That’s why I don’t believe loyalty begins with the employee.

I think it begins with the workplace.

Respect comes first

When employers talk about loyalty, they’re often talking about commitment. They want people who turn up, work hard, contribute to the team and stay with the organisation. They’re all reasonable expectations.

But commitment usually follows respect.

Young staff don’t expect perfection from their workplace. They understand that every job has busy periods, difficult customers and challenging days. What they’re looking for is much more human than that. They want a manager who takes the time to explain things properly. Someone who answers questions without making them feel stupid. Someone who notices when they’re trying hard, even if they’re still learning. They want feedback that helps them improve instead of leaving them feeling embarrassed.

Respect isn’t a policy sitting in an employee handbook.

It’s experienced in hundreds of small interactions that happen every week.

Those moments build trust.

Trust builds belonging.

And belonging is where loyalty starts to grow.

The workplaces that keep people rarely do one extraordinary thing

Over the years I’ve worked with organisations that seem to have almost no trouble keeping young staff. I’ve also worked with workplaces where people are constantly leaving, and everyone wonders why.

Interestingly, it usually isn’t the wages that separate them.

The biggest difference is often how people are led.

The organisations with the strongest retention tend to have supervisors who know their staff. They check in regularly. They coach instead of criticise. They give people opportunities to grow. They allow mistakes to become learning experiences instead of confidence destroying moments.

Young people don’t stay because they’ve been told to be loyal.

They stay because they feel like they’re becoming a better version of themselves by working there.

That’s a very different kind of loyalty.

A question worth asking

When businesses struggle to retain young staff, the conversation often becomes focused on the younger generation.

They’re not committed.

They don’t want to work.

They’ve got unrealistic expectations.

Perhaps there’s a better question to ask.

That’s a much harder question because it turns the mirror back on us. It asks us to think about our induction process, our supervision, the way we give feedback and whether we’re genuinely helping young people develop confidence. It asks whether we’ve created an environment where people feel respected, trusted and supported, or whether we’ve unintentionally created a workplace where leaving feels like the best option.

The reality is that loyalty isn’t something we can demand.

It’s something we earn.

As I left that employer forum, I kept thinking about the discussion we’d had. The business owners weren’t wrong about one thing. Holding onto good staff has become harder than it used to be.

Where I see things differently is in the explanation.

I don’t believe loyalty has disappeared.

I think today’s young workforce has become much more selective about who they give their loyalty to.

If they find a workplace where they’re respected, supported, challenged and encouraged to grow, many of them stay. If they don’t, they’ll keep looking until they find one that does.

Perhaps the question isn’t why young people aren’t loyal anymore.

Perhaps the better question is whether we’ve built a workplace that’s worthy of their loyalty.

How to Build Loyal Young Staff

If loyalty is earned, then the obvious question becomes:

How do you earn it?

Over the years I’ve noticed that the organisations with the strongest retention don’t necessarily have the biggest budgets or the fanciest offices.

They consistently do a handful of things exceptionally well.

Here are five practical ways you can start building loyalty this week.

1. Make people feel like they belong before expecting them to perform

One of the biggest mistakes organisations make is assuming people should prove themselves before they’re accepted.

Young staff don’t arrive feeling confident.

They arrive wondering whether they’ve made the right decision.

Those first few weeks are about much more than learning systems and processes. They’re trying to work out whether this is somewhere they fit.

Do people say hello?

Does anyone eat lunch with them?

Does someone regularly check in?

Do they know who they can ask for help?

Belonging comes before confidence.

Confidence comes before performance.

Performance comes before loyalty.

This week’s challenge

Choose one young staff member.

Spend ten minutes asking them:

“How are you finding things so far?”

Then stop talking.

Listen.

You may learn more in ten minutes than you’ve learnt in the past month.

2. Teach instead of correcting

Many managers unintentionally create anxious employees.

Every mistake is corrected.

Every problem is solved for them.

Every decision needs approval.

Eventually, young staff stop thinking for themselves because they’ve learnt someone else always has the answer.

Great leaders do something different.

Instead of immediately providing the solution, they coach people towards it.

Questions like:

“What have you considered already?”

“What do you think would happen if you tried that?”

“What options do you have?”

Those conversations build judgement.

Judgement builds confidence.

Confident people stay longer.

This week’s challenge

The next three questions your staff ask you...

Don’t answer immediately.

Respond with a coaching question first.

3. Notice effort before you notice mistakes

Managers are often excellent at spotting problems.

We have to be.

That’s part of leadership.

The challenge is that many young staff only hear from their supervisor when something has gone wrong.

Eventually they begin to associate their manager with criticism.

Recognition changes that.

You don’t need an employee of the month program.

You need to notice the small wins.

“I noticed how patient you were with that customer.”

“You’ve become much more confident over the last few weeks.”

“Thanks for stepping in and helping your teammate.”

Those comments tell someone,

“I see you.”

People rarely forget that.

This week’s challenge

Give three pieces of genuine positive feedback this week.

Make each one specific.

4. Invest in the person, not just the employee

Some workplaces only invest in the work that needs doing today.

The best workplaces invest in the person’s future.

Ask young staff what they’d like to learn.

Give them opportunities to try new tasks.

Let them shadow experienced team members.

Talk about career goals.

Ironically, helping someone prepare for their future often makes them stay longer in the present.

People remain where they’re growing.

This week’s challenge

Ask one staff member:

“What’s one skill you’d love to develop over the next six months?”

Then help them create a plan.

5. Be the manager people remember

Think back to the best manager you’ve ever had.

Chances are you don’t remember them because they were technically brilliant.

You remember how they made you feel.

Supported.

Respected.

Trusted.

Capable.

That’s the kind of leader people stay for.

Years later they’ll still talk about the manager who believed in them when they didn’t yet believe in themselves.

That’s loyalty.

It starts long before someone decides to stay.

It starts the day they realise,

“This person genuinely wants me to succeed.”

This week’s challenge

At the end of each day ask yourself one question.

“Did I leave my staff feeling more confident than they were this morning?”

If the answer is yes, you’re already building loyalty.

Your Action Plan

Don’t try to change everything this week.

Choose just one of these five ideas and put it into practice over the next seven days.

Leadership isn’t built through grand gestures.

It’s built through small, consistent moments that tell people:

“You matter here.”

Those moments create trust.

Trust creates belonging.

Belonging creates loyalty.

And that’s the kind of loyalty no pay rise alone can buy.

Thanks so much for reading!

I hope this article has given you something practical to think about in your own workplace. If you enjoyed it, I'd love for you to follow my podcast, Not Work Ready, on Apple Podcasts, where I share practical conversations and ideas to help managers better support, develop and retain young staff.

Apple Podcast

There comes a point in many managers’ careers when taking a day off no longer feels like a break.

Your phone starts buzzing before you’ve finished your morning coffee.

“Where’s that document?”

