Across borders and sectors, organisations are contending with disruption on a scale that feels both systemic and deeply personal. The usual suspects: funding cuts, geopolitical instability and supply chain volatility have returned with new intensity in 2025. But what’s striking now is the scope. No region is untouched. No organisation is fully insulated. And no leader is immune to the strain.
The instability is global, but the impact is human.
The world’s not just “shifting”—it’s whiplashing
This isn’t just another economic dip or regional crisis. The past few months have seen a cascade of disruptive events:
- Markets in flux: Trade tensions, especially between the U.S. and key allies, have shaken global confidence. The S&P 500 has dropped over 5% and the UK’s FTSE 100 tumbled nearly 5% in one day, following sudden tariff hikes and investor pullback. Global supply chains have once again been thrown into chaos and price volatility has become the new norm.
- International aid collapse: The dismantling of USAID and the abrupt termination of U.S. funding to major programmes like the UN World Food Programme have left humanitarian and development organisations reeling. NGOs, especially those operating in fragile contexts, have been left scrambling to stay afloat.
- Donor fatigue and budget cuts: From Berlin to Bogota, long-standing partnerships are dissolving. ESOs (Entrepreneur Support Organisations) and grassroots nonprofits have seen multi-year grants vanish mid-cycle and many leaders report they’re now working with less than half the budget they had two years ago.
Leaders are expected to perform miracles with less support than ever
In the face of these challenges, leaders are being asked to move faster, make smarter decisions and deliver impact with fewer resources. That pressure hasn’t gone away—but the scaffolding around them has.
And here’s what often gets missed in these conversations: the emotional load of leadership in crisis.
- Behind every budget cut is a team waiting for answers their manager doesn’t have.
- Behind every paused initiative is a founder absorbing the fallout and shielding their staff from the worst of it.
- Behind every board update is someone quietly wondering if this is the moment everything falls apart.
We talk a lot about resilience. But rarely do we ask: what is actually sustaining leaders in this moment? What do they lean on when everything around them is moving? Who do they turn to when they can’t show doubt to their board, or fear to their staff?
Strategy alone isn’t enough. Innovation matters, but it’s not a substitute for grounded decision-making. What many leaders need most isn’t another toolkit—it’s someone to help them think clearly through the fog.
The crisis we’re not talking about isn’t just economic. It’s not just geopolitical. It’s a crisis of leadership under pressure—under-supported, over-stretched and expected to deliver the impossible. And it’s showing up everywhere.
Mentoring: the human-sized intervention that actually works
Let’s be clear: mentoring is not a luxury. It’s not an after-hours perk or a developmental bonus reserved for stable times. In the middle of upheaval, it becomes essential infrastructure for leadership sanity.
When resources are stretched, mentoring does what traditional leadership training can’t:
- It creates space; space to reflect, process and recalibrate without the pressure to perform.
- It’s practical; a sounding board for hard decisions and moral grey zones.
- It’s emotional; a place where leaders can exhale without having to perform confidence for the sake of their teams.
And crucially? It’s low-cost and high-impact. In a time when internal L&D budgets are frozen or gone, mentoring remains one of the few capacity-building tools still within reach.
What mentoring looks like in a global context
Effective mentoring doesn’t require complex software or week-long retreats. But it does require intentionality, especially across cultures and geographies.
Here’s how mentoring can work in today’s high-pressure, resource-constrained environments:
- Internal mentoring networks: even in lean times, organisations can build mentoring into their culture. Pairing managers with emerging leaders, creating peer mentoring circles or inviting cross-team knowledge sharing can strengthen trust, resilience and leadership capacity from within.
- Cross-border peer mentoring: a leader in Nairobi and one in New Delhi may be facing different local contexts, but the leadership challenges—resilience, uncertainty, decision fatigue—are often universal. Matching peers across regions can offer valuable perspective and solidarity.
- Remote, asynchronous connections: with the right rhythm and trust, even monthly voice notes or reflective check-ins over email can anchor someone through chaos.
- Cross-generational exchange: Younger leaders bring fresh thinking, digital fluency and values-driven leadership. More experienced leaders offer perspective, steadiness and hard-won judgement. When mentoring flows both ways, it strengthens leadership across the board. Check out how we did that with the Leaders for Nature Academy.
- Mutual value: the best mentoring relationships aren’t one-sided. They’re reciprocal. Leaders at different stages can bring insight, challenge and encouragement to each other. This is especially true in a year where no one has all the answers.
- Culturally rooted and adaptable approaches: effective mentoring isn’t one-size-fits-all. Leadership norms vary—what feels natural in one culture may feel awkward in another. But in many communities, mentoring already exists in informal, culturally-embedded forms—elders guiding youth, peer circles offering support, knowledge passed in conversation rather than curriculum.The opportunity isn’t to replace these models, but to scale and strengthen them—by adding structure where helpful, not where harmful. At its core, mentoring is about listening, sharing and learning together. That translates across borders when we start with what’s already working locally, not with a global template.
This isn’t optional anymore
If 2025 has taught us anything for now, it’s that no leader can do this alone. Mentoring won’t untangle trade wars. It won’t reverse funding cuts. But it can do something just as vital: help leaders hold their nerve when the ground is shifting beneath them.
It reminds people that they are not crazy, not alone and not out of options. In a time when clarity, courage and connection feel in short supply, mentoring offers all three.
So let’s stop calling it “nice-to-have”
It’s time to treat mentoring like what it is: a frontline support tool for leadership in crisis.
The real question isn’t whether organisations can afford to invest in mentoring.
It’s whether they can afford not to.
Feeling seen? Get in touch with us to explore how we can support you and your organisation navigating these challenges.
