Can the teacher become the student? In other words, is it even possible? Surprisingly, according to the new trend of reverse mentoring, yes.
While experience is generally the crown jewel of seniority—since people who spend more time developing are typically better at it—reverse mentoring flips the script by inviting junior team members to train senior employees.
Finally, what they train on is what we’ll discuss in this blog.
Reverse mentoring offers a vague business case. In other words, does it even work? Furthermore, has it earned a place in the business world thanks to any actual innovation?
Alternatively, is it just some ploy to put experienced workers in the hot seat and remind them what it feels like to be underqualified?
In this blog, we’ll explore the philosophy behind reverse mentoring, its benefits, and the challenges you might face in implementing it.
What is reverse mentoring?
Different generations understand things differently. For example, Coca-Cola’s ‘Mean’ Joe Green commercial from 1979 wasn’t so different from Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner commercial in 2018: give someone a tasty soda and watch their tough exterior give way to soft-bellied compassion. However, there was a huge difference in how the two commercials were received.
‘Mean’ Joe Green could share a Coca-Cola in relative peace, as news hadn’t yet broken of the brand’s water shortage clashes or union-busting death squads in Colombia. Their “can’t we all get along?” campaign worked because TV audiences didn’t yet have the media literacy to define later generations. At the time, if an ad felt good, the company that made it must be good.
Decades later, things changed. Pepsi’s feel-good message—that peace deserves a chance, even during a mass protest, by handing riot cops a cold Pepsi—was received differently. People were upset. The brand was relentlessly mocked until they pulled the ad and apologized for “[making] light of [a] serious issue.”
This is an example where reverse mentoring could have helped. What was obviously tone-deaf to younger generations was approved (and probably celebrated) by senior decision-makers as heartwarming and brave. Might a junior employee have suggested that capitalizing on a nation’s fervent protests could hurt Pepsi’s brand trust? I think so.
The history of reverse mentoring
Bridging the generational gap with fresh perspectives isn’t a new idea. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is credited with rolling out reverse mentoring in the 1990s, pairing junior employees with senior executives to teach them about the Internet and emerging technologies.
With reverse mentoring, he hoped to:
· Reverse the flow of knowledge from senior to junior employees to vice versa
· Help flatten hierarchies by giving junior staff a way to influence senior leaders
· Shift focus areas from career advancement and leadership skills to literacy in areas like technology, social media, and current trends
Welch’s philosophy was sound, proven by the subsequent rise in reverse mentoring. Today, many companies develop reverse mentorship programs as a holistic way to bridge skill and knowledge gaps across all organizational levels.
Why reverse mentor?
Information silos have been a problem for management since the dawn of leadership. Senior decision-makers who surround themselves with yes-men are shocked when their decisions aren’t received well.
However, market experts and best practices can’t always solve those lapses in intel. Sometimes, you need a fresh pair of eyes.
Reverse mentoring helps to prevent information silos by assisting junior employees to:
Forge relationships across the company, from C-suite to interns
Cultivate leadership qualities early in their career
Develop a habit of ongoing learning
Reverse mentoring connects junior employees with more experienced senior employees, allowing them to offer insights into areas they normally wouldn’t touch.
Forge relationships across the company
Reverse mentoring bridges generational and organizational gaps within a company. Having senior leaders engage with junior employees sends a powerful message that everyone’s voice matters, encouraging an ongoing culture of inclusion. However, it does more than just that.
Gen Z and millennials better understand new technologies and social media platforms than older generations. They may not always grasp the psychology behind those tools. However, their technical fluency can help senior employees navigate the digital age.
Some specific areas where reverse mentoring bridges the digital divide include:
Social media strategy
Data analytics
Cloud computing
Cybersecurity awareness
Emerging technologies
In 2021, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) rolled out a six-month reverse mentorship program in China, where generational gaps are more dramatically defined.
At the end of the test period, PwC found that increased team building and digitalization led to a more inclusive and agile workplace culture.
Teach leadership skills
Reverse mentoring provides younger employees with a unique opportunity to learn leadership skills such as communication, feedback, and decision-making. In fact, all of these skills are crucial to retention.
Deloitte found a strong correlation between mentorship and millennial employees who plan to stay with their employer for over five years. Mentorships help them feel like they’re part of an organization.
So, by giving junior employees a chance to be the mentor, they can:
Gain confidence in their abilities
Learn to articulate their ideas clearly
Develop emotional intelligence
Understand the challenges of leadership
Build a network with senior management
Spending time wearing the leader hat is invaluable to career growth. Face-to-face communication with senior employees also helps organizations spot and nurture future leaders.
Keep senior employees in the loop
Cultural cachet may not top your list of essential workplace skills. However, staying up-to-date with social media trends and current ideas can give senior employees a springboard for thinking fresh. Plus, it’s fun.
