Since 2017, Mott MacDonald’s Reciprocal Mentoring Scheme has helped transform how senior leaders and colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds learn from one another. Rather than treating inclusion as something leaders simply learn through training, the programme creates meaningful two-way mentoring relationships where both participants act as mentor and mentee.
The programme was developed in partnership with our Advancing EDI employee network after recognising two connected challenges. Leadership roles were predominantly occupied by white male colleagues, while employees from minority ethnic, disabled and LGBTQ+ communities often lacked access to senior leaders, professional networks and visible role models. At the same time, many senior leaders wanted a better understanding of the lived experiences of colleagues whose perspectives differed from their own.
Rather than adopting a traditional mentoring model, we created reciprocal mentoring. Junior colleagues mentor senior leaders through sharing their lived experiences of inclusion, while senior leaders provide career mentoring, professional guidance and leadership insight. This creates genuine dialogue, breaks down hierarchy and enables both participants to learn from one another.
The programme was designed to be structured, psychologically safe and scalable. Participants are carefully matched based on development goals, business area and lived experience before being supported with mentoring guidance, practical resources and structured meeting frameworks. Senior leadership sponsorship was secured from the outset, demonstrating that inclusion is a leadership responsibility rather than solely an HR or EDI initiative.
Over the past eight years, Reciprocal Mentoring has grown from a manually managed scheme into a year-round digital programme available across the organisation. Approximately 245 mentoring partnerships have now been created, with the programme expanding beyond ethnicity, disability and LGBTQ+ inclusion to include gender and caregiving.
The impact has been significant. Junior colleagues consistently report increased confidence, stronger professional networks, greater understanding of career progression and improved confidence to discuss workplace challenges. Many have formed lasting relationships with senior leaders who continue to provide guidance beyond the formal mentoring programme.
Senior leaders report deeper understanding of inclusion, greater confidence discussing race, disability, neurodiversity and LGBTQ+ inclusion, and meaningful changes to their own leadership behaviours. Many describe the conversations as eye-opening, challenging assumptions and influencing how they recruit, manage and support colleagues.
Importantly, the programme has also influenced organisational decision-making. Feedback from mentoring conversations regularly informs wider EDI priorities, helping identify barriers that may otherwise remain hidden and feeding directly into action planning. The scheme has therefore become both a leadership development programme and a valuable organisational listening mechanism.
Its influence now extends beyond Mott MacDonald. We have shared the model through industry conferences, Inclusive Companies, Government Events and cross-industry collaboration with organisations including Balfour Beatty, Atkins, Jacobs and HS2. More recently, the programme has been introduced within the Mott MacDonald WSP Joint Venture, extending reciprocal mentoring into a multidisciplinary partnership of around 800 people.
What makes Reciprocal Mentoring distinctive is that it creates change in both directions. It develops more confident, connected and supported colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds while simultaneously building more inclusive, informed and empathetic leaders. This mutual learning continues to strengthen leadership capability, improve organisational culture and create a more inclusive workplace where everyone has greater opportunity to thrive.
Mott MacDonald Reciprocal mentoring scheme | Birmingham, UK
