When coaching softball for kids new to the sport, my hitting advice is simple: stand at the plate, raise the bat to shoulder height, and keep your eye on the ball. It is simple because they are young and inexperienced. I'm happy as long as they learn and have fun.

When coaching competitive players at the high school level, my advice is more complex. It can be as granular as teaching them how to distribute their weight across their legs when they are stealing bases.

I do a lot of coaching in my life—as a parent of school-aged children and at FutureFund, the company I started to provide a free fundraising platform for K-12 school groups. But whether I'm training a sharpshooter or a software engineer looking for bugs before a new feature, I've learned that sports training and business mentoring they often go hand in hand.

In both cases, the key to remaining effective is to recognize what stage of development people are at so you can provide feedback that helps them continue to improve. As the person you are coaching or mentoring evolves, the advice you give should evolve with them.

So here are four key stages for recognizing how the people you lead grow – and how you should adapt to each one.

Related: Be a coach, not a referee – How to be a good mentor and manager from a coaching perspective

Phase 1: Mentoring the beginner

When you're starting almost anything that requires skill, you need it someone to explain how to do it correctly. Next, you need them to identify areas that can be improved and put you on the right track.

In addition to coaching softball, I am the strength and conditioning coach for the varsity water polo team at our local high school. When they start lifting weights, most of them have to be told exactly what to do because they just don't know.

Since I am trying to impart basic fundamental knowledge, my role as a mentor it is mainly instructive. If I'm teaching someone who has never deadlifted before, I need to clearly describe how they should stand, support their bodies, and perform the lift. But once they understand these basic steps, I have another responsibility to them.

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Phase 2: Mentoring the newbie

Eventually, most beginners reach a stage where they have some basic skills – but this is the most dangerous part of their development. It often comes with confidence that may or may not be commensurate with their knowledge.

A person at this stage does not know what he does not know. They have some ability and maybe even some autonomy, but they don't know it how to self-evaluate.

At this stage, my job as a mentor is to evaluate and critique. I'm there to help them understand the difference between doing something right and doing it wrong. I might say to a novice assassin, “This form is wrong—if you keep using it, you'll hurt your back.” Then, I'll give specific adjustments to help them find the right technique.

For this to work, you have to let people take certain risks, but you also have to know when to step in and keep them out of trouble. This means making sure the risks you allow them to take are calculated.

Most lifters have to go through bad form before they find the right form, but I won't force them to lift anything heavy until they're comfortable with the form because I don't want them to get hurt. It's the same in business – I can allow an engineer who is finding his footing to make choices that could affect the success of their project, but not if the wrong choice could cripple the organization.

Related: Why let people fail now so they can succeed later

Phase 3: Mentoring the mediator

People who reach this stage know when they have done something right or wrong, but may struggle to identify the reason or develop the solution they need on their own. At this stage, the stakes for mentees can be lower because they are less likely to make risky mistakes – but it can also be the most difficult stage for mentors because the factors holding back your mentees are not always visible.

Let's say I'm training someone in the weight room and I notice that the bar goes away from their knees when they lift. I can tell that the force is going into their lower back, but they may not be aware of it or how to adjust their posture to stop it from happening. They're just frustrated that they can't lift more.

At this stage, I don't want to simply provide the information that would immediately solve their problem; My goal as a mentor now is to help them develop capacity to train yourself. Instead, I might ask, “Where do you feel it?” and encourage them to take an honest inventory of their process.

Phase 4: Mentoring the master

In the final stage, people develop the ability to self-criticize. They know what they did wrong – but more importantly, they can improve as needed.

When you've brought someone to this level, you often become their peer as they mentor others. You can offer some external perspective or lean on your experience when they have questions, but you understand and respect that they can chart their own path forward.

Note that these stages tend to correspond to seniority levels in a career: in the beginning, you can do the work, but you need supervision. Then you can work without supervision. Later, you can supervise others. Eventually, you become a mentor yourself.

Your goal as a mentor should always be to help people through these stages of incremental improvement so that they can eventually become mentors themselves. This is how you pay it forward.

Related: How mentoring programs can create a culture of continuous learning in the workplace