Learn the role and skills of a reverse mentor.

In business mentoring is regarded as a relationship in which one person (the mentor) – usually someone more experienced, often more senior in an organisation – helps another (the learner or mentee) to discover more about themselves, their potential and their capability.

Recently, mentoring has taken on many other forms such as peer and group mentoring. The latest form of mentoring is reverse mentoring or ‘mentor up’ as it is also known. With this a younger or less experienced person helps a more senior manager gain insight into areas, such as computers and changing IT technology, changing mindsets and expectations of the younger generation, new business concepts, etc. The traditional one-way street becomes a two-way thoroughfare where employees of all ages can learn from each other.

The concept of reverse mentoring began when Jack Welch the CEO of General Electric realized he and his management team had much to learn about the Internet and technology applications. Welch required 600 top executives, including himself, to find younger mentors who were knowledgeable about the internet. Most of the mentors were in their 20’s and 30’s.

This lead to a transformation of General Electric as a technology driven organization, using the power of the internet to integrate the many components of production, suppliers, sales, marketing and customers. For example, a manager with 20 years of experience may seek a mentor to teach her about new technologies and computer skills, an area of expertise recent graduates often have because of the new educational standards they must meet. Consequently, this manager may ask her mentor to teach her about technologies with which she is unfamiliar.

Alternatively, a newly hired or recently transferred executive needs to understand the corporate culture, flow of work and decision-making protocol at his new company. Who better to be his mentor than an administrative assistant who has worked for the company for 15 years and is well respected for their wealth of knowledge.

The Benefits of Reverse Mentoring

Some of the areas where a well thought out, planned and implemented reverse mentoring program can help are:

• To enable senior managers to get first-hand experience of the issues that face their organisation as seen from a younger person
• Encourage frank discussion on current issues
• Keeping up with current trends and preventing barriers to growth
• A fresh perspective from fresh eyes. A reverse mentor can often shed new light on a situation
• New tools. Senior staff are often comfortable with certain tools and technologies they have used for some time. A younger professional, will probably be used to the newest tools and technology and can share that knowledge
• The Internet has expanded younger workers' geographic perspective. Involvement with social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook enable young adults learn about global social issues from friends around the world
• The younger generation are more likely to be comfortable with equality and diversity than any age group to come before them. Their perspective can help in efforts at enhancing diversity and inclusion
• Marketing can be improved with knowledge of what's going on with other generations or cultural groups
• Risk taking. Younger employees who grew up with technology developed “trial and error” style of learning are comfortable jumping into a situation to find answers. Such risk-taking can free up old habits and drive workplace innovation
• Seniors get a chance to gain awareness of their leadership style and to spot and evaluate new talent
• Young people gain exposure to senior executives which carries with it opportunities to learn from them, not only what to do, but also how to get things done. This exposure includes a chance to show their capabilities and their work ethic
• Enhance leadership, conflict management and coaching skills of mentees and mentors
• Develop strategies to create a more inclusive work environment.

Read about reverse mentoring in an article containing quotes from our Managing Director.

“The most powerful stimulus for changing minds is not a chemical or a baseball bat, it is a word.”George A Miller

Who will benefit:

Both Junior and Senior Staff

Duration: 1 day

By the end of the mentoring training course delegates will be able to…

• appreciate the benefits of reverse mentoring
• understand the role and practice the skills of an effective mentor
• demonstrate the difference between a coach and a mentor
• build rapport and create a development environment
• define preferred learning styles – understand how people learn
• assess individual needs
• avoid barriers to learning
• give appropriate feedback
• handle resistance to constructive criticism
• use effective probing and questioning
• practice reflective listening
• get the trainee to review themselves objectively
• set effective action plans
• develop the performance of individuals.

About us

Elite Training European Limited is a leading UK provider of Reverse Mentoring business training courses.

For over 20 years, we have been delivering excellent management training and personal development skills to businesses and public sector organisations in London and the South East, East Anglia and across the UK. Based in Suffolk means we are within easy travelling distance of Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, London, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Surrey and Sussex. We will also arrange a course anywhere in the UK or Europe.

Our courses involve experiential learning with the use of business games and training materials. These activities help participants acquire essential knowledge and skills through active, self-reflective engagement and enable them to remember the key learning points - “What I hear, I forget; what I see, I remember; but what I do, I understand.” Confucius 451 BC

In-House Training Courses

Our In-House business training courses mean that we travel to you and save your travel time and costs.

Choose a time and date suitable for you and our high-level tutors with up-to-date, practical experience in this course, will tailor a course to meet your needs.

We guarantee you will enjoy the Reverse Mentoring training course and see the benefits for the participants and your organisation.

Personalised training at an affordable price

We are busy running In-House training courses, so we do not offer open courses for people from different companies or organisations to attend. However, we offer training courses for one or two participants, which has the flexibility to vary pace and depth of study. These are not as expensive as you might think!

To see why other companies choose us, and for examples of costs, availability, course trainers, etc., please visit our >> Home Page or Customers and Feedback Page