Meet the member: Joe Huddleston on why mentoring matters

Squaredot business design development executive and national chair of the BCO’s mentoring programme Joe Huddleston is passionate about a lot of things, but none more so than his home town of Birmingham and the power of mentoring.

Huddleston has been chair of the mentoring programme, which is now in its sixth year, since 2024, and is on a mission to ensure that everyone with the BCO NextGen cohort – and those not yet signed up –  know about the wonderful opportunity on offer.

The opportunity is simple. If you are one of the many hundreds of BCO members that are under the age of 35, you are entitled to free mentoring from one of the 50 mentors within the organisation.

“It’s a fabulous opportunity for the younger generations to get mentored and to join the built environment community and really start contributing to all the good that we’re doing within the industry,” says Huddleston.

For Huddleston, the mentoring programme is one of the BCO’s best kept secrets – although he’s keen to change that. He wants everyone to know that the opportunity is on offer and to showcase the value that mentoring can provide – for all of us.

“We see that the benefit of the mentor programme is for both mentor and mentee,” he says. “There’s a lot that the mentor also gets out of this process. Through trying to articulate how to solve a problem from a mentor’s perspective, they also get insight into how they deliver their own work and articulate themselves and I think it can be quite exposing sometimes.

“We’re always learning and we’re always trying to develop and I think that through trying to articulate the best way to tackle a problem, you also start to tackle some of your own demons.”

Mentoring and being mentored has been a big part of Huddleston’s own career. He’s an asker of questions and likens this to being continually mentored.

“I’ve continually asked questions throughout my career and while I’ve not had a specific mentor, I’ve sidled up to people who I think can help and support me,” says Huddleston. “Typically I’ve sought mentorship from people who have continually pushed and challenged me. Those are the people that I feel I’ll get the most from and the ones that will try and get the most out of me.”

Huddleston’s passion for developing talent in our industry through fostering valuable mentoring relationships, is matched by his love of Birmingham and workplace design.

Born, bred and educated in Birmingham, Huddleston has worked for Aedas, Overbury, Gensler and Modus Workspace before his current role at SquareDot.

“I’m very proud of Birmingham and how it keeps reinventing itself,” says Huddleston. “I think the city really has transformed. I’m proud to see that it has reinvented itself over time and that the central hub has been carefully curated with a wonderful amount of amenity that’s really drawing people to it.”

Listen in to Workspace Unwired: Why Mentoring Matters to hear more from Huddleston on Brum’s powers of reinvention and my mentoring could be your secret weapon to success.

Tune in to a new episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired every fortnight. Available on all  good podcast players including Apple, Spotify, Amazon and Podbean.