For almost two decades, I mentored high school students formally and informally [in and outside the school system]. Many of these mentor-protégé relationships have blossomed beyond school and otherwise, as the beneficiaries (mentees/protégés) still seek guidance in different areas of life, regardless of their accomplishments. With recourse to experience, I have realised that formal education does not teach life skills.

Protégés and mentees still yearn for counsel on the issues of life. This isn’t because they have not attained independence, but because they have learned to use interdependence and stay connected to a proven source, to foster and emphasise the value of lifelong learning – one of the strongest values of the programme [mentorship] that aims to infuse leadership ideals into humans from adolescence through adulthood.

Over 13 years after imparting and impacting on youngsters [now men], many of them always gave feedback. Against that backdrop, these two had the following to say:

Every line I read here resonates with me in a unique way; it is almost like I am being spoken to directly. I am sure anybody else out there who is aiming for more than the ordinary in life can relate to this the same way. Truly, they have a way to thrust through the cerebral with their teachings – Nasir O. Mohammed

I have always been taught by this man since I was in SS2. I’m a legal practitioner now and I am still being taught. He is mind-blowing– Koko Umana

These were adolescents and teenagers when they were mentored and coached. But today, they are professionals, stalwarts and bigwigs in their chosen fields. Nasir, on the one hand, is a financial expert who majors on investments and funds management. He runs his outfit in an exclusive area in Lagos and still attends my trainings. Koko Umana, on the other hand, is a legal practitioner.

For the conscious mind, the role of mentoring is a no-brainer at appreciating long-lasting impact. In addition, it is no small opportunity at providing resourceful information that can change the leadership game in every sphere and endeavour. Things do change, courtesy of dynamism, technologies, systems and policies, among others. Nonetheless, if the question of leadership is solved, we can go to sleep with the assurance that even if things go wrong or change, we will always find operable solutions.

As a teacher in the school system years back, the mentoring tool came in handy, as we tried to arrest wastage, achieve total and meticulous teacher-student engagement through monitoring, inspire learning in students, instill independence while encouraging interdependence, imbibe the culture of commitment to school, promote societal values and attain a holistic child development. These objectives could only be achieved through the only cost-effective, seamless and unquantifiable tool available to us: student mentoring. The ensuing results were tremendous, to say the least.

Basically, mentoring plays these five roles:...