Carla Harris on YouTube · Open on YouTube
Design leadership · Expert · Lesson 88 of 99 · 7 min video, then about 2 hours of practice
Mentoring designers
After this you can run a mentoring relationship with goals the mentee owns, give feedback that builds judgement rather than dependence, and know when to stop.
Why it matters
Mentoring is the clearest test of whether you can multiply yourself. Good mentoring is mentee-led: they set the goals, you ask more than you tell, and you give feedback on their reasoning rather than redesigning their work. Focus on agreeing goals and a cadence up front, on the difference between mentoring (guidance), coaching (questions) and sponsorship (spending your reputation to open doors for them), and on ending the relationship cleanly. Trap: turning mentoring into producing mini-versions of yourself. Free design-specific material is genuinely thin here; the best general resource is listed first, with the design-specific ones as supplements.
How to use this resource
Seven minutes from a senior Wall Street executive and author on what makes a great mentor, including the distinction between mentor and sponsor. Not design-specific (no design-specific video covers this well), but the principles transfer directly.