Capability in your team · One to one

Operational Leadership Mentoring

For the people who hold your operations together.

Executive Assistants, Chiefs of Staff, Operations Managers and team leaders carry more than their title suggests — usually without anyone senior to think it through with. Mentoring gives them that person.

One to one with Nicole Smith. Always individual, never a group program. From $550 + GST per session.

Available standalone or alongside any engagement · remote or on site in metropolitan Melbourne

Who this is for

The role that grew faster than the support around it.

In most growing businesses there’s one person holding the operational middle together. They started in one role and absorbed four more. They’re trusted, capable and stretched — and there’s nobody above them doing the same job to learn from.

Mentoring gives that person somewhere to think out loud, work through a live situation, and build the judgement the role actually demands.

The roles we mentor

Executive Assistants whose role has expanded well beyond diary and inbox
Chiefs of Staff holding the space between the founder and the business
Operations Managers promoted into a role nobody has done before them
Team leaders managing people for the first time while still delivering

Signs it’s time

✓You want to delegate more to them but aren’t confident they can carry it yet
✓They’re excellent at doing and less comfortable holding others to account
✓They bring you problems when you’d rather they brought decisions
✓The role has outgrown its original description and nobody has redrawn it
✓You’d struggle to replace them, and you’d like to keep them

If you’re the one in that role, reading this yourself

Mentoring works just as well when you bring it to your employer as when they bring it to you. Plenty of people arrive that way. If it would help to have the conversation first before raising it internally, that’s fine too.

What a session covers

Practical resolution, not theory.

Every session starts with a real situation the mentee is currently navigating, and works it to a decision. The mentee sends a focus note beforehand, so the hour is spent on the problem rather than on describing it.

01

A live situation, worked to a decision

Whatever is actually on their desk this week. Not a case study, not a framework — the real thing, taken far enough that they leave knowing what they’re going to do.

02

How to handle it

Difficult conversations. Competing priorities. Managing upward. Holding someone to account when they don’t report to you. The parts of the role nobody is taught and everybody is expected to know.

03

Skills the role actually requires

Planning, delegation, reporting, systems thinking, and running a meeting that ends in decisions rather than another meeting.

04

Expanding what they can carry

The point of the work. Every session should leave the mentee able to take on a little more — which is how more comes off the founder’s desk.

How each session runs

60 minutes, one to one with Nicole
Focus note from the mentee beforehand
Written actions issued afterwards
Remote, or on site in metropolitan Melbourne

Delivered by Nicole directly. This isn’t delegated — the value is fifteen years of sitting in the operations seat, and that doesn’t transfer to someone else.

Formats

One session, one quarter, or one year.

A single session solves a situation. A program develops a person. Most businesses start with one session to see whether the fit is right, then commit to a program once it’s clear it is.

Single session

$650 + GST

per session

One person, one situation.

One 60-minute session
Focus note provided beforehand
Written actions issued afterwards

A sensible way to test the fit before committing to a program.

Most chosen

Mentoring Program — 6

$3,600 + GST

$600 per session · valid six months

One person, one quarter.

Six 60-minute sessions, fortnightly or monthly
Development focus agreed at session one, reviewed at session six
Written actions after each session

Long enough to change how someone operates, short enough to see the return.

Mentoring Program — 12

$6,600 + GST

$550 per session · valid twelve months

One person, one year.

Twelve 60-minute sessions
Everything in the six-session program
Mid-point progress summary shared with the employer, at the mentee’s agreement

For someone being developed into a bigger role over the year ahead.

Programs are invoiced in advance. Sessions expire at the end of the validity period. Cancellations inside 24 hours are treated as a session drawn.

How confidentiality works

The employer pays. The mentee is the client.

That distinction is what makes mentoring work. If the mentee thinks everything said in the room goes back to their boss, they’ll bring safe problems and the sessions will be worth nothing to either of you. So the boundary is set clearly at the start.

What the employer receives

✓Confirmation that sessions are happening and being used
✓Development themes — the areas being worked on
✓A mid-point progress summary on the twelve-session program, at the mentee’s agreement
✓A person who can carry more at the end of it

What stays in the room

•Everything discussed in the session
•The specific situations brought, including ones involving the employer
•Anything the mentee is finding difficult
•Their thinking about their own role and future

One thing worth saying plainly

Mentoring is not a performance management tool. If the underlying question is whether someone is right for the role, that’s a conversation for you to have with them directly — and mentoring won’t answer it for you.

It works when the answer is already yes, and the question is how to help them grow into what the role has become.

