Mentorship plays an essential role in any organisation. It helps foster a knowledge-sharing culture, boosts employee engagement and productivity in both mentors and mentees, and ultimately increases company profitability.
While most mentorships occur when an older, more experienced worker mentors younger workers, there is another option: younger employees mentoring senior leaders. This workplace practice is called reverse mentorship and has benefited many modern organisations such as GSK, PWC, Microsoft, and more.
What is reverse mentorship?
Reverse Mentoring involves younger employees mentoring senior leaders. While most cases include new technology, they can also encompass modern workplace practices, bringing new perspectives on work culture, diversity, and inclusion.
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, popularised the concept of reverse mentoring in 1999. He paired 500 senior and junior employees with the aim of having the latter teach the former about new technology.
“We tipped the organisation upside down,” he said. “We now have the youngest and brightest teaching the oldest.”
This structural role reversal not only keeps young employees engaged and acknowledges their expertise, but also prioritises keeping senior leadership updated with the latest trends and ideas. This move made General Electric more adaptable and innovative and, by extension, a more successful company.
What challenges does reverse mentorship address?
1. Losing young talent
Keeping young employees engaged at work is vital to talent retention. With the rise of “quiet quitting” in the workplace, there is a growing concern that organisations may lose potential future leaders by not investing in their career health and aspirations.
By providing them an opportunity to mentor, young employees are more likely to feel engaged and valued by the organisation.
2. Widening Knowledge Gaps
With the pace of new technology advancements, a widening knowledge gap between older workers and younger, more tech-savvy employees is inevitable.
Leaving these divides may lead to older employees resisting new technology, which hinders overall organisational growth. For example, many older employees view AI tools like ChatGPT as a threat to their work rather than a tool that can support them.
Through reverse mentoring, younger employees can share how they use these new tools and the benefits they bring to daily work, making new technology more accessible to everyone.
3. Widening generational divide
These knowledge gaps also risk creating generational gaps. While it is understandable that Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z will have different values, the danger comes when they cannot understand each other, causing subcultures to form within the organisation.
Workplace subcultures are groups of employees that create their own culture and values separate from the overarching corporate culture. This fragmentation could lead to frequent miscommunication and an inability to collaborate within the organisation. For example, older generations may see working overtime as a sign of loyalty to their company, while younger employees value work-life balance.
By reversing the usual top-down mentorship model, the organisation has a structured approach to bridging the generational divide. Older employees would be more open to new technology, while younger employees have a safe environment to share their opinions and values without risk of criticism.
What benefits does reverse mentorship bring?
1. Intergenerational Collaboration
Reverse mentoring fosters collaboration across age groups, helping to build a more inclusive and innovative workplace.
It allows younger employees to bring fresh perspectives while benefiting from the wisdom and experience of senior leaders.
2. Bridging Hierarchical Gaps
Since most traditional workplace hierarchies are top-down, a reverse mentorship model can help reduce these hierarchical barriers and create a more dynamic and flat organisational structure.
In turn, younger employees are empowered by being able to share their insights with senior leaders. This empowerment can increase motivation, as their input directly impacts the organisation’s progress.
3. Building Leadership Pipelines
Organisations can effectively identify and nurture future leaders by giving young employees an opportunity to mentor them. As part of a reverse mentoring programme, young employees are provided with resources to gain leadership skills, learn to communicate their knowledge and insights effectively and teach skills to other employees.
4. Promoting Diversity and Inclusion
Just as younger voices have a chance to be heard through reverse mentoring, other voices can also be given an avenue. Companies like Virgin Atlantic have used reverse mentoring to address gender imbalances in the workplace. By pairing senior male leaders with younger female employees, senior leaders get a chance to understand women’s challenges in the workplace better.
This, in turn, helps to attract and retain women workers, identify potential talent for leadership pipelines, and build a more inclusive workplace.
Reverse mentoring can help bridge understanding not only between people of different ages or genders but also between people of different races, cultural backgrounds, and religions.
“Reverse mentoring isn’t just about sharing technical knowledge—it’s about shifting perspectives, and that can make a leader more empathetic and innovative.” – Eileen Seah, Organisational Psychologist from The Art of Career.
How should organisations begin to implement reverse mentorship?
While the ideals behind reverse mentorship may be positive for the organisation, it may be hard to make it successful if you don’t carry it out the right way. Reverse mentorship is, in essence, disruptive, and it requires leaders to bring a level of humility to the table to admit that they can learn from younger employees.
Eileen Seah, an Organisational Psychologist from The Art of Career, shared the benefits of reverse mentorship and addressed misconceptions about it during one of WSG’s Employer Connect Webinars.
“Reverse mentoring breaks the hierarchy,” said Eileen. “It’s about learning from those you wouldn’t expect, and that can be transformative for both individuals and organisations.”
Here are some tips to ensure a successful reverse mentorship model.
Establish Clear Rules of Engagement
- Outcome Clarity: Both mentor and mentee should clearly define the objectives of the mentoring relationship. This could include specific learning goals, such as mastering a new technology or understanding generational perspectives.
- Neutral Meeting Spaces: Avoid meeting in the senior mentee’s office to reduce power dynamics. Instead, choose neutral spaces that encourage open dialogue.
- Scheduling and Duration: Set a fixed schedule for mentoring sessions, typically over six months to a year, and ensure both parties are committed to this timeframe.
- Permissions and Transparency: Encourage openness and transparency. Mentors should feel free to interrupt or correct their mentees, and confidentiality should be respected at all times.
- Constructive Feedback: Regular feedback should be encouraged during or at the end of the mentoring program to ensure continuous improvement.
Promote mutual understanding to avoid clashes and improve communication
- Use Personality Assessments: Before pairing mentors and mentees, consider their personalities using models like the Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN). Pairing individuals with compatible traits can enhance the effectiveness of the relationship.
- Understand Thought Patterns Using Cognitive Behavioral Theory (CBT) Models: Recognise that thoughts influence emotions, which in turn affect behaviour. Mentors and mentees should explore these aspects to improve communication and understanding.
- Clarify Assumptions: Both parties should work to understand each other’s assumptions, reducing the potential for miscommunication and conflict.
- Address Clashes Proactively: If personality clashes arise, use specific strategies such as adjusting communication styles or setting more explicit expectations to mitigate conflicts.
Survey and Feedback Mechanisms
- Conduct Surveys: Regularly survey both mentors and mentees to assess the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship. Sample questions might include evaluating the level of mutual respect, psychological safety, and the extent to which goals are being met.
- Use Feedback for Improvement: The data from these surveys can help refine the mentoring process, making it more effective over time.
Reverse mentoring is a two-way street
While reverse mentoring can indeed bridge knowledge gaps, leaders cannot ignore its potential to change their organisation’s culture. Ultimately, just as young employees must strive to provide a fresh perspective and even an understanding of their older colleagues, senior leaders, too, must be open to learning.
“The success of reverse mentoring depends on the mutual respect and openness between both parties,” said Eileen. “Each side must be willing to share and, more importantly, to listen. When both the mentor and the mentee see value in what the other offers, that’s when the relationship truly flourishes.”