“Can you approve this?”

“What should I do about this customer?”

“Can I just quickly ask you something?”

By lunchtime, you’re answering emails, taking calls and wondering whether it would’ve been easier just to go to work.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

Many managers feel like they’re carrying the whole team on their shoulders. They become the person everyone relies on. The person with all the answers. The person who solves every problem.

At first, it feels like you’re doing your job well.

Eventually, it becomes exhausting.

Dependency doesn’t happen overnight

Most managers don’t set out to build a dependent team.

It usually starts with good intentions.

A new employee asks a question, so you answer it.

Someone’s unsure what to do, so you make the decision for them.

A problem comes up, and because you’re busy, it’s quicker to fix it yourself than explain the process.

We’ve all done it.

The trouble is, every interaction teaches something.

When we consistently provide the answers, we’re also teaching our staff where the answers come from.

Over time, they stop working through problems themselves because they know you’ll do it for them.

Without realising it, we’ve trained dependence.

The hidden cost of always having the answer

It might seem efficient in the moment, but eventually the cracks begin to show.

Your own workload grows because everyone needs your approval.

Simple decisions pile up on your desk.

You spend your day answering questions instead of leading your team.

Your team becomes slower at making decisions because they’ve learned that the safest option is to check with you first.

Then comes the real test.

You take annual leave.

Or you call in sick.

Instead of the team continuing to move forward, everything seems to stop.

Your phone starts ringing.

Emails keep arriving.

Problems that could have been solved internally end up back on your desk.

The frustrating part is that many managers see this as a staffing problem.

“My staff just aren’t confident.”

“They don’t show initiative.”

“They need too much support.”

Sometimes that’s true.

But sometimes we’ve accidentally created the very behaviour that’s frustrating us.

Every answer shapes the future

One of the biggest shifts I made as a youth worker was realising that every conversation was doing one of two things.

It was either helping a young person become more independent...

...or making them a little more reliant on me.

The same principle applies in the workplace.

Every time a staff member walks into your office with a question, there’s actually two problems in front of you.

The first is the issue they’ve brought to you.

The second is whether they’ll be able to deal with something similar next time.

Most managers focus entirely on solving today’s problem.

Great managers are thinking about tomorrow’s capability.

That’s where reflection becomes such a powerful mentoring skill.

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Reflection changes the conversation

When someone walks into your office with a problem, it’s tempting to answer immediately. You’re busy. You probably know the answer. You want to help.

But every time you jump straight to the solution, you’re doing the thinking for them.

The immediate problem disappears.

The long-term dependency grows.

Reflection works because it changes who does the thinking.

Instead of your staff borrowing your judgement, they begin developing their own.

That doesn’t happen by accident.

It happens through conversation.

Start with curiosity, not solutions

When someone asks,

“What should I do?”

Try resisting the urge to answer.

Instead ask:

“Talk me through what’s happening.”

This simple question slows the conversation down.

It also tells you something incredibly important.

Do they actually understand the problem?

Many managers assume they’re solving the right issue when, in reality, the employee hasn’t fully worked through what’s happening.

Sometimes, after explaining the situation out loud, people solve the problem themselves.

Then keep exploring.

• What do you think is happening?

• What have you noticed?

• What’s your understanding of the situation?

• What do you think is causing the problem?

• Can you walk me through what happened?

• What part are you finding most difficult?

You’re not testing them.

You’re inviting them to think.

Understand how they’re thinking

Once you understand the situation, become curious about how they’ve reached their conclusion.

Ask:

• What makes you think that?

• Can I ask what led you to that conclusion?

• Why do you think that’s happening?

• What information are you basing that on?

• Is there anything you might be missing?

This is one of the most valuable parts of mentoring.

You’re no longer judging whether they have the right answer.

You’re trying to understand how they’re making decisions.

Because if you improve their thinking, you’ll improve hundreds of future decisions, not just today’s.

Expand their options

People often become stuck because they believe there’s only one possible solution.

Reflection helps them see alternatives.

Ask:

• What options do you have?

• What’s another way you could approach this?

• If this option wasn’t available, what would you do?

• Is there another solution we haven’t considered?

• What would happen if you did nothing?

Sometimes the best mentoring isn’t providing another answer.

It’s helping someone discover they already have several.

Build judgement

One of my favourite questions is:

“Which option do you think is best, and why?”

The first part asks for a decision.

The second part develops judgement.

People begin weighing up risks, considering consequences and explaining their reasoning.

That’s far more valuable than simply telling them what to do.

Help them think ahead

Reflection shouldn’t stop once a decision has been made.

Good mentors also help people prepare for what comes next.

Ask:

• What could go well?

• What could go wrong?

• If that happened, how would you respond?

• What support might you need?

• How will you know if you’ve made the right decision?

These questions prepare people for uncertainty instead of protecting them from it.

Build confidence from past success

Many young staff underestimate what they’re already capable of.

Reflection reminds them.

Ask:

• Have you dealt with something similar before?

• What worked last time?

• What strengths could help you here?

• What’s one thing you’re already confident doing?

• What’s the first step you already know you can take?

Confidence grows when people recognise their own capability, not when someone else constantly reassures them.

Encourage ownership

Eventually every mentoring conversation should end with action.

Ask:

• What are you going to do next?

• When are you planning to do it?

• What’s your first step?

• What obstacles might get in the way?

• How can I support you without taking over?

Notice that last question.

You’re still providing support.

You’re just providing it in a way that builds independence instead of dependence.

The most powerful question

If I could encourage every manager to use one question more often, it would simply be this:

“What do you think?”

Then wait.

Don’t rush to fill the silence.

Silence often feels uncomfortable because we’re used to rescuing people.

But those few seconds are usually where the real thinking begins.

If you answer too quickly, you’ve interrupted the very process you’re trying to develop.

Reflection is an investment

Reflective conversations often take longer than simply giving someone the answer.

That’s why many managers stop doing them.

They’re busy.

They have deadlines.

It feels quicker to solve the problem and move on.

But that speed is an illusion.

Every answer solves today’s problem.

Every reflective question builds tomorrow’s capability.

Eventually something starts to change.

Instead of hearing,

“What should I do?”

You begin hearing,

“I’ve thought this through. Here’s what I’m planning to do. Can I run it past you?”

That’s a completely different conversation.

They’re no longer asking you to think for them.

They’re inviting you to strengthen their thinking.

That’s how confidence develops.

That’s how judgement grows.

That’s how independent staff are created.

One question before you answer

The next time someone asks for your help, pause for a moment and ask yourself:

Because the managers who build the strongest teams aren’t the ones with all the answers.

They’re the ones who ask the kinds of questions that help other people discover they’re capable of finding the answers themselves.

Thanks for reading!

If this article made you think differently about leading young staff, there are plenty of ways to continue the conversation.

🎙 Listen to the Not Work Ready podcast, where I explore practical ideas to help supervisors and managers build confident young teams.