Nicole Smith, Fractional COO at The Artisans Business Solutions, mentoring an operations leader

Meet your mentor

Nicole Smith

Fractional COO · The Artisans Business Solutions

I’ve spent fifteen years inside growing businesses, sitting in the operations seat rather than advising from outside it. I’ve held the middle — the role where everything lands, nothing is quite in your remit, and there’s nobody above you doing the same job.

So the sessions aren’t theoretical. When someone brings a difficult conversation they’ve been avoiding, or a priority call they don’t feel senior enough to make, I’ve usually been in a version of it.

What I care most about is that people leave a session knowing what they’re going to do — not with a framework to think about.

20 yearsinside growing businesses
150+Australian businesses supported
1:1always, never a group program

From someone who’s been mentored

“I learnt my most valuable skills working with her.”

“I had the pleasure of working alongside Nicole for a few years. To this day, I have never met anyone more driven and passionate about their job.”

“She is a fantastic teacher, mentor and leader, not to mention the most organised woman I know. She thinks about every detail and puts 110% into every project she gets her hands on.”

“I was lucky enough to learn my most valuable skills working with her.”

Stephanie Defazio

What mentoring actually builds

✓Judgement about what matters and what can wait
✓Confidence to make the call rather than escalate it
✓The habits that make someone organised, not just busy
✓Skills that travel with them for the rest of their career

Why it pays back

The cheapest capacity you can buy is capacity you already employ.

Founders usually reach for a new hire when the answer is that the person already in the seat could carry twice as much with someone helping them build the judgement to do it.

More comes off your desk

Every decision they can make without you is one that stops escalating. That’s the founder-dependency problem, addressed at the person rather than the process.

They’re more likely to stay

People in stretched operational roles leave when they stop growing and nobody notices. Investing in someone is also the clearest signal you can send that you intend to keep them.

The systems actually get used

Operational change usually lives or dies with the person holding the middle. If they can run it confidently, it sticks. If they can’t, it quietly reverts.

It costs less than the alternative

A six-session program is a fraction of what it costs to recruit, onboard and wait for a replacement to become useful — let alone to find one who already knows your business.

Mentoring alongside an ongoing engagement

Where The Artisans is already working with a business, mentoring the person holding the operational middle is often the highest-return thing we do. The systems get built either way — but they hold considerably better when the person running them has been developed alongside them.

Questions

What employers and mentees ask.

What is operational leadership mentoring?

Operational leadership mentoring is one-to-one development for the people who hold a business’s operations together — Executive Assistants, Chiefs of Staff, Operations Managers and team leaders. The Artisans Business Solutions delivers it as 60-minute sessions with Nicole Smith, from $550 plus GST per session, always individual and never as a group program.

How is mentoring different from coaching or training?

Training teaches a curriculum. Coaching typically asks questions and lets the person find their own answer. Mentoring brings someone who has done the role, working a live situation to a decision and saying what they would do and why. Every session starts with something actually on the mentee’s desk.

What does the employer find out about the sessions?

Sessions are confidential to the mentee. Where the employer is paying, development themes are shared — the areas being worked on — but session content is not. The twelve-session program includes a mid-point progress summary shared with the employer at the mentee’s agreement. This boundary is what allows the mentee to bring real problems rather than safe ones.

Can mentoring be used for performance management?

No. If the underlying question is whether someone is right for the role, that is a conversation for the employer to have directly. Mentoring works when the answer is already yes and the question is how to help that person grow into what the role has become.

How much does mentoring cost?

A single session is $650 plus GST. The six-session program is $3,600 plus GST, working out at $600 per session and valid six months. The twelve-session program is $6,600 plus GST, at $550 per session and valid twelve months. Programs are invoiced in advance.

Can I arrange mentoring for myself?

Yes. Mentoring works just as well when the person in the role brings it to their employer as when the employer arranges it. If it helps to have a conversation before raising it internally, that is fine — plenty of people start that way.

How often are the sessions?

Fortnightly or monthly, depending on what suits. Fortnightly builds momentum when someone is moving into a bigger role quickly. Monthly gives more time to apply what was agreed before the next session. Sessions expire at the end of the program’s validity period.

Do sessions happen in person or remotely?

Either. Sessions are delivered remotely or on site in metropolitan Melbourne. Most mentees find remote works well for a 60-minute working session, and The Artisans Business Solutions mentors people across Australia.

Build the capability you already employ

Give them someone to think it through with.

One to one with Nicole Smith, working real situations to real decisions. From $550 + GST per session, or $3,600 for a six-session program.

Confidential to the mentee · remote or on site in metropolitan Melbourne

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Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and live. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land.