Businesses tend to hire young people because of their ability to work with peers. This isn’t to say that more senior employees can’t pivot their communication styles to do the same, just that the results can be explosive should those styles clash (see Pepsi example above).
Reverse mentoring is a great way to help senior employees:
Gain insights into the values and preferences of younger generations
Understand social media platforms and their business applications
Stay informed about emerging industry trends and disruptive technologies
Learn about new productivity tools and software
All of this falls under the umbrella of continuous learning, which is essential to navigating the evolving business landscape.
Create a reverse mentoring program
Now that we’ve covered the why, let’s look at the how. Reverse mentoring will not achieve liftoff without a well-defined goal, so start there.
Some potential goals for a reverse mentoring program might be to:
Improve digital literacy
Build understanding and collaboration across generations
Identify new trends and technologies
Solve a particular problem
Enhance social media presence and strategy
Promote inclusion of underrepresented groups
Have people in mind who can participate and tailor goals around their growth. Ideally, you’ll have a balance of junior staff with valuable skills and senior employees who are open-minded and eager to learn.
Decide on the length of your program. Regular mentorships can last months or years, but reverse mentorships don’t operate similarly. You can schedule a one-off meeting to get someone up to speed or plot out a few weeks for more intensive mentoring.
Monitor & measure outcomes
Setting goals is only helpful if you measure progress and outcomes. It can be challenging to determine what to measure, but start with a broad goal and narrow it down as you go.
For example, a goal for better digital literacy could just mean following a few accounts on TikTok, then introducing view counts and posting later on.
Other goals worth measuring might include:
Improvement in specific skills (such as digital literacy scores)
Employee engagement
Retention rates, especially among younger employees
Number of new initiatives sparked by the program
Diversity and inclusion metrics
Knowledge sharing across departments or generations
The more you refine your reverse mentoring programs, the better they can perform in the future, so check in to see how participants are doing. Collect data using surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, or anything else you can think of.
Finally, encourage mentees to share their success stories. This will help build enthusiasm for the program and drive participation throughout the organization.
Challenges to reverse mentoring
Some stakeholders might be skeptical about reverse mentoring, and understandably. It doesn’t make an obvious business case. However, there are examples of these programs helping to address skills gaps, improve retention, and drive innovation.
For instance, Bank of New York Mellon’s Pershing branch reported a 96% retention rate among its first cohort of reverse mentors, attributing it to improved communication pathways between senior and junior employees. This translates to lower recruiting costs.
Other documented benefits of reverse mentoring include:
Better communication across departments and staff
Greater diversity of ideas
Talent development opportunities
More openness and collaboration
Connecting senior employees with juniors is a great way to strengthen workplace culture, leading to better attitudes and, in turn, better work.
Overcoming egos
Some senior employees may not like being mentored by younger colleagues. In pitching the program, emphasize that everyone has unique insights to offer.
To help people open up:
Frame reverse mentoring as a mutual learning opportunity rather than a one-way knowledge transfer
Provide training for both mentors and mentees on how to approach relationships productively
Encourage senior leaders to model openness to learning from younger colleagues
Celebrate success stories to reinforce the value of the program
If all else fails, tell senior employees that the program will be over soon enough and that you know they can handle it. Offer candy if necessary.
Reverse mentoring in the future
It’s wild to consider how rapidly the means of information exchange have changed. For instance, Instagram launched only 13 years ago, and it’s already fighting to maintain relevance as social media fatigue sets in among young people.
Consequently, knowing the thought processes of coming generations will be a huge asset to a business’s success in the future.
Reverse mentoring can play a part in that success by:
Bridging skills gaps: As technology changes, reverse mentoring helps organizations upskill their workforce and increase adoption of new tools among senior staff
Fostering innovation: Bringing different perspectives together sparks new ideas and approaches, leading to innovation that might not have emerged otherwise
Adapting to changing work environments: As remote and hybrid work models become more common, reverse mentoring can ease the transition into digital collaboration tools and remote ways of working
Preparing for the future of work: The insights of younger generations can help companies better meet changing market conditions and consumer preferences
Developing a learning culture: Normalizing that learning can come from anyone, regardless of age or position, helps to create a culture of continuous learning and growth
Reverse mentoring is not only a skill-based tool but also a social one. In fact, it brings people together who wouldn’t usually pair up for work, thus creating an environment of inclusion that will aid in employee retention.
Although there are challenges to building a reverse mentoring program, ultimately doing so will help your teams work better together. In the end, you might be amazed to see what teams can do once they’re free of skill and generational gaps.
More Resources:
Good mentor tips to level up your mentoring game today
Match game: How to build and get the most out of a mentorship program
Your first 30 days as a new manager — starting on the right foot
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