‘Trickle-down’ mentoring means business

‘Trickle-down’ economics may be a busted flush but apply that same concept to mentoring in the construction world and you are looking at something altogether more valuable. I am a recipient of a coaching scheme funded by the Construction Industry Training board (CITB), which helps leaders develop the skills to drive change in their business.

For me, it is about the transferring of knowledge, wisdom, and experience from one person to another and has transformed the way I look at my company. Having a mentor has helped me to grow and develop professionally, seeing the value of residential projects that we are dealing with rise from £1m to £4m in the past two years.

It has also, importantly, given me permission to follow my instinct to explore and innovate to critically assess the industry and to strive to transform it. I see huge potential for improving efficiency, with disciplined design and rigorous planning achieving greater productivity and reduced wastage.

When it comes to my own business, forging strategic alliances with architects, interior designers, and quantity surveyors have all proved beneficial from a financial and creative standpoint.

The business is also now more fleet of foot with a commitment to embrace cost-plus contracts following a rise in the cost of materials and supply chain issues post-Covid, Brexit and the Ukraine invasion.

Likewise, a decision to avoid the wasteful competitive tender route in favour of negotiated tender – where a client chooses and appoints one contractor to submit a tender response – has proven to be a sound one.

Mentoring has also reinforced my belief that good mental health is key, and unlikely as it sounds, for me, competing in regular ‘ultra marathons’ is proving the perfect antidote to lowering stress levels.

In the spirit of ‘trickle-down’, I am now a mentor myself: a member of the British Library’s Innovating for Growth programme, designed to help small businesses that are looking to grow. The free mentoring programme pairs up entrepreneurs who have completed its Innovating for Growth: Scale-ups programme with those who have started their own new business.

My first mentee was in the very early stages of setting up a business aimed at helping new businesses with tasks including admin, HMRC and hiring staff. He was hyper-analytical and was struggling to move forward or commit to anything which was really holding him back.

I tried to simplify things into some ‘next steps’ so he could gain some momentum and test the market he was aiming for including outlining his competition, customer demographics and pricing.

My current mentee is a business owner whose successful design and retail business was blindsided by Brexit red tape and the economic downturn. I have been helping him identify new markets. I cannot take too much credit for realisations he has made – though I hope coaching, listening, and asking some guiding questions has helped him think about the best way forward.

Meanwhile, I continue to benefit from coaching myself through the CITB, discovering that mentoring is very much a two-way street: equally important to my own personal and professional growth.

With the construction industry currently facing unprecedented talent shortages, I believe mentoring needs to be a conscious process because of its strategic importance to the country. Through constructive feedback, effective questions, guidance, and support, mentoring can help mentees grow and offers offer a broader perspective and greater insight.

Director Steven Spielberg hit the nail on the head: “The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.”

Dan Grimshaw is the founder of Beam Development