🌐 Visit confidenceinmentoring.com to learn more about workshops, manager training and practical workplace mentoring resources.

Because every young person deserves someone in their corner, and every manager deserves the confidence to lead them well.

Jono Van Der Ploeg

Confidence in Mentoring

Then you ask the staff who are meant to use those policies what they actually say. They have never read them, received no training, and sometimes do not even know the policy exists. All that impressive documentation starts to look more like theatre than protection.

A policy only matters when it shapes what people do. If it sits untouched in a folder, it is not keeping anyone safe, clarifying responsibility, or helping staff make better decisions. It is simply creating the illusion that action has been taken.

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The policy that was reviewed every year

Years ago, I worked in an organisation where one of the most important child safety policies was completely inadequate. It contained significant gaps, offered little practical guidance, and left staff unsure about what to do when serious situations arose. Staff, the organisation, and the young people we supported were all carrying unnecessary risk.

I raised the issue repeatedly over many years. Each time, I explained that the policy needed serious work and that leaving it unchanged was dangerous. The response was usually that it was too complicated, too difficult, or something that would be addressed later.

Later never came.

What made the situation worse was that the policy was formally reviewed every year. Someone changed the review date, it moved through the approval process, and it was signed off again. On paper, the organisation could confidently say the policy had been reviewed.

In reality, nothing meaningful had changed. No one had spoken with the staff using it, examined the gaps, or tested whether the procedures made sense. The administration had been completed, but the responsibility had been avoided.

Policy can become an illusion of action

There is something comforting about having a policy. Once it has been written, approved, and uploaded, the organisation can point to it and say the issue has been addressed. Boards feel reassured, executives can report progress, and managers assume the risk is covered.

Writing a policy and changing practice are two completely different things. A policy may look excellent on paper while having no impact on the workplace. Staff keep doing exactly what they were doing because no one has explained what changed or what they should now do differently.

In that situation, the policy becomes an illusion of action. The organisation has produced a document, but the real work has not happened. Nothing has changed where it matters most, which is in the daily decisions and behaviour of staff.

Speak to the people who actually use it

One of the most common mistakes organisations make is writing policy from the top down. A small group of executives, managers, or consultants develops the policy, gets it approved, and passes it down to the staff expected to make it work. Frontline workers may not be consulted until the policy is already finished.

That approach ignores some of the best knowledge available to the organisation. Frontline staff know where a process will slow things down, where responsibilities are unclear, and where a simple instruction may create unintended problems. They can often see where a policy will succeed or fail long before senior leadership does.

Involving staff improves the policy and creates ownership. People are more likely to support a process when their expertise has been respected and their concerns have been taken seriously. Consultation also tells staff that leadership trusts the people doing the work.

Job titles do not always reveal who understands an issue best. Executives may understand governance and organisational risk, while frontline staff understand what happens when a real situation unfolds late on a Friday afternoon. Good policy needs both perspectives.

A good policy should make good practice easier

Many policies contain broad statements about what an organisation values but offer very little guidance about what staff should actually do. They might describe safety, respect, accountability, or professional conduct without explaining the procedures underneath those ideas. Staff are left with principles but no clear pathway.

A useful policy should reduce uncertainty. It should make responsibilities clear, explain what happens next, and help staff respond consistently. When someone faces a difficult situation, the policy should help them answer the question, “What do I do now?”

This is especially important for new and young staff. They may not have years of workplace experience to fill in the gaps or challenge an unclear process. If the policy does not make expectations understandable, they are left to guess.

Good policy makes good practice easier. Poor policy leaves staff carrying the risk.

Implementation matters more than the document

A well-written policy is only the beginning. Someone needs to own the rollout and make sure staff understand why the policy exists, what has changed, and how it affects their role. Without implementation, the policy remains separate from everyday work.

Training gives staff the chance to work through realistic situations and ask questions. Induction ensures new staff learn the policies that shape safety, behaviour, reporting, boundaries, and decision-making from the beginning. Team meetings and supervision keep the policy connected to current practice rather than allowing it to disappear after launch.

Mentioning a policy once is rarely enough. People need repetition, examples, reminders, and opportunities to raise concerns. That is how a policy becomes part of the workplace rather than another file saved somewhere on the shared drive.

Policy should remain connected to practice

A policy should be treated as a living document. That does not mean rewriting it every week. It means paying attention to whether it still works and listening to the people who use it.

Managers can ask staff where they are getting stuck, whether procedures are realistic, and whether responsibilities are clear. These conversations should happen throughout the year rather than being left to an annual review completed by someone disconnected from the work.

When the same issue keeps appearing, the organisation should respond. Staff quickly lose trust when they repeatedly raise a concern and nothing changes. Eventually, they stop speaking up, and silence gets mistaken for agreement.

Accountability comes after clarity

Staff need to be held accountable for following policy. But accountability only works when people have been properly informed, trained, supported, and given clear procedures. You cannot upload a document, tell no one about it, and later punish staff for failing to follow it.

Managers and supervisors have an important role here. They need to model the policy, discuss it with staff, notice when it is not being followed, and address problems consistently. If leaders ignore the policy whenever it becomes inconvenient, staff will quickly learn that the document does not really matter.

Accountability should also apply upward. If a policy is unclear, outdated, or unsafe, leadership has a responsibility to fix it. Signing off the same inadequate document every year is not accountability.

Final thought

A policy sitting in a folder is not protecting anyone.

It does not protect staff, the organisation, customers, children, young people, or the wider community. Protection comes from clear procedures, staff involvement, practical training, consistent implementation, and leaders who are willing to act when something is not working.

The next time your organisation reviews a policy, look beyond the date at the top of the page. Ask the staff who use it whether it actually helps them do their work. Ask whether people understand it, whether it reflects reality, and whether it has changed behaviour.

Because changing the review date is not the same as reviewing the policy.

And writing something down is not the same as doing it.

About Confidence in Mentoring

Confidence in Mentoring helps organisations employ, support, and retain young staff through better mentoring, clearer supervision, and stronger workplace systems.

About the Author

I’m a qualified youth worker of 20 years and a workplace mentor with extensive experience supporting young people in workplaces and community organisations. I write about workplace mentoring, supervision, staff confidence, retention, and what helps young staff thrive at work.

You can contact me:

🌐 confidenceinmentoring.com
💼 Linkedin

There’s a frustration I hear from businesses that employ young staff. They put time into advertising, interviewing, choosing someone, getting them set up, showing them the basics, answering questions and trying to help them get started. Then, after a couple of months, the young person leaves, disappears, disengages or makes it clear they’re not planning to stay.

From the business side, that can feel like wasted effort. Recruitment takes time, training takes time, and managers are often already stretched. When a young person leaves before they’ve properly settled, it can feel like the business is constantly starting again.

