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Mentoring is often too narrowly defined as hierarchical, overlooking more immediate sources of growth.

Peer relationships provide real-time, honest feedback grounded in everyday behaviour.

Development is shaped through interaction, not just occasional advice.

The most valuable mentors are often already around you, but under-recognised and underutilised.

Mentoring has the potential to change lives, rocket-fuel career development, and unblock major challenges. But what if we have been looking in the wrong direction for the right people to mentor us? What if the support we need is all around us, yet we’re focused elsewhere?

When we think of mentoring, it’s natural to picture the traditional hierarchical model—a junior person, or someone ascending the ladder, turning to someone more experienced, more senior. Someone who has already walked the path that their mentee wants to follow.

Looking in just one direction, however, means overlooking other opportunities to find invaluable help.

In a recent Connected Leadership Podcast conversation, Alexis Redding, a developmental psychologist, lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and editor of Mental Health in College, shared an observation that challenges how many people think about mentoring.

“I was listening to recordings from the 1970s, young people talking about their careers, anxieties, and uncertainty,” she told me. “What struck me was how familiar it all sounded. The questions they were asking are the same questions people are asking today.”

Despite decades of change in how we work, the human experience of development hasn’t shifted as much as we might expect. Which raises an important point: If the........

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