Center for Mentoring Excellence

Name

Center for Mentoring Excellence

Legal name

Leadership Development Services LLC

Website

https://centerformentoring.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1984

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Corporate Mentoring Consulting

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171), Professional and Management Development Training (611430)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Coaching, Mentoring & Facilitation Services (BPACANAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Coaching Leadership & Mentoring Skills (EDABAAAG), Coaching, Feedback & Mentoring Skills (EDABAMAM)

Keywords

• Mentoring program design
• Executive coaching services
• Corporate training workshops
• Leadership development consulting
• Workplace mentoring solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Mercer Island

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Professional Services (Workshops & Training): Customized workshops and training programs delivered to organizations, including Starting Strong online program, train-the-trainer workshops, and live events. Programs help teams build, sustain, and grow mentorship within their organizations.
2. Executive Coaching: One-on-one coaching services including Laser Coaching, Leadership Coaching, Vista Coaching, and Touch Base Interview coaching. Collaborative partnership driven by client needs.
3. Speaking Engagements: Keynote presentations delivered at organizational events, conferences, and company-wide gatherings. Dynamic, interactive sessions on mentoring culture and leadership.
4. Book Sales: Sale of published books through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers. Includes The Mentor's Guide (3rd Edition), Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring, The Mentee's Guide, and Creating a Mentoring Culture.
5. Pilot Design and Analysis: Consulting services for designing and analyzing mentoring program pilots for organizations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Center for Mentoring Excellence delivers customized mentoring program design, training workshops (Starting Strong, Peer Mentoring, Cultural Competency), executive and leadership coaching (Laser, Touch Base Interview, Vista Coaching), and keynote speaking engagements to organizations. The firm, a division of Leadership Development Services LLC, helps corporations, government agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofits build sustainable mentoring cultures using proprietary, evidence-based methodologies developed by founder Dr. Lois J. Zachary, supplemented by an extensive published content library of books and articles.

Product overview

Center for Mentoring Excellence is a consulting, training, and coaching services company that provides a comprehensive portfolio of mentoring-related offerings. The core portfolio includes published books (The Mentor's Guide, Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring, The Mentee's Guide, Creating a Mentoring Culture), instructor-led and online workshops (Starting Strong, Peer Mentoring, Cultural Competency), coaching services (Laser Coaching, Touch Base Interview Coaching, Leadership Coaching/Vista Coaching), consulting services (Pilot Design and Analysis), certification programs (Starting Strong Facilitator Certification), and speaking engagements. The company operates as a division of Leadership Development Services LLC and focuses on helping organizations achieve better business results through mentoring excellence.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Vista Coaching: The coaching division of the Center for Mentoring Excellence, founded by Lisa Z. Fain.

Products and services

• The Mentor's Guide Best-selling reference guide for mentors covering the four phases of mentoring (preparing, negotiating, enabling growth, and coming to closure), now in its 3rd Edition with expanded content on diversity, inclusion, equity, virtual mentoring, and ethics. Sold via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers.
• Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring Comprehensive guide co-authored by Lisa Z. Fain and Lois J. Zachary on helping mentors and mentees bridge cultural gaps in diverse workplaces, using a four-part mentoring model with practical tools and strategies.
• The Mentee's Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You Companion guide to The Mentor's Guide offering practical ideas and suggestions for mentees on navigating the four phases of mentoring relationships in corporate, nonprofit, or government sectors.
• Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization's Guide Step-by-step guide for embedding mentoring within organizations, filled with practical advice, stories, and reproducible forms and tools for organizational implementation.
• Starting Strong Elite online program and workshop designed to help teams succeed in building, sustaining, and growing mentorship within their organization.
• Peer Mentoring Workshop Workshop focused on developing peer-to-peer mentoring relationships and programs within organizations.
• Mentoring: Strategies for Success Workshop Workshop providing strategies for achieving success through effective mentoring practices.
• Cultural Competency Workshop Workshop focused on developing cultural competency skills for mentoring across diverse backgrounds.
• Laser Coaching Focused, intensive coaching sessions designed to address specific mentoring challenges or goals quickly.
• Touch Base Interview (TBI) Coaching Coaching sessions structured around brief, targeted check-ins to support mentoring relationships.
• Leadership Coaching (Vista Coaching) Executive and leadership coaching services to help leaders develop mentoring capabilities and achieve organizational goals; the coaching division of Center for Mentoring Excellence, founded by Lisa Z. Fain.
• Pilot Design and Analysis Design and analytical support for organizations piloting new mentoring programs before full rollout.
• Starting Strong: Facilitator Certification Program Train-the-trainer certification program for facilitators to deliver the Starting Strong mentoring workshop within their own organizations.
• Speaking Services Keynote presentations and speaking engagements by Lisa Z. Fain on mentoring, leadership, and creating mentoring cultures, available for various organizational settings and sizes.

Quantifiable outcome

• 88% of Wells Fargo mentoring program graduates experienced advancement in role level, sphere of responsibility, job title, and/or salary

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Chronus: Enterprise mentoring and coaching software platform serving HR and L&D teams. Competes with CME for the same corporate mentoring program budgets by offering a turnkey technology solution plus program design services.
• BetterUp: Venture-backed enterprise coaching and mental health platform combining 1:1 coaching with technology and analytics. Adjacent to CME's executive coaching business; competes for the same enterprise leadership development budget but delivers via a tech-enabled platform rather than customized workshops.
• River (formerly Ridejoy/Mentoring platform): Enterprise mentoring and people-development platform that combines software with coaching and content services. Competes with CME in the same enterprise mentoring category, with a hybrid technology-plus-services model that pressures traditional workshop-only consultancies.
• Together (formerly MentorCloud): Enterprise mentoring software platform that helps organizations launch and manage mentoring programs. Direct competitor for the 'mentoring program design and management' portion of CME's offering, with a software-first model that scales without headcount.
• Mentorloop: Mentoring software platform for organizations to launch, run, and measure mentoring programs. Closely comparable to CME's mentoring-program consulting and training business in terms of buyer (HR/L&D leaders) and outcome, but delivered as SaaS.

Broad incumbents

• FranklinCovey: Public leadership and organizational performance company selling training, coaching, and content (including All Access Pass) to enterprise clients worldwide. Comparable to CME's blended model of books, workshops, and coaching, but at much greater scale and with broader leadership IP.
• Korn Ferry: Global organizational consulting firm offering talent development, leadership coaching, and learning solutions to enterprises. Comparable to CME in the executive coaching and leadership development space, but with vastly greater scale, executive search capability, and proprietary assessments.
• The Ken Blanchard Companies: Management training and leadership development firm built around author Dr. Ken Blanchard's content IP. Closely analogous to CME's model of monetizing founder-driven books, workshops, and certifications in leadership and management development, but at materially larger scale.
• Development Dimensions International (DDI): Large leadership and talent management consultancy delivering leadership development, coaching, and mentoring solutions to global enterprises. Overlaps with CME in customized enterprise leadership/mentoring programs and facilitation-based delivery, but with a much broader assessment and technology stack.
• Center for Creative Leadership: Global, established leadership development provider offering executive education, coaching, and mentoring programs to enterprises and governments. Comparable to CME in delivering leadership and mentoring training at scale, but operates as a much larger, research-driven incumbent with a broader portfolio than CME's niche mentoring focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCYwzO0SPx7Si4dH91hTrGKQ/featured
• Facebookfacebook.com/CenterForMentoringExcellence
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/center-for-mentoring-excellence
• Instagraminstagram.com/lzfain

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Center for Mentoring Excellence