If you can’t answer, the risk is already real.
This is what I hear in organizations, right before critical knowledge walks out the door:
“Now that I know it all, it’s time to go.”
People spend years building expertise and cultural knowledge. Then they leave. And the knowledge leaves with them.
That is how organizations lose institutional memory. But that loss is avoidable.
The behavior behind it is simple: people wait too long to transfer what they know.
As Marshall Goldsmith often reminds leaders:
What we are aware of, we can change. What we are not aware of, we cannot change.
That’s why legacy must be deliberately planned.
From MentorLab Group‘s experience running mentoring programmes, there are three specific moments when knowledge is still visible and transferable:
- Early, when people are still learning how things really work and can share fresh insights before they become invisible
- After success, when experience can be turned into repeatable practice
- Well before transition, when there is still time to deliberately prepare others
Legacy is not built at the exit interview. It is built through disciplined transfers, repeated over time.
That is what mentoring is meant to do, and it works. But only when it is designed, supported, and taught as a managerial skill.
Mentoring is not a “nice to have.” When done well, it is a performance tool.
Without structure, mentoring becomes informal and inconsistent. With it, development accelerates, retention improves, and readiness increases.
Mentoring builds systems. Systems create sustainability.
Most mentoring programs exist. Few actually change behavior. Learn how we certify mentors to deliver impact in our International Mentoring Academy.
