INSIDE LETTING-GO MENTORING
Use Onboarding to Hand Work Over
Your new hire starts on Monday, the onboarding plan has 30 intense days, and every client task still routes through you. Ivanka Menken uses the Step-Out Log inside Letting-Go Mentoring, a 6-month programme at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST, to turn a 90-day onboarding into a handover schedule: named tasks the new hire owns, each left with them for 14 days without your override. You leave with an onboarding handover map for the first 30 days.
The Step-Out Log is a tool inside the programme, not a separate product.
THE ONBOARDING, AS A HANDOVER
90 days. The first 30 do the work.
- TOTAL ONBOARDINGsupportive, start to finish90 days
- THE INTENSE PARTwhere the handovers happen30 days
- EACH HANDOVERleft with the new hire, no override14 days
THE RULE
“A strong first 30 days should create independence, not a longer queue at your desk.”
Your tasks and timing will be your own.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
A new hire who still waits on you
- 01Your new hire waits on you for every decision.
- 02Onboarding is a document dump with no real handover.
- 03You cannot tell what will come back to you after week four.
THE ONBOARDING PLAN, AS IT STANDS
- Length: 90 days, first 30 intense
- Content: shadowing and documents
- Tasks the new hire owns after day 30: none named
- Approvals: the same as before
- What comes back after week four: unknown
Plenty of support. No handover.
THE EXAMPLE CASE
One onboarding, written as a handover
01
THE MOMENT
A strong onboarding plan, and the same approvals
The new hire starts on Monday. The onboarding plan runs 90 days, and the first 30 are packed: shadowing, documents, introductions, sitting in on calls. Look closely and every client task still routes through you for approval. By week four the new person knows a lot and owns nothing, and the queue at your desk is longer than before.
02
WHAT THEY HAD TRIED
More onboarding documents
The obvious fix was more documentation. The founder wrote longer guides, recorded more walkthroughs and added a checklist for every client process. The new hire read them all and still brought every client decision back for a yes. The documents explained the work well. None of them said the work now belonged to someone else.
03
WHAT IVANKA NOTICED
Support, with nothing to own
Ivanka read the plan and noticed it described support in detail, and did not name a single task the new hire would own after the intense first month. Every day had a learning goal. No day had a handover. The plan was teaching the new hire the work, and quietly training the founder to stay involved in all of it.
THE DIAGNOSIS
Onboarding without a handover log
The diagnosis was that onboarding had no handover log, so it trained the founder to stay involved. Shadowing and approvals felt supportive, and they kept every decision on the founder’s desk.
The reframe: a strong first 30 days should create independence, not a longer queue at the founder’s desk. Each week of the intense month can hand one real task over, with a named owner, a check-in and 14 days without override. Support becomes the way the handover works, not a replacement for it.
A strong first 30 days should create independence, not a longer queue at your desk.
THE COST OF STAYING STUCK
If onboarding never becomes a handover, the founder stays the training manual and the bottleneck, now with one more person waiting on them.
THE TOOL
The Step-Out Log, for a 90-day onboarding
The Step-Out Log is how Letting-Go Mentoring moves work off the founder: step out, log what still needed you, and hand it over in order. For onboarding, it turns the first 30 days into a handover schedule. Each task gets an owner, a check-in, 14 days without override, and a rule for what comes back to you.
Tap a part. Your tasks and timing are yours.
Step-Out Log · a framework by Ivanka Menken
What it is
It is an onboarding handover map: the task, the new owner, the check-in date, the 14-day period without override, what triggers a return to the founder, and the next session item if it does come back.
What it replaces
It replaces the onboarding plan made of shadowing and documents, the approvals that never end, and the hope that a new hire will start owning work on their own.
It sits inside Letting-Go Mentoring, next to the Commitments-Kept Scorecard. Each fortnight adds one handover to the log, and anything that comes back becomes the next session’s work. It is structured coaching, not onboarding software, and there is no separate checkout.
THE MAP, FOR THE FIRST 30 DAYS
- 01The task: one client task the new hire will own
- 02The owner: the new hire, by name
- 03The check-in: a set day to talk it through
- 04The 14 days: the task stays with them, no override
- 05The return rule: what still comes back to the founder
- 06The next item: anything that came back, for the next session
HOW IVANKA WORKED WITH THEM
The first 30 days, mapped into the log
In the session, Ivanka mapped the first 30 days of the onboarding into the Step-Out Log. She asked which tasks the new hire could own, which decisions should stay with them for 14 days, what support would look like and what would trigger a return to the founder. The written output was an onboarding handover map: task, owner, check-in, the 14 days and the next session item if it came back. Before the next session, the first task was handed over.
THE HANDOVER ENTRY, AS WRITTEN
- The task
- Weekly client status updates.
- The owner
- The new hire, from day eight.
