In today’s fast-moving and competitive job market, mentorship is one of the most powerful tools for career development—and yet, it’s often undervalued or overlooked. For professionals from underrepresented backgrounds in particular, mentorship can be the difference between feeling stuck and seeing real progress.
But mentorship isn’t just about climbing the ladder. It’s about confidence, community, and connection. Whether you’re looking to grow in your own role or help someone else reach their potential, mentoring offers lasting benefits for individuals, organisations, and the workplace as a whole.
Why Mentorship Matters
A good mentor helps a mentee navigate challenges, identify strengths, and set goals. They offer insight, encouragement, and sometimes, a much-needed reality check. For mentees from marginalised backgrounds, mentors can also provide something else: validation. They show that success is possible—and that you don’t have to do it alone.
Mentors benefit too. Supporting someone else builds empathy, leadership skills, and fresh perspective. It can reinvigorate your own sense of purpose and challenge you to reflect on your own path.
In inclusive workplaces, mentorship is more than a nice-to-have. It’s a strategy for closing opportunity gaps and building trust across teams. When done well, mentoring contributes to staff retention, employee satisfaction, and better performance across the board.
The Impact on Underrepresented Talent
For employees who are Black, Asian, disabled, LGBTQI, neurodivergent, or from low-income backgrounds, formal development pathways can be harder to access. Bias—both conscious and unconscious—can play a role. So can informal networks that exclude those who don’t “fit in.”
Mentorship offers a way to counter this. It creates space for connection, feedback, and visibility. It gives underrepresented staff someone in their corner—someone to ask questions they might not feel comfortable raising elsewhere, and someone to help open doors.
In many organisations, mentoring is linked directly to progression. Staff with mentors are more likely to receive promotions and access to stretch assignments. Mentoring also improves self-efficacy—the belief that one is capable and deserving of success—which is particularly valuable for those navigating systemic barriers.
That’s why many organisations are investing in mentoring schemes focused specifically on equity and inclusion. Some pair senior leaders with junior staff from different backgrounds in cross-cultural mentoring programmes. Others run cohort-based schemes that bring together mentors and mentees with shared goals, creating a sense of community as well as development.
Even informal mentoring relationships can be just as powerful. What matters most is intention, trust, and consistency.
Finding a Mentor
Finding the right mentor takes time, confidence, and clarity. It often starts with self-reflection. What are your career goals? What kind of support do you need? Are you looking for someone to help with technical skills, leadership development, or simply navigating workplace politics?
Once you have a sense of what you're looking for, start mapping out your network. This could include colleagues, people you admire in your sector, or connections through employee networks, LinkedIn, or industry events. Many organisations have formal mentoring schemes you can join, but don’t be afraid to seek out informal relationships too.
When reaching out, be specific. Explain what interests you about their experience, and what you hope to learn. Most people are flattered to be asked and happy to help—especially when the request is thoughtful and respectful.
It’s important to note that a mentor doesn’t have to be someone who looks like you or shares your background, though that can be helpful. What matters is that they are willing to listen, challenge you, and support your growth.
Becoming a Mentor
Mentorship isn’t just for senior leaders. Anyone with experience, insight, and empathy can become a mentor. You don’t need to be at the top of your career—you just need to be a few steps ahead of someone else and willing to share what you’ve learned.
Good mentors listen more than they talk. They ask open questions, offer honest feedback, and help their mentee develop confidence in their own decisions. It’s about enabling growth, not giving answers.
Think about the moments in your career where you could have used some guidance. What did you learn the hard way? What would you do differently now? Sharing those reflections can be hugely valuable to someone just starting out.
Being a mentor is also a form of leadership. It builds emotional intelligence, communication skills, and perspective. In many cases, mentors learn just as much as their mentees.
Creating a Mentorship Culture in Your Organisation
For mentorship to thrive, it needs to be supported by the wider organisation. That means more than setting up a programme—it means embedding mentoring into your culture.
Start by making mentorship visible. Share success stories. Invite senior leaders to talk about how mentoring shaped their journey. Encourage all staff, not just those in formal schemes, to seek and offer mentorship.
Build structure around mentoring. This could include training for mentors and mentees, support from HR or learning and development teams, and opportunities to reflect on progress.
Recognition is important too. Highlight the value of mentoring in appraisals or internal awards. When people see that mentoring is valued and supported, they’re more likely to engage.
Some organisations take mentorship further through reverse mentoring—where junior employees mentor senior leaders on topics like lived experience, technology, or inclusion. This helps bridge generational and cultural gaps, and can transform leadership perspectives.
Making Mentoring Work: Relationships That Last
Successful mentoring relationships are based on shared understanding and mutual respect. Early on, mentor and mentee should agree on goals, expectations, and how often they will meet. Some pairs prefer monthly check-ins, others prefer informal chats over coffee. There’s no one-size-fits-all—what matters is consistency.
Trust is crucial. Mentees need to feel safe sharing challenges, doubts, and ambitions. Mentors need to feel able to give honest feedback and share openly too.
Mentorship is not therapy, coaching, or line management. It’s a unique space for reflection, challenge, and support.
The most rewarding relationships often span years. But even a short-term mentoring experience can have a lasting impact if approached with care and clarity.
Mentorship as Lasting Impact
Mentorship is more than a career tool. It’s an act of solidarity. A way of saying: I see you. I believe in you. Let’s get there together.
For organisations looking to drive real inclusion, mentorship is one of the most human, effective, and lasting strategies we have. It’s how knowledge is passed on, confidence is built, and opportunities are shared.
And for individuals looking to grow, it’s a reminder that no one succeeds alone.
Whether you’re a mentor, a mentee, or both, investing time in this relationship could be one of the most rewarding decisions of your career.