Reverse Mentoring: Definition and Significance

Duration: 5-6 mins

Meaning of Reverse Mentoring: What is reverse mentoring

Reverse mentoring is when a junior person or employee helps the employee in a higher position. That''s why it is given the term ""reverse mentoring.""

It is initially done to eliminate the skill gap and prove that learning occurs at both ends of the spectrum, with opportunities that are always present.

Benefits of Reverse Mentoring

It will be able to help you detect and create future leaders for your company. So when one who needs the training gets to be a senior and attends the training, the senior members still observe the mentoring traits of these juniors regardless of the skill that is to be shared and developed. That way, they can help identify which of them juniors will be best suited for the organization in the future.

Such mentoring, I would imagine, would also be more cost-effective overall—now you see how expensive the training course can be; having it done in-house can save you money if you can identify an employee who may be junior in the role but has experience in a certain field and can pass that on. It does not always have to be a hard skill; it can be a soft skill, such as talking to prospects, for that matter.

The other importance of reverse mentoring is the fact that it helps you know your place of work culture and how to improve it. For instance, it will help senior leadership to know the culture they stopped paying attention to after being promoted on the career ladder.

The other advantage that reverse mentoring offers is that it establishes diversity in your company and the inclusion of every employee.

It''s a common sight that senior leaders used to be updated with all trends and technology, but with experience, they pass that stage. A reverse mentor can help the technology skills in seniors become better and more up to date with the industry trends.

Disadvantages of Reverse Mentoring

Correct, the other side of reverse mentoring can be bitter disadvantages. Let us talk about it in brief:

• Juniors very often do not like to take the initiative to teach their seniors anything. Lack of confidence in juniors can sometimes keep many of them out of a mentoring program.
• Another disadvantage is when the older people who require the training are rude or bossy. The people they are supposed to help will not want to take time out of their hectic schedules to mentor somebody they do not care for.
• The company offers many non-tech roles for its employees. In that case, if they won''t seriously require the skill they are building at reverse mentoring, such training won''t be that important for them too—a nice-to-have thing.

Reverse Mentoring Examples

Some of the reverse mentorship examples are as follows:

• The Vice President of Finance, having a need of mentorship to remain in the knowledge of new trends held under fintech.
• Seniors working in the sales department may require someone to teach them the latest social media trends.
• For example, it may arise when a senior in marketing needs to know about TikTok.
• Gen Z employees would be good at teaching senior employees about tech.

What Are the Three Types of Mentoring Techniques?

Three types of mentoring are:

• Traditional mentoring: This is where the mentor and the mentee have individual meetings. In this kind of a program, the mentor…
• Distance mentoring: This is where the mentor and the mentee are at two different locations, and they are linked using the online application. This kind of mentoring sometimes can also be referred to as virtual since it is conducted online or virtually.
• Group mentoring: This is the third type of mentoring, where one mentor hones a general group at one time. Most of the time, you need a particular place befitting this type of mentoring.

What Are the Risks of Reverse Mentoring?

In some circumstances, this reverse type of mentoring can cause some sort of resistance when the seniors are uncomfortable with the process to be taught to them by the juniors.

What Are the 4 Cs of Mentoring?

The four Cs of mentoring are: conversation, connection, community, and culture.

Should you be willing to inculcate this reverse structure of mentoring in order for it to help you grow your social capital, it will thus need to be nurturing these four characteristics.

Attend to these traits even when you have all the employees working on-site, remotely, or in a hybrid culture.