Skip to main content

Mentoring and Multiplying

5 min read

Tech Lead

Your leverage is the team. Mentoring is how you scale. AI can't do this.

Eng Manager

Growing people is the job. AI can't have a 1:1, can't read morale, can't tailor feedback.

Mentoring and Multiplying

TL;DR

  • AI can teach patterns. It can't mentor. Mentoring is relationship + judgment + timing.
  • Making others better is the highest-leverage thing you can do. It doesn't scale down — it scales up.
  • The people who are "impossible to replace" are usually the ones who've made several others replace them.

Your value isn't just what you produce. It's what you enable others to produce. That's multiplying. AI can't do it.

Why Mentoring Can't Be Automated

Mentoring requires:

  • Knowing the person — What do they struggle with? What motivates them? What's their context?
  • Timing — When do they need the nudge vs. the space to figure it out?
  • Judgment — What feedback helps vs. overwhelms? When to push vs. support?
  • Trust — They have to believe you're in their corner. That's built over time.

AI can answer "how do I X?" It can't do "I notice you keep doing Y — have you thought about Z?" That's mentorship.

What "Multiplying" Means

It's not "do more work." It's "enable others to do more work."

  • Teach someone a skill → they use it forever.
  • Unblock someone → they ship.
  • Give feedback that lands → they grow.
  • Create documentation, runbooks, or patterns → the whole team benefits.

Your output = your work + (multiplier × their work). The multiplier is mentorship.

How to Start (Even If You're "Not Senior")

You don't need a title. You need:

  • One person you can help (a junior, a peer, someone new to the codebase)
  • Willingness to share what you know
  • Humility to say "I'm not sure — let's figure it out"

Small gestures count. "I ran into this before — here's what worked." "Want me to pair on that?" "I'll review your PR and explain my feedback."

Quick Check

Why can't AI replace mentoring?

The "Replaceability" Flip

The fear: "AI will replace me." The response: "Make yourself irreplaceable by making others better." When you've grown three engineers who can do what you do (and more), you're not redundant. You're a force multiplier. Companies keep those people.

Do This Next

  1. Offer to help one person this week — with a PR, a concept, or a debugging session. Do it.
  2. Document something you know that others ask about. A runbook, a decision doc, or a "how we do X" note. Sharing is multiplying.