Reverse mentoring is a specific type of mentoring relationship. The concept of mentoring has been present in Polish business reality for years. Despite this, many stereotypes still surround this slogan. Moreover, the definition of the concept is not clear and understandable to everyone. For some people, a mentor is an interchangeable term with an advisor or coach. Meanwhile, this is someone who, in a way, represents two different worlds: hard (like a consultant) and soft (like a coach). The mentor must have practical experience in a certain area and at the same time have good mentoring skills – the ability to discover and strengthen individual potential, effectively transfer knowledge and develop skills. We write more about who a mentor is in our previous article.

Importantly, the age of the mentor does not have to be as advanced as his experience. This is evidenced by one of the varieties of mentoring, the so-called reverse mentoring.

We have become convinced that someone who imparts a certain type of knowledge and experience must be older. According to this understanding, certain competences and skills are something that comes with time – so an older person will naturally have more of it. Reverse mentoring shows that it does not have to be this way. The main idea of ​​this type of business relationship is – as the name suggests – role reversal. In this case, the position of mentor is taken over by a younger person who is, however, an expert in a specific area. It happens that specialists from the younger generation have much greater knowledge in a certain field, resulting from the fact that they grew up and developed in a different reality and the solutions are probably more obvious and natural to them. Such areas include, among others: digital and broadly understood new media and technologies. In this context, younger mentors often support people from the older generation.

Reverse mentoring, like a classic mentoring program, requires openness on both sides. The quality of relationships is very important in this case, and may be difficult to achieve due to the reluctance of experienced leaders to open up to the knowledge and practice of younger ones. However, it often turns out that reverse mentoring allows not only the transfer of specific knowledge, but also refreshing the way of thinking. Intergenerational collaboration in professional sessions is a way to look at specific business challenges from a different perspective.

More and more companies recognize the need to cooperate with representatives of the younger generation. Interestingly, they look for experts in a specific field and focus on professional reverse mentoring. This type of mentoring not only allows the transfer of knowledge and encourages the leader himself, but also strengthens the tools that he can then use in working with the team. Moreover, it also strengthens innovation.

Source:https://mentornow.pl/reverse-mentoring-co-to-jest/

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.