Most CSMs think mentoring is just for people who want to become managers. Mark Bernardin disagrees. In this episode, he makes the case that every senior CSM should know how to develop people - not because they're gunning for a leadership title, but because that's what "senior" actually means.

Drawing from his experience mentoring seven CSMs at Palo Alto Networks while managing his own enterprise portfolio worth millions in ARR, Mark breaks down what actually changes when you take on mentoring responsibilities. Your definition of success shifts from personal execution to collective outcomes. Your calendar fills with coaching conversations instead of just customer calls. And you're suddenly accountable for other people's performance, not just your own.

But here's what most people get wrong: they think mentoring means doing other people's work for them. Mark learned this the hard way. In his first few weeks of leading that team, he was solving problems instead of teaching problem-solving. He was taking over customer calls instead of debriefing them afterward. He was rebuilding EBR decks instead of coaching people on how to improve their own.

That approach doesn't develop people. It creates dependency.

Mark shares the moment he realized he needed to completely change his approach - and what he did instead. He built a coaching framework that forces people to think through their own solutions. He created documentation systems that scaled his knowledge beyond his availability. He set clear boundaries around his mentoring time so he could still deliver on his own accounts. And most importantly, he learned to let go of the work and invest in the people.

This episode also addresses a question many high-performing CSMs face: what if you don't want to be a manager? Mark closes the loop on his Palo Alto story, explaining why he chose to return to his IC portfolio when his manager came back from leave. It wasn't because he couldn't do the job. It was because he discovered he's better at building programs than running them full-time. He loves the mentoring, the framework creation, the system-building - but he doesn't love the administrative weight of formal people management.

And that's okay. Because you don't need a manager title to develop talent and scale your impact.

Throughout the episode, Mark shares practical frameworks including his four-step coaching method (Situation → Options → Recommendation → Next Steps), how to structure effective one-on-ones, how to protect your capacity while still being a great mentor, and how to document your mentoring impact so it counts when promotion and compensation discussions happen.

He also addresses when to say yes to mentoring opportunities and when to say no - because not every request is worth your time, and taking on too much will burn you out.

For CSMs who are already mentoring people, this episode validates the invisible work you're doing and gives you better systems to do it more effectively. For CSMs who aren't mentoring yet but are at a senior level or heading there, this episode shows you what's expected and how to prepare. And for anyone wondering whether they want to pursue formal management or stay in a senior IC role, Mark lays out what both paths look like and how to choose based on what actually energizes you.

The companion download includes a comprehensive mentoring readiness self-assessment, coaching conversation templates, time boundary worksheets, documentation systems for scaling your impact, and a detailed breakdown of the Senior IC development path - complete with role definitions and compensation ranges.

If you've ever been asked to mentor a junior CSM, if you're filling in while your manager is out, or if you're trying to figure out what "senior" really means beyond just having more accounts, this episode is for you.