The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

And he should know. He was the man who, it is said, was most responsible for ‘refining’ the science of mass production.

Learning is not only good for us, but is also key to propelling a business forward. But when it comes to learning many think of dedicated courses, both on and offline. However, there is another option – learning from a mentor.

Mentoring defined

The CIPD, a the professional body for HR, defines mentoring as “a relationship in which a more experienced colleague shares their greater knowledge to support the development of an inexperienced individual”.

Simon Biltcliffe, founder, and executive chairman of Webmart, is very keen on mentoring. He thinks it “vital, absolutely vital”. He reckons that any person, at any stage in their career should either be a mentor and/or a mentee because “it’s a shortcut to experience and to critical thinking. And what you tend to find as a mentor is this is very much not a one-way street. It gives people a different perspective on challenges and opportunities that they have”.

Ursula Daly, programme director at the BPIF, also puts great store in mentoring. She notes that the sector has a wealth of experience and knowledge and “that it is important to create ways in which this can be shared within companies and across companies”. She holds the view that mentoring is a great way to get the young into print to “ensure that we retain them and that they reach their full potential”.

Mentoring, as Daly sees it, revolves around mutual trust and respect because it is a two-way relationship where learning is centre stage so that individuals can personally develop. In fact, she sees the process helping all as “both mentor and mentee can develop and improve their communication and planning skills”.

But in any learning process there are limits and in outlining those that apply here Daly draws a distinction between what a mentor can and cannot do.

She says that a mentor can guide an individual to look at a wide variety of options while considering alternative courses of action to solve problems for themselves. However, a mentor won’t give answers or provide solutions.

“A mentor,” says Daly, “doesn’t take control – they leave mentees to work out the solution. They are not there to listen to gripes and while they will be friendly, they must be completely honest in a way which would be difficult for a friend.”

Further, she comments that “the real value in a mentor is independence”. And when they come from a different department or company, or elsewhere, she says that “they can challenge a way of thinking with some simple questions. It is a real opportunity for a less experienced person to gain access to impartial, non-judgmental guidance and support.”

Biltcliffe thinks the same and suggests that the concept comes into its own when the mentor is “somebody whose mortgage doesn’t depend on the outcome as they can give a different, a more measured, perspective on the challenges that may be really pressing on an individual, or opportunities that they might not know to make the best of”.

A supportive relationship is essential in his eyes along with being a trusting and confidential relationship because it “suggests thinking quite deeply about the person and their approach, and things that have gone well and badly”.

But from the perspective of the mentor, Biltcliffe says that mentoring can be positive, and isn’t necessarily time consumptive – maybe 10 minutes every so often. He expands on what he means: “I’ve given 10% of my time for the last 20 years – with no expectation of anything back in return. But what I have found, over that time, is that you get back 10 times the return.” He’s referring to former mentees who, from time to time, make contact with something that may be of interest to him.

In line with this he offers key advice to those seeking a mentor: “If there is somebody that you respect or you think is interesting, just reach out to them on LinkedIn. You’d be astounded how receptive most people are to helping anybody at any stage in their career to develop further.”

The value of a mentor

So, landscape set out, it’s worth taking time to highlight statistics that relate to the value and benefits of mentoring. In particular, 2024 data from guider-ai.com recorded that 25% of employees who enrolled in a mentoring programme saw a salary-grade change, compared with only 5% of workers who did not participate; that mentees were promoted five times more often than those without mentors; and mentors themselves were six times more likely to be promoted. Further, 89% of those with mentors believed their colleagues valued their work, compared with 75% who do not have mentors; and 87% of mentors and mentees felt empowered by their mentoring relationships and had developed greater confidence.

But irrespective of these findings, for Biltcliffe, mentoring is relevant regardless of role. As he says, “it doesn’t matter what you do. It doesn’t matter what age you are. We all need to get buy-in and selling is always about the other person”.

He continues: “It’s never about what you want, so it helps you to be empathetic, be reflective, measured in what you do, and understand value and how people’s perception is moulded around concepts, ideas, innovation.” And then, of course, he sees the key to it all: continual professional development and continual process development.

Fundamentally, Biltcliffe believes that mentoring is an inexpensive way to learn quickly, and is “a great way to give back if you’re a more experienced person”.

How mentoring works

As to how mentoring works, Biltcliffe describes it as an ongoing and “iterative” process and “it can be anything that you want. It can be on email, it can be a voice note, it can be live, it can be on video, or it could be filling your time when you’re driving; it’s great use of time.”

Even so, it’s important to understand the difference between informal and formal mentoring. The former is, as Daly explains, “almost like a friendship where such people are turned to for advice or to challenge thinking.”

