IT was my son’s play time when I saw him dabbling with programming codes. I got curious and stood beside him, asking what he was doing. He said he was making a blaster of some sort commissioned by a playmate and when he had finished and delivered the blaster, he would get paid in the currency used in the game. I could not do that. I asked him to teach me and he said with a laugh, “Sure.” Now imagine an executive member of your leadership team coming up to a junior employee with the same predicament, only this time it is about a new software program. This is what is called reverse mentoring.
The term “reverse mentoring” was first used by Jack Welch when he discovered he needed to learn technological skills in the latter part of the 1990s. He realized the people who knew more about the new technological trends were the younger employees and asked to be mentored by one. Reverse mentoring happens when a junior employee mentors a senior member of the organization. This is especially helpful when the organization needs to adapt changes that newer members know more, and to expand the perspective of the senior management to new ways of doing things.
Younger members of the organization are more proficient in some areas more than the older employees. The pitfall of classifying people based on generations is to assume people in a particular generation behave the same way. The fact of the matter is that there are boomers who know more about their phones than millennials, or Gen Xers who know their way around programming codes more than the Gen Zs.
This creates a generational gap which can be closed via reverse mentoring. And this raises an important point for human resource development—people managers need to focus on the skills gap more than the age gap. And this is where reverse mentoring can help—focusing on upgrading skills more than classifying them.
But before you implement reverse mentoring, you need to understand the organization’s existing culture and how junior members of the organization feel toward more senior members, and vice versa. There is always the tendency for the senior members to feel threatened that they are being taught by junior employees, and junior employees might feel pressured to teach senior leadership.
However, when done correctly, there are several benefits for implementing reverse mentoring. One is the retention of top talents because you update the skills of senior leadership with the skills set of the newer members of your organization, and you get to keep emerging talents within your fold by giving them the opportunity to influence the whole organization by teaching senior members.
You also influence culture change where people are viewed through the lens of skills set and acquired learning rather than formal training. Human resources needs to capitalize on assessing existing skills set using practical applications and certifications, more than developing additional training materials which only assesses knowledge.
To start a successful reverse mentoring program, start with choosing a good partnership. One where both have mutual respect, and both can learn from each other. It will be helpful to pair two people from different departments and where both do not work together. This will ensure objectivity in evaluation, and prevents one from strong-arming the other. It is also important to acknowledge people’s reservations by putting in place measures to safeguard the mentor relationship. Identify what cannot be discussed like personal life or feedback on what goes on in your own team. This will ensure the mentoring relationship focuses more on the acquisition of skills.
List down short-term goals and add more as needed. This will ensure the junior mentor can adequately prepare to achieve the desired goals of the senior mentee, and give the mentor the added confidence to teach their mentees. Make the mentees commit to the set goals and objectives, and, more importantly, a set schedule. This ensures both get the maximum benefit from the mentorship.
Ensure that the goals and objectives are connected to a business need. As with any learning and development program, the goals of the reverse mentoring should have a business impact or will lead to process improvement. This will help both mentor and mentee to understand how they contribute to organizational goals and their place in the bigger picture. This will also provide a measure for gauging the effectiveness of the mentoring, and help fine tune future mentoring sessions, or even help uncover underlying risks and issues which can compromise the mentoring relationship.
It is also important to assess the mentoring program regularly. Human resources needs to set schedules for the mentor and mentee during the program to assess how both are doing and the challenges they face in reverse mentoring, so they can implement the necessary interventions to help the program succeed.
It would be wise to meet with the mentor and mentee separately so both can freely discuss their concerns, and for human resources to thoughtfully consider how to intervene.
Another consideration is the agreed means of communication. There will be times when the mentee will consult the mentor outside the scheduled meetings, and it is significant to agree on the best communication tool and process. Younger generations might prefer instant messaging or e-mail, while senior employees prefer face-to-face interactions. Both should compromise and decide which one they should use.
It is also important to understand the teaching method most effective for the mentor and the learning style of the mentee. Do not be afraid to experiment and find new ways of learning. They can shadow each other or even do a project based on an existing issue which the mentor can help with. Just watch out for role reversal and ensure that the mentor retains their role and continues to teach their mentees.
Instead of focusing on the generation gap in your organization, why not look at the skills set of your people and what senior leadership can learn from the new ones. When you start focusing on skills set more than the age gap, you might just discover that the people who can help your organization are just right in front of you. n
Image credits: Center for Creative Leadership