But when this keeps happening, it’s worth asking a deeper question. Instead of only asking why young staff keep leaving, we also need to ask what they’re experiencing in those first 90 days. Because those early months are not just a probation period for the young person, they’re also the time where the young person decides whether the workplace is clear enough, safe enough and worth staying in.

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Probation works both ways

Most workplaces understand the first 90 days as a time to assess the new staff member. They’re looking at whether the person turns up, follows instructions, completes tasks, fits into the team and shows signs they can do the job. Those are fair questions because a business needs to know whether someone is suited to the role.

But young staff are also assessing the workplace. They’re noticing the manager’s style, how people speak to each other, how mistakes are handled, whether they feel included and whether the role fits with what they value. They may not always say these things out loud, but they’re often quietly working out whether this is somewhere they want to stay.

That’s the part workplaces can miss. Probation is usually framed as something the employer controls, but young staff are making their own judgement too. If the workplace feels confusing, cold, unsafe or directionless, the young person may decide very quickly that this isn’t a place they want to build a future.

Onboarding is more than admin

A lot of onboarding is built around what the workplace needs to get done. There are forms to complete, policies to read, payroll details to collect, passwords to create, uniforms to organise, rosters to explain and procedures to tick off. All of these things matter, because people need to be paid, safe and clear on the basic rules of the workplace.

The problem is that onboarding can become so administrative that we forget what the young person is actually experiencing. From the management or HR side, the process might feel complete because the forms are done and the checklist has been followed. But from the young person’s side, they may still feel unsure about where they fit, who they can ask for help and what good actually looks like in the role.

A young person can be technically onboarded and still feel completely lost. They might know where the staff room is, but not know when it’s okay to take a break. They might know who their supervisor is, but not know whether they’re allowed to interrupt them, and they might understand the formal rules without understanding the hidden rules that shape everyday workplace life.

Young staff are learning the workplace, not just the job

When a young person starts work, they’re not only learning tasks. They’re learning names, routines, communication styles, personalities, workplace politics, expectations, dress standards, break times and how people respond when things go wrong. That’s a lot to take in, especially when they’re also trying to look like they know what they’re doing.

Most adults forget how much is happening in those early days because we’ve already built up years of workplace experience. We know every workplace has its own culture, rhythm and unwritten rules. A young person may still be learning that workplaces don’t just run on policies, they also run on relationships, expectations and things people assume everyone understands.

This is why the first 90 days can feel overwhelming for young staff. They’re trying to work out whether they’re doing things right, whether they’re asking too many questions, whether they’re annoying people and whether they should already know things no one has actually explained. If that uncertainty isn’t supported well, it can quickly turn into self doubt.

Belonging comes before performance

Belonging can sound like a soft idea in a workplace conversation, but it’s deeply practical. If a young person doesn’t feel like they belong, a lot of their energy goes into self protection. They read the room, hold back questions, avoid mistakes, monitor how people respond to them and try to work out whether they’re safe.

That matters because performance doesn’t only come from skill. A young person can have potential, intelligence and a good attitude, but if they feel unclear, unwanted or unsafe, those qualities may not show up properly. They may become quiet, hesitant, overly cautious or disengaged, and then those behaviours can be misread as poor motivation.

Belonging doesn’t mean lowering expectations or avoiding accountability. It means creating enough safety, clarity and connection for learning to happen. Once a young person feels like they have a place, they’re more likely to ask questions, take feedback, recover from mistakes, show initiative and start imagining themselves staying.

What managers often misread

One of the biggest risks in the first 90 days is that managers misread what’s happening. Silence can look like confidence, when it may actually mean the young person doesn’t know what to ask. Over checking can look like neediness, when it may mean they don’t yet know their decision limits.

Hesitation can be misread too. A young person who doesn’t jump in straight away may not be lazy or unmotivated. They may be trying to understand what they’re allowed to do, what needs approval and whether taking initiative will be seen as helpful or overstepping.

Disengagement is often the final thing managers notice, but it usually starts much earlier. It might start when a young person feels embarrassed after a mistake, brushed off after a question or invisible in the team. By the time they look checked out, they may have already spent weeks deciding whether this workplace is somewhere they can succeed.

What helps young staff stay

Young staff are more likely to stay when they have clarity. That means they understand what good looks like, what matters most in the role, when to ask for help and what they’re allowed to decide on their own. Clear expectations reduce the guessing, and when young people don’t have to guess all the time, they have more energy to learn.

They also need connection. A young staff member needs to know who they can go to when they’re stuck, and they need permission to ask questions before something goes wrong. A simple check in at the end of a shift, the end of a week or after a new task can stop small confusion from turning into bigger disengagement.

They also need safe correction and some sense of future. Safe correction means mistakes are addressed clearly, but without humiliation. Future focus means the young person can see how they’re growing, what they’re improving at and where the role might take them. Together, these things help young staff feel clear, connected and confident enough to contribute.

The first 90 days are a retention strategy

The first 90 days shouldn’t be treated as a waiting period where the business simply watches to see whether the young person works out. It should be treated as an active retention strategy. This is the window where clarity, belonging, support and honest conversations matter most.

If young staff are leaving before they settle, the answer is not always to recruit better. Sometimes the answer is to onboard better, support better and notice earlier. Sometimes the workplace needs to ask whether it has created the conditions for a young person to grow into the role, rather than just expecting them to arrive fully confident.

That doesn’t remove responsibility from the young person. They still need to show up, listen, learn, take feedback and build their skills. But young staff are more likely to stay when the workplace helps them feel clear enough, connected enough and confident enough to contribute, and that doesn’t happen by accident.

Want my free 1 page Mentoring Program Business Plan template?

This Business plan will set your programs up for success.

It includes:

• Clear business case

• Goal and measurable objectives

• Eligibility rules for mentors and mentees plus roles and responsibilities

• A mentor training checklist

• A simple resourcing and budget planner

• A monthly measurement dashboard plus key risks and controls

• A next 7 days action plan to move from idea to launch

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About Confidence in Mentoring

Confidence in Mentoring helps organisations employ, support, and retain young staff through better mentoring, clearer supervision, and stronger workplace systems.

About the Author

I’m a qualified youth worker of 20 years and a workplace mentor with extensive experience supporting young people in workplaces and community organisations. I write about workplace mentoring, supervision, staff confidence, retention, and what helps young staff thrive at work.

You can contact me:

🌐 confidenceinmentoring.com

💼 Linkedin

When staff leave, underperform, or disengage, workplaces often start looking for someone to blame. It might be the manager, the supervisor, the HR team, the new staff member, or the generation entering the workforce. Someone must be responsible, so the organisation starts searching for the person who got it wrong.

But sometimes the problem is not one person. Sometimes the problem is the system everyone is working inside. If the workplace is confusing, inconsistent, poorly documented, reactive, or difficult to navigate, even good staff can struggle to do good work.

