Skip Lineberg’s name may be familiar around the region for his role as the chief innovation officer for the law firm Spilman, Thomas & Battle, PLLC or as co-founder and former chief creative officer of Maple Creative. Around Charleston, though, he’s also known in the business community for mentoring energetic, innovative, driven women by teaching them how to further develop and then use their skills to propel their careers toward higher levels of success.

Lineberg, who was honored in 2002 by West Virginia Executive as a Young Gun for his own talent, gets great personal satisfaction out of having the opportunity to help others grow in their careers by harnessing their talents and developing specialized skill sets, and he has taken on the responsibility of embracing the next generation of West Virginia’s best and brightest in order to help them find their place on the state’s roadmap to success. His mentees are successful women who now play vital roles across a diverse spectrum of industries and who use the talents he helped them develop to give back to their employers and their community.

We had the unique opportunity to speak with Lineberg about his mentoring techniques and how he has found so much success in educating these women who have become remarkable female executives in West Virginia’s business community.

WVE: In mentoring, how would you define the roles of the mentor and the protégé?

SL: The role of the mentor is to invest in the future success of a person, most often a younger professional. Those investments take the form of hundreds of conversations, e-mail exchanges, shared lunches and collaborative creations.

The role of the protégé is two-fold: she has to be open and committed to learning and she has to have intellectual curiosity fueled by drive and energy.

WVE: How would you define mentoring: the role of the mentor, the role of the protégé and the ultimate goal?

SL: Mentoring is a dance. It is a progression, a series of interactions, between two people. Mentoring cannot be forced.

The role of the mentor is to invest in the future success of a person, most often a younger professional. Those investments take the form of hundreds of conversations, e-mail exchanges, shared lunches and collaborative creations. Please note that I said “future success,” not immediate success. This speaks to the long-term nature of mentoring. It is not immediate and, therefore, requires patience from all parties.

The role of the protégé is two-fold. First, she has to be open and committed to learning—and that means willingness to change and set aside the notion “I already know it all.” Next, she has to have intellectual curiosity—a hunger for learning and a bent for applying new knowledge—that’s fueled by drive and energy. Marcus Buckingham, in his book “First Break All the Rules,” referred to this as “a talent for striving.”

The art of pairing a mentor and a protégé is, indeed, an art more than it is science. It is a mercurial thing. Compatibility, which is a necessary foundation, is often elusive or just plain absent. Are their learning styles compatible? What about communication style, temperament and energy level? Do both have the bandwidth? Is the timing right? Is there a true opportunity for mutual gain?

Thus, matchmaking is a crapshoot, at best. Across the gamut, there are more obvious misfits than glowing matches.

WVE: Tell us about your first protégé and how your mentoring approach has changed over the years.

SL: My first protégé was Emily Bennington. That experience was very rich and rewarding. We wound up writing a book, “Effective Immediately.” Working with Emily, the return on time invested was very high. Over time, I learned as much or more from her in comparison to what I taught her. In addition, there are tons of things we learned together. Today, we remain close friends.

My mentoring approach has not changed in spirit or approach, as I remain committed to adapting my coaching style to the other person.  At the same time, it has changed greatly in the sense that I am working with someone whose needs, talents and learning style differ markedly from Emily’s.

WVE: As a gentleman who commonly mentors female protégés, what would you say are the challenges of mentoring across gender lines?

SL: It is important to mentor both professional women and men. It may be true it is slightly more difficult, and therefore somewhat less common, for mentoring to flourish across gender lines. For some men, mentoring a female protégé may feel awkward, uncomfortable or threatening. That is not so for me.

A related point, perhaps obvious but worth mentioning, is the sexual-attraction aspect. Flip that switch off. You simply do not go there. Mentoring is an intimate process. It involves a great deal of time spent together, working closely, side by side. It’s likely to involve lunches or dinners outside the office and perhaps even travel. When you are a mentor, you cannot blur the relationship lines. To do so, in my estimation, is to violate a sacred covenant—and to destroy the foundation of openness and vulnerability essential for growth.

WVE: Tell us about your approach to mentoring.

