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What do mentors actually gain from mentoring relationships, beyond what mentees receive?
Mentoring is not a one-way transaction. Mentors develop real coaching skills, broaden their understanding through others' lived experiences, and build genuine friendships along the way. Above all, they gain a deep sense of purpose — watching mentees achieve goals they once thought were impossible.
A two-way relationship: mentors grow just as much as mentees
Both Naz Khanon, Head of People at Lane's Group and 2025 Mentor of the Year at the One Mentoring Programme, and Sophia Goring, Head of Sustainability at Business Stream and 2024 Mentor of the Year, are emphatic on this point: mentoring stretches the mentor, not just the mentee.
Mentors actively build coaching skills through each relationship. Listening differently, asking better questions, and adapting their approach to each individual — these are capabilities that develop with practice, and they transfer directly into professional life. This dimension of mentor growth is explored in depth in The Future of Utilities Podcast.
Goring adds a more personal dimension: mentees consistently share perspectives that make her reconsider things she had never thought about before. The learning flows in both directions, and the relationships often evolve into genuine friendships — something she describes as an unexpected but very real outcome of the process.
Purpose as the deepest return: seeing someone cross a line they drew for themselves
Khanon is particularly clear on what mentoring has given her at a human level. The reward is not abstract — it is the concrete experience of watching a person set a goal they believed was out of reach, and then achieve it. That moment, she says, creates a sense of purpose that is genuinely hard to replicate elsewhere.
This is a thread that runs through the broader conversation on inclusion and career development in the utilities sector, as discussed across episodes of The Future of Utilities Podcast. The One Mentoring Programme, which recognised both Khanon and Goring as Mentors of the Year in consecutive years (2025 and 2024 respectively), is built on exactly this premise.
The Women's Utilities Network, founded in 2018 by five women who were often the only female voices in the room, has scaled this philosophy into a structured community. At the Future Utilities conference, the network's mentoring event grew from a handful of participants just two years ago to over 100 women and allies — a visible sign that the two-way value of mentoring is being taken seriously across the sector. Karen Anderson, as Executive Director, spoke directly to this growth, a moment you can hear in this episode.
"Mentoring, for me, has given me a purpose. Seeing people build confidence, overcoming obstacles, they've set goals that they thought were impossible. Seeing them achieve those goals has been rewarding."
Karen Anderson — Executive Director, Women's Utilities Network
Karen Anderson has led the Women's Utilities Network for just over two years. The network was founded in 2018 by five women in the utilities sector who recognised that gender diversity was structurally absent from most rooms they occupied. Anderson now represents the network at major industry events, including the Future Utilities conference, where she speaks to audiences about inclusion, mentoring, and the people agenda across utilities. Under her direction, the network's mentoring event at Future Utilities has grown from a small gathering of a dozen participants to a community of over 100 women and allies — a growth she points to as direct evidence that structured mentoring creates value for everyone involved, not just mentees.
The full conversation, including Goring's and Khanon's accounts of what mentoring has given them professionally and personally, is available in The Future of Utilities Podcast.
See also
How did networking directly shape Sophia Goring's career path into sustainability?
Sophia Goring met a woman named Lindsay who worked for a social mobility charity called Career Ready while she was working in communications. That connection directly opened the door to her move into sustainability.
How can professionals approach networking in a less daunting, more authentic way?
Sophia Goring advises going into networking with an open mind about potential value, without putting too much pressure on yourself, since some opportunities will come from entirely unexpected places.
How has the Women's Utilities Network mentoring event grown over the years?
Two years ago, the Women's Utilities Network event at Future Utilities had only half a dozen to a dozen mentors and a few mentees standing in the reception area. Today, well over 100 women and allies attend.
Key takeaways
- Mentoring develops practical coaching skills in mentors — skills that carry over directly into their professional roles.
- Mentees regularly offer perspectives that challenge mentors' assumptions, making the learning genuinely reciprocal.
- The deepest gain for mentors is purpose: the experience of watching someone achieve a goal they once believed was out of reach.
- Friendships formed through mentoring are a real and documented outcome — Goring describes them as a natural, lasting result of the process.
This answer comes from a real episode of The Future of Utilities Podcast. Hear the full conversation — including Naz Khanon, Sophia Goring, and Karen Anderson on mentoring, inclusion, and careers in utilities.
Listen to the episode on Listenly