This matters even more when we are talking about young staff. Young workers are often still learning how workplaces operate, how to ask questions, how to follow procedures, and how to manage the social and professional expectations of work. If the system around them is unclear, we should not be surprised when they feel overwhelmed.

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Workplace systems are everywhere

When people hear the word “systems,” they often think about technology. They think about computers, software, databases, or that one finance platform everyone quietly hates but has somehow survived for 20 years. Anyone who works in IT knows how important these systems are, because when the computer system goes down, everyone suddenly becomes very interested in systems.

But workplace systems are much broader than software. They include the way people are onboarded, trained, supervised, supported, reviewed, communicated with, and held accountable. They include meetings, policies, procedures, decision-making processes, reporting lines, and the small everyday habits that shape how work actually gets done.

The trouble is that many of these systems are invisible until they stop working. When they work well, people get on with the job and barely notice them. When they work poorly, people spend half their energy trying to work around them.

Good systems reduce confusion

Imagine two young staff members starting in the same organisation.

The first person receives a structured induction. They know what their role is, who they report to, what they are expected to do, and who they can ask for help. They are given clear instructions, a buddy for the first few weeks, and regular check-ins with their supervisor.

The second person is shown to their desk, given a quick tour, and told, “You’ll pick it up as you go.”

Both might be capable. Both might be motivated. Both might want to do well. But only one has been given the conditions to settle, learn, and build confidence.

That is the simplest way to understand workplace systems. Good systems reduce confusion. Poor systems create confusion. And confusion, when it is left sitting in a workplace for too long, becomes exhausting.

The clunky software problem

Most of us have worked somewhere with a system that everyone knows is broken.

It might be outdated software, a confusing finance process, a messy filing system, or a procedure that only one person truly understands. Everyone complains about it. It comes up in staff surveys. It gets mentioned in exit interviews. Managers nod along and say, “Yes, we know it’s an issue,” but nothing changes.

The longer it is ignored, the worse it becomes.

New staff arrive and receive no real training on how to use it. They ask the person sitting closest to them, who explains their own way of doing things. The next day, they ask someone else, who shows them a completely different method. Eventually the new staff member is left with three different ways to do the same task and no idea which one is correct.

That is not a staff issue. That is a system issue.

And over time, people build their own workarounds. They create habits around a broken system because they need to survive the day. Then, when the organisation finally decides to fix it, everyone becomes frustrated because they are being asked to unlearn something they were forced to invent in the first place.

Managers should remove barriers

One of the mistakes managers can make is thinking their job is mainly to make staff work harder.

Of course performance matters. Of course accountability matters. Of course people need to do the work they are employed to do. But one of the most important responsibilities of a manager is to remove barriers so staff can do good work.

If staff are constantly confused, duplicating work, waiting for approvals, sitting in meetings with no outcomes, or trying to follow unclear procedures, simply telling them to “perform better” is not going to solve much.

A better question is this:

What is making it harder for my staff to do great work?

That question changes the conversation. It moves the focus away from blame and towards responsibility. It asks managers to look at the environment, the structures, and the everyday systems that shape how people work.

Exit interviews often point to systems

Exit interviews can be incredibly useful if organisations are willing to listen properly.

If staff keep saying there is no accountability, no one follows procedures, communication is poor, everything feels reactive, or no one knows what is going on, those are not just random complaints. They are describing how the workplace functions.

They are giving you information about the system.

The same applies when the same frustrations keep appearing in staff surveys, team meetings, supervision notes, or informal conversations. If different staff keep naming the same barriers, the issue is probably not one difficult employee. It is probably something built into the way the workplace operates.

This is where organisations need to be honest. If people keep telling you the same thing and nothing changes, eventually staff stop believing there is any point speaking up. That silence can look like acceptance, but often it is disengagement.

Trauma-informed practice is good management

One of the reasons I often talk about trauma-informed practice is because many of its principles are simply good management.

Predictability matters. People do better when they know what is expected, who is responsible, what is happening next, and where they can go for support. This is especially important for young staff, who may already be carrying uncertainty as they learn how workplaces operate.

Safety matters too. Staff need to feel comfortable asking questions, making mistakes, and asking for help without being shamed or dismissed. If people are scared of getting it wrong, they will hide mistakes, avoid questions, and spend more energy protecting themselves than improving their work.

Consistency also matters. When processes change depending on who is working, who is supervising, or what mood someone is in, staff lose trust. A consistent system allows people to relax into the work because they know what to expect.

Connection matters as well. Regular check-ins, mentoring, buddy systems, and supportive supervision all help staff feel less alone. When people feel connected, they are more likely to ask questions early, raise concerns, and stay engaged.

These are not just trauma-informed principles. They are the foundations of a healthy workplace.

Poor systems shape poor culture

Workplace culture is often talked about as if it is mainly about attitude.

People say they want a positive culture, a respectful culture, a high-performing culture, or a culture where people take initiative. Those are all good goals, but culture does not appear out of nowhere. It is shaped by the systems people experience every day.

If expectations are unclear, culture becomes tense.

If people receive different answers from different supervisors, culture becomes frustrating.

If no one follows procedures, culture becomes unpredictable.

If meetings never lead anywhere, culture becomes cynical.

If staff keep raising concerns and nothing changes, culture becomes resentful.

This is why workplace systems matter so much. Poor systems do not just slow people down. They affect trust, communication, motivation, confidence, and relationships.

Confusion is exhausting. When staff spend too much energy trying to work out what is happening, who is responsible, or whether they are doing the right thing, they have less energy left for the actual work. Over time, that affects morale and performance.

Young staff feel this quickly

Young staff can be especially affected by unclear systems.

They may not yet have the confidence to challenge poor processes or ask repeated questions. They may assume they are the problem when something does not make sense. They may stay quiet because they do not want to look incapable.

This is one of the reasons onboarding matters so much. A young staff member entering a confusing workplace may not have the experience to separate a poor system from their own ability. Instead of thinking, “This workplace has not explained this properly,” they may think, “I’m not good at this.”

That is a dangerous shift.

Once a young person starts believing they are failing, confidence drops quickly. They ask fewer questions. They take less initiative. They become more hesitant. Eventually, the organisation may start describing them as disengaged or not work ready.

But the workplace may have trained them into silence.

What managers can do when the wider system is slow to change

In larger organisations, managers may know a system is broken but feel powerless to change it quickly.

That can be frustrating. You may advocate up the chain, raise the issue repeatedly, and wait months or years for a proper fix. In the meantime, your staff still need to do their jobs.

This is where local leadership matters.

The first step is to listen and acknowledge the frustration. Staff usually know when something is not working. They do not need you to pretend everything is fine. They need to know you see the barrier and are willing to do what you can to reduce it.

The next step is to ask what can be improved inside your own team. Can you create a simple procedure? Can you agree on one way of doing a task? Can you build a checklist, offer short training, reduce unnecessary meetings, or make decisions clearer?

