What Top Leaders Know About Mentorship (But You Don’t)

Mentorship that works when delivery pressure doesn’t stop

This book was written for leaders who are carrying responsibility, deadlines, and constant change, and are still expected to develop the people around them.

When time is short and pressure is real, mentorship either works in the flow of work or it quietly disappears. This book is about making sure it works.

What this book is really about

Most leadership books talk about mentoring as a programme or an initiative.
This one is grounded in what actually happens inside live teams.

It draws on real leadership situations where delivery couldn’t pause, people still needed support, and managers had to grow others while keeping things moving. The focus isn’t theory. It’s judgement, trust, and practical leadership habits that hold up under pressure.

This book will resonate if you are:

• Leading while stretched thin

• Expected to develop others without slowing delivery

• Building leadership capability inside live teams

• Tired of mentoring being treated as an optional extra

If any of that feels familiar, you’re the intended reader.

What you’ll take from it

Inside the book, you’ll explore how to:

• Build mentoring into day-to-day work rather than bolting it on

• Strengthen leadership confidence and decision-making under pressure

• Support hybrid, cross-generational, and neurodivergent teams in practical ways

• Scale mentoring without drowning in frameworks or administration

• Apply the Harber Helix™ model to real leadership challenges

Each chapter closes with clear takeaways for both:

• leaders mentoring in the flow of work, and

• HR or programme designers supporting capability at scale.

  Where this comes from

  The book draws on experience leading and mentoring people in high-pressure environments, from military service through to global enterprise SAP delivery. It reflects what has worked across different cultures, organisations, and leadership levels, not what looks good on paper.

  Getting started

  You can buy the book in paperback or Kindle format using the links below.

  Not sure yet?
  Read the introduction or first chapter to see if the tone and approach are right for you.

  Some readers use the book on its own. Others use it as a starting point for deeper conversations about leadership, mentoring, and delivery.