The business environment is changing faster than ever: technology is changing, markets are changing, and jobs themselves are changing. As a result, employees must constantly adapt and upgrade their skills.
For example, when an employee graduates from college, they might be trained on the latest technology and best practices. However, as they progress in their career, this knowledge base can grow stale. To remain competitive and move forward in their career, the employee must seek out new ways to grow their skill set.
In addition, there is a staggering five generations in the current workforce: the Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y or Millennials, and Gen Z. Individuals from these generations bring different life experiences and perspectives to the workforce.
At times, people from various generations may not work well with one another due to stereotypes, bias, and a general lack of understanding and empathy for one another. For example, Millennials are asking for flexible work options more than previous generations, demonstrating a shift in values to work/life balance and acknowledgement of the reality that many employees don’t have a spouse at home to take care of personal matters.
When companies cater to Millennial workers and provide flexible work options, Baby Boomers, who tend to value seniority, can become upset, questioning the work ethic of Gen Y and feeling like the Millennials are not “paying their dues” like Boomers had to early in their careers. Meanwhile, some Millennials may not have an appreciation for the expertise that older generations have developed over time, and the good judgment that comes with it.
What is Reverse Mentoring?
Enter reverse mentoring. In traditional, top-down mentoring, the more experienced mentor shares their hard-won know how with a younger, less experienced mentee, for the benefit of the mentee’s career development. However, savvy business professionals understand that mentoring isn’t a one-way street, and the younger professional has things to offer the more experienced mentor.
Reverse mentoring refers to the concept of a more experienced professional seeking out an early career professional for mentoring around a specific topic, like technology, for example.
Jack Welch, the longtime CEO of GE, is widely credited with creating reverse mentoring in 1999. He asked many of his top executives to reach out to younger professionals within the organization to learn about the internet. As the internet and particularly social media have grown in importance to business, executives need to understand these trends or risk their companies being overtaken by more tech-savvy competitors. An executive is unlikely to make the switch from advertising on television to advertising on social media without understanding how social media works, for example.
The Benefits of Reverse Mentoring
- Help executives stay up-to-date on technology. One of the big benefits to traditional mentoring is that it can raise the self- confidence of young professionals. Reverse mentoring has a similar benefit with regard to tech: it can help executives raise their self-confidence in working with technology.At times, executives may be intimidated by new technologies and therefore avoid them altogether. By increasing executive’s comfort level with tech, the organization sets itself up for greater success as the technology landscape continues to change.
- Improve intergenerational relationships. Beyond helping executives keep their skills sharp, reverse mentoring can help ameliorate some of the tensions that arise in an intergenerational workplace. Often, these tensions can amount to communication differences.For example, Boomers can sometimes see that Millennials are reticent to make phone calls, and interpret that as Millennials being overly sensitive or afraid of talking to other people, and may not understand that Millennials sometimes view phone calls as rude interruptions.Likewise, Millennials may discount the value of face-to-face communication. By getting people together from different generations, they are able to break down some of the stereotypes and biases by listening to one another’s perspectives.
- Contribute to diversity and inclusion efforts. While many organizations are becoming more racially diverse as younger generations are more diverse, by and large the culture of the business world is still very white-centric.Reverse mentoring gives executives an opportunity to see a different perspective than their own. This helps break down biases and misconceptions about people of different backgrounds. For example, an executive may not understand how a particular policy may affect employees from different racial backgrounds differently.
Considering Reverse Mentoring for Your Organization
If your organization already has a mentoring program, it’s relatively straightforward to adopt reverse mentoring since the structure is already there.
It’s possible that there will be some resistance to adopting a reverse mentoring program. Executives can be skeptical at first, and may feel threatened by a perceived lack of control.
However, the knowledge and experience that senior executives have to share with younger employees isn’t going away. A reverse mentoring program should complement, not replace, your existing mentoring program.
At the end of the day, reverse mentoring (like traditional mentoring) is about human relationships. It’s never a one-way street. Older executives and younger professionals alike can benefit and grow from the relationship.