These small changes may not fix the whole organisation, but they can make the team environment more manageable.

Accountability matters too

There is no point creating procedures if no one uses them.

Many workplaces have documents that technically exist but are never followed. They sit in folders, drives, or policy systems while staff continue doing things however they have always done them. At that point, the procedure is not really a system. It is decoration.

Good systems require accountability.

If a team agrees to follow a process, managers need to make sure people actually follow it. If the process is not working, it should be reviewed. But allowing everyone to ignore agreed procedures creates confusion, especially for new staff.

Accountability is not about being harsh. It is about creating fairness and consistency. When everyone follows the same process, people know what is expected, and the workplace becomes easier to navigate.

The small question that can change a team

If you are a manager or supervisor, one useful question to ask is:

What is making it harder for my staff to do great work?

That question can open up a lot.

It may point to unclear expectations. It may reveal poor training. It may show that your team has too many meetings, duplicated tasks, inconsistent procedures, or decision-making bottlenecks. It may also reveal that staff have been quietly working around problems for a long time.

Once you know the answer, you can start somewhere.

You do not need to fix everything at once. Sometimes removing one barrier creates enough momentum for people to feel that change is possible. That matters because staff are far more likely to engage when they can see that concerns are being taken seriously.

A workplace system should help people do good work

At its best, a workplace system should make good work easier.

It should help people understand what is expected. It should make tasks clearer. It should create consistency, reduce unnecessary stress, and help staff know where to go when they need support.

When systems do that, people communicate better. They trust each other more. They spend less time second-guessing and more time doing the work they came to do.

That is when culture starts to improve.

The answer to poor performance, turnover, or disengagement is not always to push staff harder. Sometimes the better answer is to look at the system around them and ask whether it is helping or getting in the way.

If you work with young staff

If you manage, supervise, or employ young staff, I write and podcast about mentoring, supervision, retention, and workplace systems that help young people thrive at work.

Subscribe to Confidence in Mentoring for practical ideas on how to bring young staff into the workplace well.

Final thought

When staff are struggling, it is easy to look for a person to blame.

But before you decide the problem is motivation, attitude, performance, or a generational issue, look at the system they are working inside. Look at the onboarding, the training, the procedures, the communication, the accountability, and the everyday barriers that make good work harder than it needs to be.

Good staff can struggle in poor systems.

Young staff can lose confidence in unclear systems.

And workplaces can create poor culture when confusion is allowed to sit for too long.

So maybe the question is not, “Why won’t my staff do better?”

Maybe the better question is, “What are we making harder than it needs to be?”

Young staff do not just need jobs. They need workplaces that know how to support them well.

Want my free 1 page Mentoring Program Business Plan template?

This Business plan will set your programs up for success.

It includes:

• Clear business case

• Goal and measurable objectives

• Eligibility rules for mentors and mentees plus roles and responsibilities

• A mentor training checklist

• A simple resourcing and budget planner

• A monthly measurement dashboard plus key risks and controls

• A next 7 days action plan to move from idea to launch

Download it here:

https://confidenceinmentoring.com

About Confidence in Mentoring

Confidence in Mentoring helps organisations employ, support, and retain young staff through better mentoring, clearer supervision, and stronger workplace systems.

About the Author

I’m a qualified youth worker of 20 years and a workplace mentor with extensive experience supporting young people in workplaces and community organisations. I write about workplace mentoring, supervision, staff confidence, retention, and what helps young staff thrive at work.

Subscribe now

You can contact me:

🌐 confidenceinmentoring.com.au

💼 Linkedin

Most workplace mentoring programs don’t fail because people stop caring.

In fact, many mentoring programs begin with genuine enthusiasm. Senior leaders support the idea. Mentors volunteer. Mentees are interested. HR puts significant effort into getting everything organised.

Then, somewhere between the launch and six months later, things start to drift.

Meetings become less frequent. Mentors become harder to reach. Mentees stop initiating contact. The program still technically exists, but fewer and fewer people are actively participating in it.

Eventually, it becomes one of those workplace initiatives everyone remembers launching, but nobody is quite sure whether it still exists.

I’ve seen this happen often enough that I no longer think it’s surprising. In fact, I think most mentoring programs are vulnerable to exactly this outcome.

The question is not whether organisations care about mentoring.

The question is whether they have created the conditions for mentoring to survive.

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Good intentions is not a mentoring strategy

One of the biggest misconceptions about mentoring is that it should happen naturally.

The thinking usually sounds something like this:

“We have good people.”

“Our senior staff are supportive.”

“We care about developing people.”

All of those things are important, but none of them automatically create effective mentoring.

Mentoring is relationship-based work. Like any relationship-based work, it requires structure, support, and intentionality.

Most workplaces would never expect a leadership development program, onboarding process, or safety system to run entirely on goodwill. Yet many organisations expect mentoring to somehow sustain itself without dedicated time, training, or oversight.

That expectation creates problems from the beginning.

The launch is often the easy part

Launching a mentoring program feels productive.

There are meetings, announcements, registrations, and excitement. Everyone can see visible progress.

The harder part begins once the launch is over.

That is when the program has to compete with real workplace pressures.

Workloads increase.

Deadlines emerge.

Managers become busy.

Operational issues take priority.

The mentoring conversations that felt important three months ago suddenly become optional.

And optional activities are usually the first things to disappear when pressure increases.

This is why many mentoring programs slowly fade rather than abruptly fail. Nobody actively decides to stop mentoring. People simply stop making time for it.

Mentoring needs a clear purpose

One of the first questions I ask organisations is:

“What problem are you trying to solve?”

Surprisingly, many workplaces struggle to answer clearly.

Some want to improve retention.

Some want to support young staff.

Some want leadership development.

Others simply know mentoring sounds like a good idea.

The problem is that mentoring means different things depending on the outcome you are trying to achieve.

Without a clear purpose, mentoring quickly becomes vague. Meetings occur because they are scheduled, not because anyone understands what the relationship is intended to support.

The strongest mentoring programs usually have a very clear focus. Everyone involved understands why the program exists and what success looks like.

Relationships matter more than systems

Organisations often spend significant time designing matching processes, templates, reporting requirements, and program structures.

Those things matter.

But mentoring succeeds or fails through relationships.

A mentoring program is not successful because two people were matched together on a spreadsheet. It succeeds because trust develops between them.

Young staff, particularly those entering employment for the first time, are often carrying uncertainty that workplaces don’t always see. They are trying to understand expectations, navigate workplace culture, and work out where they fit.

A mentor cannot remove every challenge, but they can reduce the feeling of navigating those challenges alone.

That is often where the real value of mentoring sits.

Mentors need support too

Another reason mentoring programs struggle is because organisations focus heavily on supporting mentees while overlooking mentors.

Mentors need training.

They need boundaries.

They need clarity around expectations.

