Pathbuilders develops leaders who see more, with mentoring and development built for every stage of a career.
Stage one of four
PERFORM
A program for early-career professionals finding their footing, and learning to make their mark.
The focus: building a foundation.
See where PERFORM fits: the four stages →The ambition was there from the start. What’s missing is the map.
The working world asks for things their education didn’t: the pace, the work of standing out, the skill of building relationships that carry a career forward. Their early moves either establish credibility, or undercut it.
PERFORM shows them the way. Everything we see at the later stages tells us what the first stage demands, and how much of a career rides on it. We name what no one tells them about how work really works, and those a step ahead share what helped them and what they’d do differently if they could begin again.
The 5D Model at PERFORM
The 5D Model names the five dimensions that define great leadership at each of the four stages. The SEE Framework™ describes how a leader’s capacity to see more grows across them.
This is where it begins: the level the PERFORM program is built to develop.
Great Performer
- Self — Leverages personal strengths
- Organization — Knows their role and the team’s purpose
- Talent — Embodies a Growth Mindset
The actions that demonstrate capability, ambition, and potential
- Curious — Genuinely interested in the work, the business, and its people
- Balances Independence and Guidance — Takes ownership of assignments and works independently but freely asks questions
- Reaches Beyond — Finds and creates opportunities the role doesn’t define
The choices that enable commitment and position for more
- Success Over Schedule — Works to get the job done, not to clock the hours
- Chooses to be Present — Values in-person connection and makes self available for key moments
- Conforms and Complements — Aligns with culture and team norms while maintaining individuality
The practices that are critical to success
- Organized — Builds systems for work and information that enable success
- Deadline-Driven — Effectively manages schedule and effort to meet agreed timelines
- Engaged — Proactively connects with others to learn and build relationships
The mindset a leader brings to their own growth
Recognizing differences
Within themselves, shifting how they see and think before anyone else notices.
See the full model and the SEE Framework™ →PERFORM runs inside your organization, alongside peers navigating the same first years.
Your organization is the context. How decisions really get made, which relationships carry weight, what good work looks like. Every organization runs on this. Nobody writes it down. Delivering PERFORM in-house pairs our content with the place they’re actually learning to navigate, and moves them from new to noticed faster.
Guides from inside. PERFORM’s Guides come from your own team, and what they pass down stays with you long after the program ends.
The things no one says out loud. Because we come from outside, we can say what’s true but rarely spoken. That a person’s own goals and the organization’s will sometimes pull in different directions. That how they’re seen forms earlier than anyone admits. Named early and in the open, these truths stop being traps. We raise them, the Guides make them real, and a young professional can navigate them.
At this stage, the messenger matters as much as the message.
The Guides sit just two or three years ahead of the participants, close enough to still remember their own early years, far enough to have something to teach.
They start on panels, then rotate into small groups. Different Guides resonate with different participants, and because someone this early is still deciding who they want to become, seeing a range of role models shows them what’s possible.
Together we choose the Guides, a broad cast of colleagues who came through these first years well and will thoughtfully share what they learned.
Three building blocks, delivered inside your organization.
You choose the format. PERFORM runs online or in person, over three months or compressed into something more intensive.
Interactive Workshops
Sessions on personal brand, credibility, communication, and how business actually works, built for the real world and for those still new to it.
Role Modeling
Every topic is reinforced by Guides who lived it recently, so nothing stays theoretical.
Applicable Learnings
Assignments between sessions turn the content into habit, and the change shows while the program is still running.
In PERFORM, participants take the personal brand framework into a real feedback conversation with their manager. More than one manager has asked for a copy of the exercise to use themselves.
What changes.
Managers see the change before the graduate can name it.
They step up
“I learned to be proactive — coming with a solution instead of dumping a problem on my boss’s desk.”PERFORM graduate
They connect the dots
“I am more organized, and I have a more optimistic outlook on my role and my department’s contribution to the organization.”PERFORM graduate
They show up differently
“My participant is very bright and experienced, however, had the tendency to come across to peers as too strong — He became much more diplomatic in expressing his opinions and much more effective working with teams on projects.”Manager of a PERFORM graduate
Your early-career talent is figuring out the working world right now.
Let’s talk about the start you want them to have.