Category: Leadership and Career

Most reverse mentorship programs waste everyone’s time with misaligned expectations and surface-level learning. David Ohnstad breaks down why they fail and what actually works when senior leaders and junior employees pair up intentionally.

The most impactful mentors aren’t afraid to have difficult conversations or end relationships that aren’t driving growth. Real mentorship requires accountability, not endless coffee chats. Here’s why the best mentors sometimes fire their mentees.

Good mentorship requires more than patience—it demands accountability. David Ohnstad shares why protecting your mentee’s growth sometimes means being willing to end the relationship when effort becomes one-sided.

Your coaching budget needs real metrics to survive scrutiny. Learn how to connect manager development investment to measurable business outcomes—retention rates, promotion velocity, and revenue per manager—instead of relying on engagement surveys and Slack testimonials.

Most coaching programs fail during budget review because organizations measure completion rates instead of business impact. Discover the retention, promotion, and effectiveness metrics that actually justify investment and keep leadership development programs alive.

Your coaching culture initiative isn’t working because nobody told you how. David Ohnstad cuts through the noise with actual 2026 data on what mentorship approaches stick—and which ones fail spectacularly.

Mentoring has shifted from a nice-to-have perk to a core leadership expectation. As organizations scale mentorship programs, leaders face growing demands to develop talent—without additional time or resources. Discover why this matters for your career.

Harvard’s ‘power skills’ argument sounds compelling until you examine what’s actually breaking in organizations. Gartner data reveals 68% of mid-level managers report direct reports lack critical tech competencies. The real leadership challenge isn’t soft skills—it’s the gap between what organizations teach and what they actually need.

Your best people ask for communication coaching, so you say yes. But what if their real problem isn’t soft skills at all? David Ohnstad explores the paradox of well-intentioned mentorship that misses the actual bottleneck holding leaders back.

A one-line directive to ‘make coaching a priority’ won’t transform your organization. Without clear strategy, budget, training, and shared definition, coaching culture initiatives collapse. Discover what actually works.