They need opportunities to discuss challenges and seek guidance themselves.

Without support, mentoring can become inconsistent, emotionally draining, or difficult to sustain alongside existing workloads.

The most successful mentoring programs recognise that both sides of the relationship require investment.

What successful mentoring programs understand

The workplaces that sustain mentoring over time usually understand something important.

Mentoring is not a workplace perk.

It is not a culture accessory.

And it is not something that survives purely through enthusiasm.

Good mentoring programs are supported systems.

They are resourced.

They are monitored.

They are championed by leadership.

Most importantly, they are embedded into workplace culture rather than operating on the fringes of it.

When mentoring becomes part of how an organisation supports, develops, and retains people, it has a much greater chance of surviving beyond the initial excitement.

Final thought

I don’t think mentoring programs quietly die because people don’t care.

More often, they die because organisations underestimate how much intentionality mentoring requires.

Good mentoring is not simply putting two people together and hoping for the best.

It is creating an environment where relationships, trust, learning, and support are valued enough to survive when workloads increase and priorities compete for attention.

Because mentoring is rarely tested when workplaces are calm.

It is tested when workplaces become busy.

And if a mentoring program can survive those periods, it usually becomes one of the most valuable development and retention tools an organisation has.

Want my free 1 page Mentoring Program Business Plan template?

This Business plan will set your programs up for success.

It includes:

• Clear business case

• Goal and measurable objectives

• Eligibility rules for mentors and mentees plus roles and responsibilities

• A mentor training checklist

• A simple resourcing and budget planner

• A monthly measurement dashboard plus key risks and controls

• A next 7 days action plan to move from idea to launch

Download it here: https://confidenceinmentoring.com.au

About Confidence in Mentoring

Confidence in Mentoring helps organisations employ, support, and retain young staff through better mentoring, clearer supervision, and stronger workplace systems.

About the Author

I’m a qualified youth worker of 20 years and a workplace mentor with extensive experience supporting young people in workplaces and community organisations. I write about workplace mentoring, supervision, staff confidence, retention, and what helps young staff thrive at work.

You can contact me:

🌐 confidenceinmentoring.com.au

💼 Linkedin

One of the reasons I started the Not Work Ready podcast was because I kept hearing the same concern from different businesses.

They were employing young staff, investing time into bringing them in, and then not long after, the young person would resign, disengage, or simply stop turning up. When this happens a few times, it’s easy for a business to start looking in the usual places for answers. Maybe the recruitment process is wrong. Maybe they hired the wrong person. Maybe young people just don’t want to work anymore.

But I don’t think that explains the whole picture.

In this episode, I wanted to explore a different question. What are the workplaces doing well when they actually keep young staff? What is happening in those environments that helps young people settle, build confidence, and want to come back?

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Young people are still developing

One of the first things we need to understand is that many young workers are still in a major stage of development.

If you’re employing someone between 15 and 25, they are still working through identity, confidence, values, friendships, family relationships, study, independence, and their place in the world. Then we add a workplace on top of all of that. A workplace can bring expectations, pressure, politics, unclear communication, difficult managers, social dynamics, mistakes, feedback, and the constant feeling of needing to prove yourself.

That’s a lot for anyone to manage.

Even adults who have been working for decades can struggle with workplaces. People struggle with office politics, unclear expectations, bullying, managing managers, workload, and feeling unsupported. So it should not surprise us that young people, who are still developing and still learning how adult environments work, can find employment overwhelming.

This does not mean young people are fragile or incapable. It means workplaces need to understand what stage of life they are in and bring them in with more thought, structure, and care.

Social connection matters more than many workplaces realise

One of the things I spoke about in the episode was my own experience working in environments with lots of young staff.

There was something different about the energy when young people worked together. The workplace became more social, more relaxed, and often more enjoyable. People joked around, talked about their lives, made plans, and created a sense of connection that made work feel less like something they had to survive and more like somewhere they wanted to be.

That social side of work is often underestimated.

For young people, work is not just a task environment. It is also a social environment. They are working out where they fit, who they connect with, whether they feel accepted, and whether they belong.

This doesn’t mean workplaces need to become social clubs. It means managers need to understand that connection is a retention issue.

If a young person feels isolated at work, if lunch breaks are awkward, if no one talks to them, or if they feel like they are always on the outside of the group, they may leave even if the job itself is fine.

Young staff are not only looking for employment. They are also looking for belonging.

Clarity reduces stress

Another major theme in the episode was clarity.

Young staff need to know what is expected of them. They need to understand the task, the steps involved, who to ask for help, and what good work looks like. Without that clarity, young people can spend a lot of energy guessing.

Guessing creates stress.

A workplace may think they have explained something clearly, but a young person may still be unsure what to do next. They may not want to ask again because they don’t want to look incapable. They may nod, say they understand, and then quietly carry the pressure of trying to work it out alone.

That pressure can quickly affect confidence.

One of the simplest things workplaces can do is make tasks clearer. Step-by-step procedures, checklists, examples, and regular check-ins all help reduce anxiety. They also give young staff a way to succeed without needing to constantly guess what the manager wants.

Clarity is not about micromanaging. It is about reducing unnecessary stress.

When young people understand what is expected, they are more likely to relax, ask better questions, build confidence, and take initiative.

Fairness is everything

The final theme I explored was fairness.

Young people are highly aware of fairness. They notice how people are treated. They notice whether rules apply equally. They notice whether managers say one thing and do another. They notice when some staff are expected to pick up the slack while others are protected from inconvenience.

Fairness matters because it builds trust.

If a young person feels that expectations are inconsistent, that feedback is unfair, or that their personal life is treated as less important than someone else’s, it can create resentment very quickly. They may not always raise it formally, but they will feel it.

This is especially important when it comes to rostering, leave, late-notice shifts, workload, and the way managers speak to staff.

Young people often have strong values around equality, respect, inclusion, and fairness. They want workplaces to live by the values they claim to hold. If a workplace says it values people but regularly treats staff unfairly, young people will see the gap.

And once trust drops, retention becomes much harder.

Confidence grows through support and repetition

One of the biggest mistakes workplaces make is expecting confidence to appear before support has been given.

Confidence usually grows through repetition, encouragement, clear expectations, and the chance to practise without being humiliated for making mistakes. Young staff need space to learn. They need accountability, but they also need mistakes to be treated as part of development.

If every mistake becomes embarrassment or punishment, young people stop taking risks. They stop asking questions. They stop trying new things.

But when a workplace creates room for learning, something different happens.

Young staff begin to build confidence. With confidence comes initiative. With initiative comes problem-solving, creativity, and stronger contribution to the workplace.

This is the part many organisations miss.

Young people can bring enormous energy, creativity, and fresh thinking into a workplace. But those strengths are much more likely to show up when the environment around them feels socially connected, clear, fair, and supportive.

Where mentoring fits in

Mentoring brings these pieces together.

