Over the last three years, I have discovered that the companies who are truly smart are incorporating a form of collaborative mentoring into the development of each generation inside their organization. About a decade ago, Jack Welch was one of the first leaders to step up and admit that his senior leaders did not have the technological skills required to forge ahead into our tech-driven world. So, he began a reverse mentoring program for GE, bringing in several young, tech savvy rookies to train senior leaders on how to navigate this digital world, and it worked.
Many companies are now using this approach but with much more of a collaborative, co-active approach. Here is how this works: I truly believe that the best type of mentoring program is a type of modern day workplace-mentor relationship which is collaborative in nature. This joint relationship includes a younger worker who is paired with a more senior manager so that a wide variety of skills can be shared and honed. This relationship is conducive to knowledge sharing between mentor and mentee using the senior mentor’s deeply ingrained wisdom and knowledge of the past with the technological savvy and social networking skills which a younger mentor brings to the table. With this process, both an older generation employee is being coached by a younger employee, and of course, that younger employee is being coached or mentored by someone 20 years her senior. In order for this to work, there are a few beliefs which will have to be deeply ingrained in your culture. While I hate to focus on the negative, sometimes people can connect more to what is not working and then revers it. So, to lay this out in spades for you, here are the beliefs/myths that are almost guaranteed to destroy your ability to implement a collaborative mentoring program (these beliefs will also greatly hurt the relationship with your younger employees…so think closely about these:)
Myth Number 1: Only our workers over age 40 have wisdom to share.
Truth: This is simply NOT true. Every person, regardless of age, has something to bring to the table. Jones Soda is a company that is hitting it out of the ballpark, and they have a youth advisory board giving them some of their best ideas.
Strategy: Perform a complete skill assessment on every employee in your company. Go deep with this approach. Find out not only about job skills but life skills and hobbies. Look closely at travels, languages spoken, music and art skills, sports…the full spectrum of skills. And…make sure you are including your younger employees on your brainstorming process and during advisory meetings.
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Myth Number 2: We need to all think the same way, and our differences are going to hurt our ability to get this job done.
Truth: Differences will make your team stronger, and the way you handle those differences is where the rubber meets the road. If everyone thinks the same way, your creativity and innovation process will become thwarted and stale.
Strategy: Read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and begin implementing a strong open debate process inside your organization to get the differences on the table so that the best solution possible can come to the surface.
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Myth Number 3: You must be older…say at least 45 to be a great mentor.
Truth: You can mentor another person at any age. In the last four years, four of my top mentors have been ages 23, 27 and 29, and I will be 50 in January. I also receive a lot of great mentoring from my kids who are 19 and 21. The younger generations have so much to offer and they love to mentor and coach others. They have such a fresh perspective and their hands on a LOT of very cool resources that I bet you don’t know about…resources that can save you time, money and energy.
Strategy: Find someone who is at least 20 years younger than you who has a skill you want in your back pocket, and ask them to work with you on it. This could be something as small as how to use Facebook or how to hit a golf ball out of a bunker.
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Myth Number 4: Mentoring is all about our “seasoned/older” employees giving advice to our rookies.
Truth: People don’t like it when they are given advice…unless they ask for it. Mentoring is about taking someone under your wing and letting them watch you and learn from you on their own terms. It is about asking questions and listening and allowing the other person to come to their own conclusions through experimentation and through real life practice.
Strategy: Sit down with someone and ask them this question “If you could learn one thing about our organization, what would you most like to learn?” Then…”Okay…great…how would you like to go about learning that one skill? Would you like to shadow someone, would you like a project in that area…you tell me…how would you like to go about learning that skill?”
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Myth Number 5: Mentoring is about waiting until I have time to help someone out.
Truth: If mentoring is going to work, it needs to be weekly and consistent and delivered for at least six months (and I mean every week.) This means every week for six months, you (say a Baby Boomer) and someone younger (say a Gen Y) meet formally, and each of you will receive mentoring from the other person. You will agree on steps you are going to take to get better at what you do, and you will then commit to the process. Trust me…every person has something to learn, and if you don’t hold this belief, then your time in business will be quite short. Our world is changing by the minute, and if you are not in learning mode, then you are probably still living back in the 80’s or 90’s, and that is just not current enough!
Strategy: Choose someone younger, approach them about a weekly reverse mentoring process, and just try this out on a casual basis. Agree to meet one time each week before work for coffee just to try this on, and see what comes about. You will be amazed at what you learn during the process.
If you or your organization is interested in discussing how to implement a reverse mentoring program, please contact me today for a complimentary consultation. I am happy to talk with you about how I can assist you with this process.
November 2nd, 2009 by 
beafields 
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Congratulations to my son Jack Fields (right), who just earned his first top 5 finish in an intercollegiate tournament…the weather was cold, rainy and windy, but all turned out well. Congrats Jack! 54 holes of golf in cold, wind and rain is not fun (I know…I walked it, so I can’t imagine trying to play golf in it!)
