Last 18 months
Cross-cloud mentorship circle
Mentor · Convener
Convened an informal monthly mentorship circle across multiple Salesforce business units — IC engineers and new managers from three different clouds. No mandate, no budget, just a recurring invite.
- Monthly cadence sustained for 18+ months
- Two attendees promoted; one made an internal mobility move
- Cross-team recognition from peer platform leads at multiple Salesforce business units
How it started
A 1-on-1 conversation with a senior IC who was stuck — promotion blocked by a perception gap, no clear sponsor on the next-level review panel. By the third call we were running into the same patterns I had been working on with my own reports. Different cloud, same problem.
I sent an invite to seven people across three clouds. Six showed up. We have been meeting monthly since.
What we actually do
- Each session: one person brings a real situation. The rest of us listen, ask, and do not immediately advise.
- The discipline is to ask three questions before suggesting anything. Most of the time the third question solves it.
- No notes, no recording, no agenda. The bar is honesty, not productivity.
Why it works
The circle is small enough to be safe and diverse enough to avoid groupthink. People bring problems they cannot bring to their own manager — promotions, manager friction, internal mobility, the slow erosion of motivation. The cross-org diversity is the feature.
What I take from it
Mentorship at this stage of my career is rarely about answers. It is about being the room where someone can hear themselves think.