A mentor gives a young person someone steady to go to. Someone who can explain the small things, check in regularly, help them understand expectations, and support them when something feels difficult or unclear.

Mentoring also helps young staff feel less alone.

That matters because so much workplace stress comes from carrying uncertainty by yourself. A young person may not know whether they are doing well, whether they are allowed to ask a question, or whether a mistake means they have failed. A mentor helps them make sense of those moments before they become bigger issues.

This is not about doing everything for young staff.

It is about helping them settle into the workplace well enough to grow.

When a young person feels supported, connected, and clear about what is expected, they are far more likely to stay long enough to become the kind of worker the organisation hoped they would be.

Final thought

If a business keeps losing young staff, it is worth looking beyond recruitment.

It may not just be about who you are hiring. It may also be about the environment you are bringing them into.

Do young staff feel socially connected? Do they understand what is expected of them? Do they experience the workplace as fair? Do they have someone steady to go to when they are unsure?

These questions matter.

Because young people do not just stay where the job exists. They stay where the environment helps them feel connected, capable, respected, and supported.

And that is where mentoring can make a real difference.

Young staff do not just need jobs. They need workplaces that know how to bring them in well.

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Listen to the episode

This article is based on my latest episode of the Not Work Ready podcast, where I explore whether it is young staff who are not work ready, or whether workplaces need to become more ready for young staff.

About Confidence in Mentoring

Confidence in Mentoring helps organisations employ, support, and retain young staff through better mentoring, clearer supervision, and stronger workplace systems.

About Jono Van Der Ploeg

Jono is a youth worker and mentor with extensive experience supporting young people in workplaces, mentoring programs, and community organisations. He writes and speaks about mentoring, supervision, confidence, retention, and what helps young staff thrive at work.

You can contact me:

🌐 confidenceinmentoring.com.au

💼 Linkedin

Available now on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts.

Silence, Anxiety, and Young Staff

Some of the most overwhelmed young people I’ve worked with were also the quietest.

They weren’t disruptive. They weren’t rude. They weren’t refusing to work. In fact, many were trying incredibly hard to do the right thing.

They would sit quietly, wait to be told what to do, apologise constantly, avoid asking questions, and try not to attract attention to themselves. From the outside, it could easily look like low confidence, lack of initiative, or disengagement.

But often, what was really happening underneath was overwhelm.

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A lot of young people enter workplaces carrying uncertainty and anxiety long before they arrive on their first shift. They are trying to understand new systems, new expectations, new social dynamics, and unfamiliar workplace culture, all while trying not to embarrass themselves or get something wrong.

Many workplaces unintentionally misunderstand this silence.

Managers may think:
“They should just ask questions.”
“They need to show more initiative.”
“They don’t seem interested.”

But many young people are thinking:
“I don’t want to look stupid.”
“I don’t know who I’m supposed to ask.”
“I don’t want to annoy anyone.”
“I’m trying not to get in the way.”

Quietness is not always comfort. Sometimes it is self-protection.

One of the challenges for workplaces is that anxiety often does not present itself clearly. It shows up through behaviour. A young person may withdraw socially, avoid tasks they are unsure about, overthink simple decisions, hesitate to speak up, or become overly dependent on reassurance.

When this is misunderstood, workplaces often become reactive. Managers become frustrated that the young person is not speaking up, while the young person becomes more anxious because they feel like they are already failing.

This is where simple trauma-informed practices can make a significant difference.

Trauma-informed practice is not about turning workplaces into therapy rooms. It is about reducing unnecessary uncertainty and creating environments where people feel safe enough to participate, learn, and ask questions.

Sometimes the most supportive things are also the most practical.

Explaining what the day will look like. Making lunch breaks clear. Showing someone where things are. Explaining who they report to. Pairing them with someone supportive. Properly introducing them to the team. Checking in before problems escalate.

These things sound small, but predictability reduces anxiety. Clarity builds confidence. Connection helps people settle.

I also think workplaces underestimate the social side of employment for young people. Feeling accepted matters. Feeling included matters. Something as simple as an introduction morning tea or someone intentionally sitting with them during a break can significantly reduce stress during those early days.

For many young people, the workplace is not just about learning tasks. It is about learning whether they belong there.

This is one of the reasons mentoring can be so valuable.

A mentor gives the young person someone safe to ask questions, someone who can help them interpret workplace expectations, and someone who notices when they are starting to withdraw before things escalate into bigger problems.

Mentoring is not therapy. It is not performance management. But it can create the relationship that helps young people move from silence and uncertainty toward confidence and independence.

Initiative rarely appears first.

Usually, safety, clarity, confidence, and connection come before initiative.

And when workplaces understand that, young people are far more likely to stay, grow, and contribute well.

I explore this topic further in the latest episode of Not Work Ready:

🎧 Silence, Anxiety, and Young Staff

Available now on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts.

Website:

https://confidenceinmentoring.com.au

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathonvanderploeg/

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In this first episode of Not Work Ready, I talk about what happens when mental health starts affecting work, not from a clinical perspective, but from a practical workplace perspective.

I begin by looking at the scale of the issue, including the fact that 1 in 5 people experience mental health issues each year, and that 41% of staff say mental health was a reason for leaving their job.

From there, I unpack what managers and business owners might actually see when someone is struggling. Often, it doesn’t first appear as “mental health.” It may show up as lateness, withdrawal, poor communication, avoidance, emotional reactions, loss of confidence, repeated mistakes, or someone needing constant reassurance.

I also discuss the pressure this places on managers. Many managers are stuck between wanting to be supportive and needing the work done. They are not counsellors or therapists, but they are often the first people expected to respond when someone starts struggling at work.

I then share part of my own story, how mentoring changed the trajectory of my life during a period of poor mental health — and why that experience shaped the work I now do through Confidence in Mentoring.

The episode finishes by looking at why mentoring programs can be such a practical support structure in workplaces. Mentoring is not therapy, and it does not replace management or HR. But it can create an early layer of support, helping people feel seen, supported, and more confident before issues escalate into burnout, conflict, disengagement, or resignation.

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In this episode, I cover:

• Why mental health is already affecting workplaces

• How mental health issues can show up through behaviour and performance

• The common signs managers may notice when staff are struggling

• The pressure managers feel when they don’t know how to respond

• Why workplaces often become reactive instead of preventative

• How mentoring helped change the direction of my own life

• Why mentoring programs can reduce isolation, confusion, and overwhelm

• How mentoring can support both staff and managers

Key takeaway

Mental health at work is not just an individual issue. It is also shaped by workplace culture, expectations, systems, communication, and support.

A mentoring program does not fix everything, but it can create a practical support layer that helps people earlier — before stress tur

ns into disengagement, conflict, turnover, or crisis.

Connect

To learn more about mentoring, workplace support, and helping young staff succeed, visit Confidence in Mentoring

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