SL: My approach is to open up a learning space with a person. We are going to learn from each other, and if I am not learning from my protégé, the process has not reached its full potential. Knowledge is evolving rapidly. What I learned yesterday is not necessarily true or relevant today; teaching, therefore, becomes a great way to update one’s knowledge. On the whole, opening up a learning space equates to an investment of time, energy, focus and intellectual bandwidth.

Here’s the next point, and this is vitally important, in my view: mentoring has to be a two-way street. I have to see a return on investment. What I look for is growth and give-back. Is the person developing and growing? Is it beginning to click? Are they as invested in the relationship as I am? Do they initiate the learning conversations or exchanges to an appropriate extent, or does it feel that I have to force things most of the time?

WVE: In the past you have compared your mentoring approach to that of a classroom curriculum. How are the two similar? 

SL: When I begin a mentoring relationship, I start with more of a formal approach. It’s not uncommon for me to show up for a mentoring session (and I would never call it such) with a one-pager of notes, learning points and maybe a suggested reading list. Reading and studying a book, relevant to the area of interest, is one way to approach it. From my experience, it is important for the mentor to take the responsibility for the learning content. To put this into an academic analogy, if I’m the professor, I am scripting the syllabus and dictating the lessons for the first phase; the successive phases, then, are more like a special topics course or independent study.

Things usually grow more casual and conversational over time, as the primary learning has been handled and the trust has grown. The sooner, the better, and the mentee begins to initiate the learning topics either directly (“Hey, can you help me with this?”) or indirectly by the types and nature of questions. I strongly believe the key parameter is curiosity. I’ve found I cannot be very effective mentoring a young professional who does not have a genuine curiosity. A mentee who expects me to always drive the conversation or direct the learning is not going to be a fit for me. That’s not a universal truth but rather a personal tendency.

WVE: What are your top how-to tips for new mentors? 

SL:

1. Don’t be rigid in your approach. Be flexible and adapt your style to your mentee. Each person is different, and what worked with your last mentee may not be the ticket for this one.
2. Engage in mentoring tactics in a variety of methods and settings. Mentoring is not limited to an office or conference room. All of the following can be mentoring opportunities: car rides, ball games, restaurants and coffee shops—even voicemail messages and e-mails.
3. Recognize that your role involves a strong aspect of nurturing. Be quick with praise. Stay in touch and recognize when your mentee is struggling; step in and be ready to nurture in those situations. It’s equally important for a good mentor to balance nurturing with giving candid criticism (in a supportive, helpful manner) when such is warranted.
4. Find the balance point between accessible/approachable and meddling/over-controlling. Be there when they need you, but don’t get in the way.

WVE: How do you know when your mentoring has been successful?

SL: It is usually defined by a pivotal moment that is marked by the occasion of the protégé completing some task, exercise or project better than I could have done it myself.

I recall a specific episode where I had been teaching a protégé about presentations, more specifically “selling” ideas to clients. She and I had been through several exercises as well as a few actual projects. I felt I had conveyed all my major learning points (e.g., make it look great, be well rehearsed, dialog through all the anticipated questions, et cetera) and the finer points (always have a Plan B, sometimes even a Plan C). When the next project opportunity came along, I assigned the presentation to her. I still remember the “Wow!” feeling. I was blown away. The construct and the format of the presentation were better than what I would have created.

WVE: How have you personally benefited from being a mentor?

SL: I find being a mentor very gratifying. It enables me to utilize my spiritual gifts and God-given talents. I know God put me on this earth to be a teacher. I’m not a classroom teacher, and I would probably make a horrible one at that. But I can be quite good at intensive, one-to-one teaching or coaching. At the DNA level, I am an encourager.

As a result of having been a mentor, I have learned to adapt my communication style and my teaching style. It has helped me become more thoughtful and more tolerant. Mentoring has renewed and fortified my belief in the goodness of people. I also think, in some aspects, mentoring has helped shape me toward becoming a better parent to my children.

WVE: Who was your mentor and what was the most important thing you learned from him or her?

