Reverse Mentoring: Benefits, Drawbacks and Tips
We’re at an age now where four different generations find themselves working together (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z). This generational gap can be tough to bridge, but the answer may lie in reverse mentoring.
So, join us as we explore the topic of reverse mentoring, including what it means, where the idea came from, and tips for creating your own reverse mentoring programme.
What is Reverse Mentoring?
Reverse mentoring in the workplace involves senior leadership being mentored by their junior colleagues so that they can exchange skills, knowledge and ultimately an understanding of one another.
In many cases, the junior staff members selected come from different backgrounds to their seniors – whether this is racial, economic, or cultural. These differences are key to giving the senior leader perspective on how their colleague’s unique experience has impacted their career.
It should be noted that reverse mentoring can also address the knowledge gaps of the mentor themselves, especially when it comes to leadership skills – ideally, it’s a back and forth.
Quick History
Jack Welch - former CEO of General Electric – pioneered the idea of reverse mentoring in the late 1990s. At the time, he recognised that his and his fellow senior executive’s tech skills were stuck in the Stone Age compared to the younger people joining the company.
Personal computing and the internet were alien concepts to these self-confessed digital dinosaurs, and Welch saw a perfect way to fill that knowledge gap. He asked 500 of his top executives to find fellow employees under the age of 25 and arrange meetings together where they could discuss and share ideas on how to navigate a changing world ruled by new technology.
Benefits of Reverse Mentoring
A well-oiled reverse mentorship programme can be incredibly effective in developing your talent’s confidence and leadership skills - both for the mentor and mentee. By nurturing these mutual relationships, you can help build bridges across generations as well as develop new skill sets across your entire organisation.
Other benefits of reverse mentoring include:
Increased retention of Millennial* and Gen Z talent
Sharing of digital knowledge and skills
Driving culture change inside and outside your organisation
Promoting diversity and inclusivity
Breaking down silos and improving collaboration across the company
*BNY-Mellon | Pershing enjoyed a 96% retention rate for their first cohort of Millennial mentors.
Promoting Inclusion and Diversity
Reverse mentoring doesn’t need to focus entirely on educating your older staff members on emerging technologies. The experience can open participants up to different cultural and social perspectives, including those of LGBTQ+ and ethnic minorities.
By factoring in diversity and inclusion into your reverse mentoring programme, you can help create positive change inside and outside your organisation. For more information on promoting diversity and inclusion, check out our DEI consulting services.
"I don't think I would have lasted as long as I did at my first job if it had not been for my assigned mentor. When I was struggling with the feeling of not fitting in at work, she provided the safety to express my concerns and challenges that I didn't always feel I had during one-on-ones with my direct manager."
– Kisha Velazquez (Content Marketing Director at Joonko)
Drawbacks of Reverse Mentoring
Nothing’s perfect, and that’s true with reverse mentoring. You may find that your senior employees will refuse to take part as they believe that younger generations have nothing to offer them.
On the flipside, putting this much responsibility on younger new joiners can be a tall order. Imagine giving your boss feedback only months into the job…
Also, people are busy enough as it is. Is it fair to straddle them with another time-intensive responsibility? You don’t want your mentors/mentees to start resenting one another for taking up their valuable working hours.
Reverse mentoring can also place an emotionally taxing obligation on colleagues from diverse backgrounds to educate others on their experiences. A lot of this information is readily available from experts in social science fields, so you could instead get out there and do the research yourself. Some may feel it’s not fair to put the entire responsibility on your junior members of staff.
Examples of Reverse Mentoring Relationships
It can be tricky visualising the types of reverse mentoring relationships you’ll have. So, to help give you a better idea, here are some handy examples:
A senior finance employee receiving mentorship from a junior employee on ‘digital transformation’.A veteran head of marketing receiving coaching by a younger member of the team on the best way to use emerging social media platforms as new marketing channels.A junior mentor and senior mentee discussing ways in which an organisation can better meet their diversity targets.
4 Tips for Creating a Successful Reverse Mentoring Programme
01. Create an Overarching Objective
Think about why you’re doing this for your company. Is it because you want your senior members to learn new skillsets? Or maybe you want to retain more talent?
Figure out these key objectives so that you can start measuring them when the programme starts.
02. Become the Perfect Matchmaker
The entire reverse mentoring process will crumble if the mentee and mentor do not get along. And the biggest tip for preventing this is: pick people who actually want to be involved.
Talk to everyone before you start matchmaking. Find out what they would like from the experience.
Ask mentees: Would they like to learn a new skill? Or perhaps they want a new perspective from people with different life and work experiences?
And ask mentors: What do they hope to achieve? What kind of difference do they want to make?
Ideally, your paired mentoring relationships should involve two people with very different skillsets or backgrounds.
03. Create a Structure and Set Expectations
As previously mentioned, everyone should come to the table with an end goal in sight. You can put a deadline on the programme, or wait until both participants feel satisfied with what they’ve learned from one another.
Make sure that everyone’s goals are aligned and that they have a plan for how and where they will meet. And remember to track the progress of these relationships.
04. Track Progress and Assess
Once everything is up and running, put someone in charge of monitoring the impact your reverse mentoring programme is having on your business goals.
This can be done through surveys, interviews, focus groups and even organisational HR data.
Here are some areas that can be measured:
Employee engagement
Employee satisfaction
Retention rates
Promotion rates
Performance ratings
Participation rates
Customer feedback and NPS
Closing Thoughts
Whether it’s the growing generational gap, shifting social attitudes, or being left behind in the digital age, today’s leaders are constantly being tested by the business world they find themselves in.
And a great tool for helping them keep up with the times and hold onto their competitive edge is – you guessed it - reverse mentoring.
Since its inception, it has been championed by a growing number of companies all around the world, including Citibank, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Cisco and Procter & Gamble, and even the NHS.
By empowering your employees to develop their skills, build networks, and improve their leadership succession, the benefits of reverse mentoring can be game-changing for everyone involved.
Book a consultation call with me today and learn how my bespoke L&D consultancy services can impact your company’s leadership programmes.
Written by Michael
Michael Mauro is the founder of a forward-thinking organisation specialising in leadership, HR and employee development. With over a decade of global experience, Michael has become a leading voice on topics such as culture, inclusion, wellbeing, and the future of leadership.
