Coaching with Copilot: How AI Can Help You Become a Better Mentor

Intro:
In today’s fast-paced, hybrid work environments, feedback isn’t just a performance tool—it’s a growth catalyst. Whether you're mentoring a junior colleague, collaborating with a peer, or leading a cross-functional initiative, the ability to give clear, actionable feedback can make or break team dynamics.

But here’s the challenge: how do you know what to say, especially when your memory of the last few months is a blur of meetings, chats, and emails?

That’s where the power of Microsoft 365 Copilot—backed by the M365 Graph—comes in. With access to your recent conversations, shared documents, and collaborative threads across Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive, Copilot can surface meaningful moments that might otherwise be forgotten. It helps you quickly identify key contributions, recurring behaviors, and impactful actions—giving you a solid starting point for any feedback conversation.

Instead of spending hours digging through your inbox or second-guessing your recollections, you can use Copilot to generate structured, relevant, and timely feedback using the SBI (Situation–Behavior–Impact) model. This not only saves time but also ensures your feedback is grounded in real collaboration—making it more credible and constructive.

With most of us working within the Office 365 and Teams ecosystem, this integration becomes a powerful enabler for building a culture of continuous feedback and growth.

Enter M365 Copilot: Your Feedback Co-Pilot:

With access to your recent emails, chats, meetings, and shared documents, Copilot can help you:

Identify meaningful moments of collaboration
Surface patterns of leadership, initiative, or communication gaps
Draft feedback that’s grounded in real interactions—not just memory

Sample Prompt I have leveraged:

Based on my chat messages, emails & meetings for the past 6 month, help me to create a SBI Feedback for <user name>.

I am looking for couple of positive feedback, Constructive feedback, leadership , collaboration

🧾 M365 Copilot Prompt Template for SBI Feedback
Prompt:
"I want to write SBI (Situation-Behavior-Impact) feedback for peer based on our recent collaboration.
Please help me draft a professional and constructive message using the below structure with the data on M365 Graph:

Situation: [Describe the context — e.g., 'During the final sprint review for the Q2 marketing campaign on May 28.']
Behavior: [Describe what the person did — e.g., 'They took initiative to consolidate feedback from multiple stakeholders and presented a clear summary.']
Impact: [Describe the result — e.g., 'This helped the team prioritize changes quickly and improved our delivery timeline.']

The tone should be appreciative and growth-oriented. Format it as a message I can send directly to UserName ."

🧠 Example Filled-In Version:

"I want to write SBI feedback for Alex Johnson based on our recent collaboration.
Situation: During the final sprint review for the Q2 marketing campaign on May 28.
Behavior: Alex took initiative to consolidate feedback from multiple stakeholders and presented a clear summary.
Impact: This helped the team prioritize changes quickly and improved our delivery timeline.

Please help me write a professional and encouraging message I can send to Alex

Why This Matters for Mentors and Managers

If you’re mentoring someone or leading a team, SBI + Copilot gives you a structured, scalable way to:

• Recognize contributions in real time
• Address challenges constructively
• Build a culture of continuous feedback and trust

And because Copilot can surface insights across your digital workspace, it helps you avoid recency bias and ensures your feedback reflects the full scope of collaboration.