SL: I’ve had a few mentors in my life, and I am hopeful I will have other mentors as I continue to grow. I would say John Wells, Jr. was a great mentor to me. He took time to engage with me and talk about the things that were on my mind, like struggles, victories and life outside of work.

When I think about what John taught me, the most important thing is this: I have to take care of myself. He showed me that being a workaholic is not the path to success. John emphasized to me the importance of rest, downtime, vacation, exercise and fellowship. He opened my eyes and ears to the concept of self-maintenance. This came through conversations and deep discussions, even storytelling.

There was another lesson John imparted to me. This lesson came without a single word. It has to do with exercise or fitness. Anyone who knows me knows what a tremendous priority this is in my life, and I credit that to John. One encounter was all I needed to understand John’s position on fitness. This came after we had served together for several years as volunteers on the board of directors of the YMCA of the Kanawha Valley. During John’s second battle with cancer, after chemotherapy had ended and after it was (very sadly) apparent he was not going to survive, one Wednesday after work, I found John in the weight room at the Y. Thin and frail, John was still fighting, doing bicep curls with 25-pound dumbbells. Though he died a few days later, John never gave up fighting and never stopped investing in his personal fitness. That image stuck with me.

WVE: For those who want to become mentors, what would you say is the first step?

SL: Find a young person and take an interest in their success. From my view, the first step is the intention: deciding to take the time to invest in someone’s success. Be sure you’re ready to move in that direction. Remember that the person you pick may not end up fitting with you. You may not mesh well. That’s OK. You’ll have a few trials and errors but, eventually, it will click: the learning space will grow, and the relationship will flourish.

WVE: For those looking for a mentor, what should they look for and where?

SL: The bulletin board in the break room at the office—hey, that’s totally a joke.

Look for someone you admire and respect. Who is someone in your world who could be a role model for you? It may be at your workplace. It might be someone in your church, or it might be could be someone whom you get to know through community service (like serving on the YMCA board) or a hobby (like community theater).

Protégé Point of View

Emily Bennington

Skip was always trying to push me outside my comfort zone. I remember being maybe six months out of college when he asked me to make a really important client presentation even though we had other team members who were much more qualified. When I asked him why he chose me, he said, “Because I know you can do it, and I want everyone to see how talented you are.” It was the first time I had to rely on his confidence to carry me through a stretch experience. Of course, the more stretch experiences I had, the more comfortable I became—and that’s the power of a great mentor.

Carrie Bowe

Skip’s guidance has helped me understand the value of figuring things out for myself, not only for the wisdom gained, but for the entire experience of learning. His creative-critical-thinking approach and practical guidance has allowed me to both grow and advance in my career. His influence has taught me the importance of personal and professional development, hard work and learning to be confident in being me, in what I know and in who I am as a young professional woman.

Jen Wood Cunningham

There have been several times in my career when I reached out to Skip because I felt very defeated or lost. Each time, he reminded me there are no greater fears than the ones I create in my mind. He has helped me expand my horizons, strive for things in which I thought I wasn’t good enough and address areas in which I needed to improve. He continues to help me realize that in every situation there is an opportunity to learn and grow. I look up to him for his strength, leadership, generosity and kind heart.

Pamela Kesling

When I first met Skip, I was fresh out of college, shy and had no business savvy. I didn’t fully appreciate the opportunity I had to learn from him, and I put him off when I should have been saying “Yes, please.” After I began working with Skip, I realized I truly saw myself as a professional and no longer someone trying really hard to be a professional.

Brooke Lord

When I began working with Skip, he took the time to meet with me to not only train me but help me develop professionally. We met and identified learning objectives for me to work on. I will always be grateful Skip took his time to help me develop goals and identify areas where I wanted to grow as a professional, above and beyond teaching me about the world of a client services coordinator of a marketing firm.

Holly Martin

Skip has an amazing ability to open up a space for visionary discussions and to connect people with opportunities. Even more so, he has the ability to see potential in them and encourage that potential. Even though we may only get together for lunch once every six months, I count on those discussions to really help me find “true north.” I know Skip will be attuned to what needs I’m expressing for professional support, and I will always walk away from a “Skip meeting” with a list of resources