Why does no one get it? Kate’s story
As we begin to wind down 2025, I’m reminded to reflect on the year that was and the many wonderful people I crossed paths with over the past 12 months.
One such person was Kate: a confident high performer who constantly found herself at odds with those around her. Highly intelligent, Kate struggled to connect with her peers and even senior leadership, making it difficult for her to manage both up and down.
Her lack of tolerance for those who couldn’t see things the way she could was:
- creating animosity in her relationships
- causing high staff turnover
- jeopardising her reputation and career growth
Kate could see this was happening, but couldn’t understand why. Keen for some insight, she enrolled in the Explorer Mindset and Collaborative Leadership workshops which I launched earlier this year.
Self-realisation leads to change
For someone who’s used to walking into a room believing they’re the smartest person in it, this doesn’t automatically shift when that person walks into one of my workshops.
However, through carefully curated activities and group discussions, they do begin to reflect on their attitude and eventually recognise the “default” approach they’ve been taking. This realisation is incredibly powerful because – while someone like Kate might still hold to their intellectual superiority (which may be justified) – they can now identify the beliefs, thoughts, and actions that are in turn creating the chaos that always seems to follows them.
Such realisations are the first step towards genuine change. When coupled with practical strategies and tools they can apply at work, the after-effect is a noticeable shift in how that person relates to others once they leave the workshops.
I love witnessing the ripple effect of this, where an already-clever but now-wiser person has more thoughtful and productive engagements with their teams, peers, and leaders moving forward.
The power of peer group mentoring
The structure of my workshops this year was similar to that of peer group mentoring. This isn’t your typical master-apprentice style mentoring, but collective mentoring where each person contributes a unique perspective and everyone learns through the sharing of those perspectives.
We find a lot of research to validate this approach, such as this study published in the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring. In the study, 12 female executives participated in peer mentoring so observers could see how leadership would manifest within the group. What they found was quite significant: the emergence of a shared leadership dynamic, where participants simultaneously became both a mentor and mentee.
The study also highlighted the importance of having someone act as a facilitator to consciously curate the group and manage group dynamics. As I often hold this role in my capacity as an executive coach, I couldn’t agree more. When people leave my workshops saying, “I can’t believe how well we got along!” or “It felt like we all had a voice!”, this didn’t happen by accident. Serious effort went into cultivating the type of environment where everyone felt safe and could focus on presence over position – which is exactly what’s needed for successful peer mentoring.
Why not leverage peer mentoring for yourself in 2026?
Be it an unknown trait creating conflict with those around you, or bouts of imposter syndrome holding you back, peer mentoring could be the bridge to a wiser version of you.
The Leadership Strategies Workshops will return in 2026 and offer an excellent opportunity to explore this. Alternatively, I can provide peer mentoring facilitation for groups (in or out of the workplace) to help you realise the many benefits of this valuable approach.
To learn more about peer mentoring, visit Leadership Strategies Workshops or contact me.