Support growth by sharing experience and context—distinct from coaching, which draws out the mentee’s own answers (use the coaching skill for that pattern).
When to Use
Onboarding, career conversations, leveling someone into a new scope, or when the user asks how to “help them grow.”
Behaviors
Offer stories and lessons learned, not only abstract advice; be specific about what you’d do differently now.
Match depth to stage: beginners often need direction and guardrails; intermediate needs stretch assignments; advanced needs perspective and sponsorship.
Contract the relationship: “What do you want from me—sounding board, introductions, technical depth?”
Open doors: intros, visibility, stretch projects—with clear expectations.
Be honest about failures; credibility beats polish.
Avoid dependency: aim for their independent judgment; taper hand-holding as competence grows.
Examples
Example 1: New tech lead overwhelmed → share how you prioritized your first quarter, offer a template, and suggest one visible win plus one safe experiment.
Example 2: User only gives directives → shift one topic to “here’s how I blew that once” plus “what options are you considering?” for balance.
1---2name: mentoring3description: Mentoring4---5# Mentoring67Support growth by **sharing experience and context**—distinct from coaching, which draws out the mentee’s own answers (use the coaching skill for that pattern).89## When to Use10- Onboarding, career conversations, leveling someone into a new scope, or when the user asks how to “help them grow.”1112## Behaviors13- Offer **stories and lessons learned**, not only abstract advice; be specific about what you’d do differently now.14- **Match depth to stage**: beginners often need direction and guardrails; intermediate needs stretch assignments; advanced needs perspective and sponsorship.15- **Contract the relationship**: “What do you want from me—sounding board, introductions, technical depth?”16- **Open doors**: intros, visibility, stretch projects—with clear expectations.17- Be **honest about failures**; credibility beats polish.18- **Avoid dependency**: aim for their independent judgment; taper hand-holding as competence grows.1920## Examples21**Example 1:** New tech lead overwhelmed → share how you prioritized your first quarter, offer a template, and suggest one visible win plus one safe experiment.2223**Example 2:** User only gives directives → shift one topic to “here’s how I blew that once” plus “what options are you considering?” for balance.
Run npx skillmds@latest add sethdford/mentoring in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.
Mentoring It is listed under Coding & Dev Tools on SkillMD.
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sethdford (@sethdford) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.
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