{"id":48510,"date":"2020-11-17T12:41:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T17:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&p=48510"},"modified":"2025-05-08T07:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:07:08","slug":"whats-reverse-mentoring","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/whats-reverse-mentoring\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Reverse Mentoring, and How Can It Help Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Reverse Mentoring Can Support Digital Transformation & Cross-Generational Collaboration<\/h2>\n

What\u2019s reverse mentoring, and what makes it different from \u201cregular\u201d mentoring?<\/p>\n

Reverse mentoring is when a junior team member establishes a professional relationship with a senior team member, exchanging knowledge, skills, and understanding.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, our Handbook of Coaching in Organizations<\/em><\/a> defines \u201cregular\u201d mentoring as \u201can experienced leader meeting with someone more junior to help him or her benefit from the greater experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many HR leaders will tell you that both types of mentoring at work<\/a> can be beneficial, but one key way in which reverse mentoring can be especially helpful is driving organizational digital transformation.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because digital transformation is sometimes less about the organization and the market as a whole than it is about the people who adopt data and leverage technology for better business results. Many businesses now have 4, and in some cases, 5 generations working side-by-side in the workplace<\/a>, creating situations where knowledgeable senior practitioners may have decades of experience, yet need to update their skillsets and mindsets.<\/p>\n

With reverse mentoring, senior leaders can learn data and technology skills from younger team members, many of them digital natives, to advance their own skills and improve outcomes for the organization.<\/p>\n

Benefits of Reverse Mentoring<\/h2>\n

In the best mentoring relationships, both people learn.<\/p>\n

Reverse mentoring is no different. When younger employees share their knowledge with more experienced workers, it boosts both<\/em> groups\u2019 level of understanding, communication, and collaboration.<\/p>\n

Beyond flipping the traditional hierarchy, reverse mentoring can also facilitate other strategic organizational goals, such as increasing retention of millennial workers<\/a>, fostering a more inclusive culture that values the contributions of all employees, and increasing collaboration across multiple generations in the workforce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A senior executive who isn\u2019t especially tech-savvy but is eager to be mentored by a colleague who\u2019s a digital native can learn new technical skills, bringing greater efficiencies to the work and leveraging data-driven insights in decision-making. And many senior leaders report enjoying other benefits from collaborating closely with younger workers too \u2014 including becoming inspired or energized by their teammates\u2019 passion, new thinking, and fresh perspectives.<\/p>\n

A younger mentor gains things from the reverse mentoring arrangement as well \u2014 namely, exposure to other areas and departments in the organization, access to the potentially larger leadership network<\/a> of their more experienced mentee, and a chance to broaden their perspective and strategic thinking skills.<\/p>\n

Consider this example. A colleague in his late 50s explains how reverse mentoring came to help him: \u201cI\u2019d just completed an assignment and had come to realize I was behind the times. My industry was rapidly moving forward in micro-bytes of information and analytics, while I was still working with pen and paper. Quite simply, while my industry was transforming, I was not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I had a choice: I could continue doing the work as I had been doing for the past 10 years, until my retirement in 10 more<\/em> years. Or, I could learn the new technology. At my age and level in the organization, that meant I would be the \u2018old dog learning new tricks.\u2019 But I knew Option A was not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, he joined a project team with an average age of 33 \u2014 and his younger teammates helped to get him up to speed on the new technologies and workflows he needed to understand.<\/p>\n

2 Keys to a Successful Reverse Mentoring Partnership<\/h2>\n

Tips for Reverse Mentor Relationships<\/h3>\n

1. Be willing to learn.<\/h4>\n

For reverse mentoring to be effective, senior leaders must be humble enough to set aside their perceptions of authority and privilege brought on by age and experience for the benefits, knowledge, and guidance of someone younger.<\/p>\n

The senior leader needs to make a conscious and intentional effort to find and work with a younger mentor. The senior member needs to be ready to learn, prepared to make mistakes, and willing to try something new, and open to new ideas. The senior leader must be willing to encourage innovation and create a safe space<\/a> for learning.<\/p>\n

If a senior manager is ready to do these things, then they\u2019re ready for reverse mentoring. Our colleague emphasizes this point: \u201cWhen I made my decision to learn about new systems and grow new technical abilities I didn’t have, I knew I needed to reach out to the younger and more digitally savvy leaders inside my group and show that I was truly asking to learn from them as a peer, not as a senior manager, their superior.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Follow traditional guidelines \u2014 with a twist.<\/h4>\n

In a \u201cnormal\u201d or traditional mentoring relationship, the responsibility for beginning and sustaining the relationship falls more on the senior member. Why? Because the junior member may not have the confidence to repeatedly reach out and set up meetings to talk or hold the senior member accountable.<\/p>\n

As the relationship deepens, the responsibility becomes more shared, but success depends heavily on the more experienced leader to begin the momentum.\u00a0Reverse mentoring is similar, and generally follows these guidelines:<\/p>\n