In the competitive world of corporate finance advisory, the importance of developing future leaders from well-rounded advisers cannot be overstated. A strong learning culture lies at the heart of many firms and support is given throughout an individual’s career. 

While formal training programmes play a key part in that continuous development, some of the most impactful learning comes through one-to-one conversations, sometimes in a formal environment, but often not. Such mentoring support is central to helping advisers both technically and on their career journey. 

It’s about more than individuals: it’s about developing a culture of mentoring as an essential part of a firm’s DNA. This will shape the future leaders of a firm, foster a culture of continuous learning and in the end play a key role in ensuring the long-term success of the firm. 

For Jon Stubbings, Grant Thornton transaction advisory services partner, mentoring has been an important part of his professional development. Partners and managers across the firm have supported him, not only on deals, but also more broadly throughout his career. 

“I’ve had very useful mentors from across the firm,” he says. “I received a lot of support on the path to becoming a partner. Then, when I first became a partner, my mentors were so helpful in enabling me to navigate the big change in my role.”

Mentoring can often be seen as the preserve of people who, like Stubbings, are at a particular point in their career journey, such as those who are new to the industry, on partner track or new to a partner role. The reality is that mentoring conversations and relationships, formal and informal, need to be accessible at all levels across a firm. 

What’s more, mentoring should not simply occur at a single point in an individual’s career. Advice and insights from someone with relevant experience and expertise, and coming at issues from a different perspective, will help throughout and so should be continuous. As advisers reach senior partner level, when many might expect them to take on the role of mentor rather than mentee, new challenges will present themselves that they haven’t had to navigate before. 

Effective mentoring

When working on transactions, a guiding hand can also have a tremendous impact on the success of the deal. Technical mentoring may often be the realm of a senior manager rather than a partner, but partners can still share their expertise. Where partners can make the biggest difference is in providing insights and advice on navigating corporate culture, internal and external stakeholder relationships and office politics, as well as general leadership skills.

One mentor is unlikely to have all of the answers – or unlimited time to share them. It makes sense to build a team of mentors around an individual, providing different perspectives and expertise, both formal and informal. At Grant Thornton both are prevalent, says Stubbings: “We have several different ways of looking at mentoring. There are formal programmes where we assign individuals a career mentor who is on hand to help them with career advice or dealing with particular situations outside the specifics they might cover with their direct manager,” Stubbings explains.

“Informal mentoring is probably even more important than formal mentoring, which is more for specific situations or scenarios. Informal mentoring happens on every single job, in every single situation and on a daily basis.”

It’s clear to see how mentees can benefit from the advice and insights of their mentors, but can busy partners invest their time and efforts in the career development of others? Don’t they have enough on their plate? 

Increased support for rising talent benefits the firm; it can increase motivation and in turn generate increased fee income. It is also likely to produce more loyal staff when they see the firm has their interests at heart. 

With recruitment and retention among the biggest challenges facing advisory firms today, making people feel valued and ensuring they can see a clear, bright pathway ahead is essential. Developing the leaders of the future secures the longer-term success for the firm. 

Mentoring also plays an important role in DEI initiatives. Many partners will actively support people from demographic groups that are underrepresented in senior leadership positions and the firm may promote this as well. 

At Grant Thornton, this is important, says Stubbings – the firm has a particular focus on social mobility. The product of a state school education, he is happy to pay it forward to help others following a similar path. Alongside colleagues at Grant Thornton, he’s volunteered for the One Million Mentors programme, where he mentors school- and college-age students. 

Many mentors enjoy helping other people, particularly when they see mentees progress and achieve their goals. Not every motivation needs to be commercial: the good feeling from investment in someone else’s future can easily be reward enough. 

For the benefit of future leaders, the firm itself and even the mentor, mentoring needs to be taken seriously in advisory firms, rather than treated as an afterthought. Building a culture that encourages both formal and informal mentoring relationships is central to securing the future success of the individuals being mentored and the long-term sustainability of the firm. 

Mentoring is a key element of the continuous learning and professional development that underpins a cohesive, successful and resilient professional services firm.