The Mentorship Mindset: A Q&A with Amy Lawrence
At GingerMay, continuous learning and personal progression sit at the heart of how we operate. Yet, as entry-level opportunities shrink across the industry, breaking into communications has rarely felt more challenging.
Following her Bronze win for Mentor of the Year at The 23rd Annual International Business Awards® (IBAs), we sat down with our Managing Director, Amy Lawrence, to talk about her approach to mentoring, why degree-only hiring models need to change, and how businesses can create a culture in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Q: What does having a mentorship mindset mean in practice?
Amy: The most recognised form of mentoring is often a structured programme, where mentors and mentees meet regularly and have clear goals to work towards. That structure can be incredibly beneficial: it creates accountability, gives both people dedicated time and allows them to build a trusted relationship over a longer period. I take part in formal mentoring through organisations such as Bloom UK, and I can see the amazing results it can achieve.
But you don’t need to be somebody’s official mentor to mentor them. It can happen during a 30-second conversation or through a relationship that develops over several years. It might be the few minutes after a difficult client call, a quick conversation while making coffee, or somebody giving you the confidence to take on an opportunity you might otherwise have turned down.
For me, having a mentorship mindset means being conscious of those opportunities, from the smallest moments to the biggest ones. It’s about staying switched on to the people around you, recognising what they’re capable of before they necessarily see it themselves, and giving them the advice, encouragement or feedback they need at that specific moment in time. Formal programmes are incredibly valuable, but all of us can mentor others through the way we interact with people every single day.
Q: How are you putting this approach into practice at GingerMay?
Amy: Coaching and development have been part of GingerMay’s culture for a long time, and one of the most valuable tools we use is DISC profiling.
Every new starter completes a DISC profile, followed by one-to-one support and group training with a specialist coach. First, we learn what our profiles tell us about our natural behaviours: how we communicate, learn and respond to different situations. We then explore the wider team and the strengths associated with the different colours on the DISC wheel, particularly those that differ from our own. Finally, we consider how we can adapt our communication when someone has a different style, be that colleagues, journalists or clients.
The important words are understand and adapt. It isn’t about putting people into boxes or asking them to behave unnaturally all the time. It’s about recognising your natural style, understanding other people’s, and knowing when adapting your approach can lead to a better outcome.
Once you understand DISC, it influences all areas of your life! My husband is a fully invested supporter too, and we talk constantly about our own styles, as well as those of our friends and family and how we can get better at communicating. It’s such a useful tool, and one of those things that seems so logical once explained. If you know me, I’ve probably recommended the book Surrounded by Idiots as a good introduction.
Q: The industry is notoriously difficult to break into. How are you helping to remove some of those barriers?
Amy: Degree-only hiring models are outdated and restrictive. They lock brilliant people out of opportunities for no good reason, and this is particularly personal to me because I entered the industry without a degree myself and have always had to fight against a certain judgement.
At GingerMay, we’ve removed degree requirements from our job adverts and speak directly to students at local schools about apprenticeships as an exciting and credible alternative to university. We also work with partners such as Digilearning, who create meaningful routes into employment for young people and underrepresented groups. This year alone we have provided ten work experience and internship opportunities.
This matters even more in the current environment. The latest ONS figures show that 13.5% of 16-to-24-year-olds in the UK, more than one in eight, were not in education, employment or training (or NEETS as they have become known) between January and March 2026.
I have two teenage stepdaughters, so I see firsthand how overwhelming the choices facing young people can feel. If you decide university isn’t right for you, the alternative routes aren’t always clearly signposted, and trying to enter an already challenging job market without an established network can be daunting.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget what that feels like. We need to do more than tell young people that opportunities exist; we need to make the different routes visible, accessible and genuinely welcoming, while giving them the confidence and support to take that first step.
Q: You launched #OpenForAdvice on LinkedIn. What was the driving force behind that?
Amy: I wanted to challenge the idea that access to senior advice should depend on who you know. It shouldn’t be locked behind exclusive networks or only available through a formal mentoring scheme.
#OpenForAdvice encouraged senior professionals to add a badge to their LinkedIn profiles, making it immediately clear to anyone who found them that they were open to receiving a message and offering advice. It was a very simple idea, but that visible invitation matters when approaching someone senior can feel intimidating.
The campaign generated more than 20,000 impressions, led to dozens of direct mentoring conversations and encouraged over 60 senior leaders to offer their time. It demonstrated that there are so many generous people across our industry who genuinely want to help. The challenge is often giving young people the confidence to make that first connection.
My own door is genuinely open too. If someone contacts me on LinkedIn looking for advice, an introduction or simply a steer in the right direction, I will always try to respond or point them in the right direction.
What’s your favourite thing about mentoring?
The very obvious answer is seeing somebody go on to succeed and smash the goals they’ve set for themselves.
When you’ve worked closely with someone within an organisation, watching them move on to something new can sometimes feel bittersweet. But it’s also a huge compliment and a sign that they’ve developed the confidence and skills to take that next step, whatever that means for them.