Shoddy mentoring without leadership or substance? (8)
I believe the answer is:
nitrogen
'substance?' is the definition.
(I know that nitrogen is a type of chemical element)
'shoddy mentoring without leadership' is the wordplay.
'shoddy' is an anagram indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'without leadership' means to remove the first letter.
'mentoring' with its first letter removed is 'entoring'.
'entoring' is an anagram of 'NITROGEN'.
'or' is the link.
(Other definitions for nitrogen that I've seen before include "Gaseous element" , "Gas forming about four-fifths of atmosphere" , "Inert nog is an inert gas" , "Much of what we take in" , "Commonest atmospheric gas" .)