- The 14 days
- No founder override; questions go to the check-in.
- Comes back if
- A client raises price, scope or a complaint.
- Review
- At the 14-day check-in
Your first task will come from your own plan.
THE FOUR-STEP LOOP
- 1The one thingA 90-day onboarding with no task handed over.
- 2The numbers90 days, 30 intense, 14 days per handover.
- 3The storyWhy approving everything felt like support.
- 4The commitmentThe first task handed over, left alone for 14 days.
THE QUESTIONS
- Which tasks can the new hire own after week one?
- Which decisions stay with them for 14 days?
- What does support look like without approval?
- What triggers a return to you?
- What will you do when it comes back?
Before the next session, the founder handed over the first client task, left it with the new hire for 14 days and noted every time they wanted to step back in.
WHAT CHANGED
An onboarding that hands work over
By month 6, the founder has a repeatable onboarding handover, a record of what came back in the first 14-day periods, and a new hire who carries more work without daily approval.
BEFORE
- Onboarding was shadowing and documents.
- Every client decision came back for a yes.
- No task had a named owner after day 30.
- The founder was the training manual.
BY MONTH 6
- A handover map for the first 30 days.
- Each task left with the new hire for 14 days.
- A record of what came back, and why.
- A repeatable onboarding for the next hire.
THE 12 FORTNIGHTS
- 1Call
- 2Call
- 3Call
- 4Call
- 5Call
- 6Month 3
- 7Call
- 8Call
- 9Call
- 10Call
- 11Call
- 12Month 6
The programme is the container: 12 fortnightly 60-minute sessions, one handover each fortnight, and reviews at month 3 and month 6.
ILLUSTRATIVE RESULT
In this case, the founder wrote Step-Out Log entries for the first 30 days and left each one with the new hire for 14 days. What came back became the next coaching item, and the founder began to see which approvals were habit.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU
Let onboarding hand the work over
Ivanka Menken built Letting-Go Mentoring for founders of $500K to $3M businesses who became the bottleneck. She works one handover at a time, and keeps you out of the work for long enough to see what really needs you.
This fits if you have a new hire starting, or recently started, and the work still runs through you. It does not fit if you want onboarding software or someone to train your team for you. The decision in front of you is one task. Name the first thing the new hire will own after week one.
“Helps founders lead with clarity and integrity by modelling vulnerability, emotional intelligence, and grounded decision-making. Creates an environment where leaders can openly explore challenges and grow without fear of judgement.”
R.W., founder
WHO IT IS FOR
It fits
- You have a new hire starting or just started.
- Your onboarding plan has plenty of support and no handovers.
- Every client decision still comes back to you.
- You will leave a task alone for 14 days.
It does not fit
- You want open-ended coaching or a done-for-you fix.
- You want onboarding software or HR templates.
- You want someone else to train your new hire.
- You are not ready to let a task go for 14 days.
THE INVESTMENT
AUD $1,500
per month ex GST
6 months · 12 fortnightly sessions
The Step-Out Log is part of Letting-Go Mentoring, a 6-month 1:1 programme at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST. It is not sold separately.
- 12 fortnightly 60-minute sessions
- One handover each fortnight
- Reviews at month 3 and month 6
- The Step-Out Log for each onboarding handover
Three founding places in total, shared across all 1:1 mentoring, are available at AUD $1,000/month ex GST, in return for honest monthly feedback and a testimonial, which can be anonymous. Claim a founding place.
The Step-Out Log is part of the programme. It is not sold separately.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Questions about onboarding as a handover
Is this onboarding software?
No. The Step-Out Log is a one-page handover map you write with Ivanka Menken inside Letting-Go Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST. Keep whatever system you already use for documents and checklists. The log adds what most onboarding plans leave out: which task the new hire owns, from when, and what still comes back to you.
What goes in the Step-Out Log?
For each handover: the task, the new owner, the check-in date, 14 days without your override, the rule for what comes back to you, and the next session item if it does. One entry per task, added as the first 30 days unfold. Ivanka Menken writes the first entries with you inside Letting-Go Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST.
Why 90 days?
Ninety days gives a new hire time to learn the work and own it, with support the whole way. The first 30 days are the intense part, and that is where the handovers start. The remaining 60 let each task settle. Ivanka Menken maps the 90 days into handovers with you inside Letting-Go Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST.
Can this work for a small team?
Yes, and a small team feels the difference fastest, because every approval you keep is time nobody else can cover. Start with one task, one owner and 14 days. Add the next handover when the first one stays put. Ivanka Menken works through it with small teams inside Letting-Go Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST.
Name the first task they will own
If a new hire is starting and the work still runs through you, start with Letting-Go Mentoring. The Step-Out Log is inside it, and the 20-minute intro call is where you can see whether the programme fits.
Not open-ended coaching or a done-for-you fix.