growing by sharing

Building a Mentorship Culture

How to help professionals in your company transfer their knowledge to other employees
I once came across a LinkedIn post by an HRBP, frustrated by the struggle to involve senior tech experts in corporate learning. In a company full of highly skilled professionals, sharing knowledge with newcomers had become a nightmare.
The initial reaction from the technical leads was denial: 'We don’t have time to teach.' Then came defensiveness: 'We’ve written dozens of manuals — just read them. And when some form of teaching finally happens, the learners are left lost and demotivated — overwhelmed by an ocean of complex material, massive homework, and blunt, often discouraging feedback — if they get any feedback at all.
The post was raw, honest, and struck a nerve. It drew dozens of replies, all echoing the same pain.
What do you think?
Have you ever faced a situation where experts refuse to teach others?
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Thank you!

Every company has brilliant experts — people with deep, technical knowledge.
But often, that knowledge stays with them. It doesn’t spread. And that’s a problem. Because when expertise isn’t shared, it becomes a bottleneck — for onboarding, for scaling, and for growth.

Why does it happen?
The main reasons why experienced employees don't feel comfortable transferring their knowledge
  • They’re busy
    Experts are focused on solving complex problems, so they don’t have the time or resources to teach.
  • They’re not trained to teach
    They write dense manuals, upload them to Confluence, and expect newcomers to figure it out. An engineer isn’t supposed to know how to build engaging training. So they end up spending a lot of effort at every step of the process.
  • They may not want to teach others
    Sharing their knowledge can feel like sharing their power. Some experts enjoy being the go-to person. It reinforces their status and makes them feel indispensable. Their deep knowledge becomes a kind of leverage, a source of security in the organization. Letting go of that can feel risky, especially if no one has shown them how knowledge-sharing can strengthen their role rather than weaken it.

Why is it risky?
That expertise didn’t appear overnight — it was built with the company’s support: through training, trial and error, and hands-on experience.
All knowledge stays in one person’s head
This experience can’t be used, scaled, or improved.
And if that person leaves, the company loses not just an employee — but everything they know.
Plus, internal expertise is often part of your HR brand. New employees join hoping to learn from the stars. When that doesn’t happen, it leads to disappointment — and sometimes, early exits.

What can we do to help professionals share their expertise ?

Let's consider 2 ways
Pressure Motivation
Option 1. Pressure
Bonuses, promises, negotiations, bargaining, and direct pressure can serve as leverage. Sometimes it works — for a while. But without genuine motivation and clear tools, it quickly turns into a formality. And no one is inspired by a mentor teaching under pressure.
Option 2: Motivation
Let’s see what could motivate a senior specialist who’s been with the company for years to share their knowledge
This is someone who knows everything about their field — all the details, pitfalls, and hidden traps. Nothing surprises them anymore. They’ve already been disappointed by everything that could disappoint. They’re likely financially secure, and the company has little room to significantly increase their income. They may feel they’ve hit a ceiling.

Becoming a mentor to junior colleagues — someone naturally seen as a source of guidance and wisdom — can be a fresh breath of motivation. It brings back emotions that may have faded after years of routine. After all, what’s more rewarding than being in a room where you’re the respected authority and every word you say matters?
Simply trying to 'sell' the idea of mentoring to an expert won’t work. For every pitch you make, there will be a hundred valid objections.
What does work?
Offer a clear, easy-to-integrate process. Provide simple tools and mentoring techniques that don’t drain their energy. Automate where possible
  • What exactly to do starting Monday
    a clear process, step-by-step plan, the right tools, and a structured approach to ensure success. This includes setting specific goals, aligning resources, and establishing timelines to keep everything on track
  • How to work with a mentee
    how to give constructive feedback, maintain motivation through clear progress milestones, and offer consistent support to build trust and encourage growth
  • How to teach
    the core principles of effective training content, the basics of how people learn, a toolbox of engaging, practical activities
To unlock an expert’s knowledge, it’s important to focus on what matters to them, not just what benefits the company. What could inspire them?

Mentoring offers a chance to grow personally, reflect, and even rethink their own expertise — sometimes even revisiting the basics from a fresh perspective.
For some experts, the satisfaction comes from being a respected and trusted teacher. For others, it’s the opportunity to create a clear, structured process with defined steps that makes the difference.
A truly productive learning experience requires empathy from both sides. If financial incentives are the only motivator, it can lead to shortcuts, which ultimately undermines the entire process.

To sum up
Find the right levers that truly motivate experts to share their knowledge. It's important to be honest when discussing motivation — don’t appeal to values that are irrelevant to the person. Below is a checklist to help you get started — practical, proven, and rooted in what actually works.
Download the checklist
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