In contrast, formal mentoring is organised and matches mentees with mentors to help them towards a goal or target and tends to be run through structured programmes. Daly outlines that there are essentially four main types which can take place in person or virtually.

The first is One-on-One Mentoring, which is more traditional, in which a mentor agrees to help a mentee develop, improve, and achieve their goals.

Here Daly tells that “the mentor has more experience in an area that the mentee is interested in and so can act as an advisor and guide. While the focus is primarily on the mentee, the mentor also benefits as they develop leadership skills and may learn from their mentee”.

Next is Peer Mentoring. Similar to the first, peer mentoring is when two people come together in a mentorship but both parties are from a similar job level or age range. “The aim,” says Daly, “is to share experiences and expertise, learn together and hold each other accountable”.

The third that Daly mentions is Group Mentoring which involves a mentor working with several mentees in a group. She explains: “The mentor will lead the sessions with the group of mentees all bringing in their own range of knowledge and experience.”

Lastly, there’s Reverse Mentoring, where, almost perversely, a more junior person mentors a more senior person in an organisation. “This,” says Daly, “recognises that there are skill gaps and learning opportunities on both sides of a mentoring relationship.”

But to this list Biltcliffe adds alternative ways of mentoring. He’s specifically thinking of mentoring via speeches and presentations where it’s possible to “get 50, 100 or 200 to one.” This form of mentoring works well in front of a university audience or at an event and it works for him: “Quite often I’ve had people come back to me that I’ve never met, and they’ve said ‘what you said 10 years ago really resonated with me’.” It’s a slow burn but such people subsequently seek him out with something of interest. He says that the same can apply to video and podcast mentoring which can see “tens, hundreds, thousands of views. You can make a difference at scale.”

The value of mentoring to a business

Mentoring shouldn’t be thought of as only of use where someone needs to learn about the technicalities of print. Rather, mentoring can be applied to any part of the world of print, including the management skills that can give an individual the ability and confidence to start-up or run a business.

Biltcliffe is keen on this, especially in start-ups as “business is a multifaceted beast. You can’t be an expert on every aspect of it. And I think it critical that you’re opening up a network where someone may not be able to help you, but they’ll know somebody who can”.

But for all of this to happen, Daly says that it’s important to identify the right mentor that meets an individual’s needs at that point in time. She gives an example: a candidate that has been operating as a board member but wants to take the next step to MD/CEO. “They,” she says, “may feel that they are weak in certain areas, such as finance. They understand a simple P&L but may get lost in some of the intricacies of the financial reporting and review.” In this regard, she sees a mentor as someone who is experienced in finance or has already worked as an MD/CEO as guiding learning and building confidence in this area.

Setting up the process

While it follows that every company will set up mentoring as it best fits their company culture, Daly nevertheless thinks it important to provide guidance to the potential mentee on what is expected of the relationship. She also believes it important that guidance is given to mentors so that they don’t mistake the role as one of acting as a coach or teacher.

She goes on to say that the initial meeting of the mentor with the mentee is very important: “The first meeting is about the relationship getting off to a good start by establishing some ground rules and acknowledging that the relationship is two-way.” It’s at this point that both should agree what the mentee should hope to achieve.

Here a mentee might discuss any particular issues they face, their achievements so far and how to build on them, realistic expectations, their priorities, and where they would find input useful.

At the same time, it would also make sense to codify, as Daly details, when both mentor and mentee should meet: how often and for how long, the venue, how they’ll keep in touch, drawing up a mentoring agreement, confidentiality and responsibility, and recording progress made and issues/targets for further development.

As for learning targets, Biltcliffe in contrast, doesn’t think it necessary to define them: “There may be an initial engagement reason for it, but it’s an ongoing process.” He’s keener on ‘smart targets’ which can be worked towards which aren’t that prescriptive.

That said, he’s emphatic that there has to be chemistry between mentor and mentee for the process to work. As he says, “trust is the most efficient way of working – ever. It’s a shortcut”. He goes on to tell how he thinks of business as a game of snakes and ladders: “If you want to get to where you want to go – 100 on the board – quickly, then you want as many ladders as possible and to avoid as many snakes as possible. Mentoring offers you that.”

In summary

Mentoring is a process that print firms would be well advised putting in place, both to get the best out of staff and to secure their future. But beyond that, firms struggling to recruit – or just simply recruiting – will be paying for the privilege of doing so. Staff churn is expensive but providing a new member of staff with a mentor, someone who will make a joiner feel valued while helping them integrate, is a wise move.