Mentoring: Reverse is the new forward
Today while watching
the India Vs South Africa match my 11 year old son asked me “how come all
of a sudden Paytm has become so big?" The question took me back a couple
of year’s when my son then 7 year old asked me for my credit card so that
he could buy an online game when till that day I had not paid online to buy an
application. Upon being pushed by him and questioned ‘why not’ I decided
to learn about online payments and challenged self to let go of my old notions
shrouded in fear of online fraud. Once I embarked on journey of online payment
there was no looking back and am sure that has been a similar story for many of
us.
It made me search and
learn the new ways of doing thing and a whole new world opened up which
unlocked many new idea beyond digital world and into my own domain of Human
Resources. In my line of work I also needed to understand how my internal and
external stakeholders were changing and what was it that was important for
them. I knew time had come to acknowledge that I needed a young person to guide
me. I unofficially appointed my young colleague as my mentor and thus began my
journey.
Reverse mentoring is
a topic which excites many and at the same time eludes many. My own reverse
mentoring experience has clearly showed to me that days of traditional
mentorship where in information flow was unidirectional with older or senior
person telling younger or junior person how to succeed and helping the mentee
to network with few other seniors folks are over. Today’s business challenges
need young millennia’s ideas. These cannot be overlooked and reverse mentoring
is one of the ways to bring those ideas in forefront with perspective.
If you are still
reading, it clearly means you are interested in the idea. Before you embark on
the journey, let me list a few pointers from my experience for you to consider:
Need to be ready- Mentee (senior
person) has to know that it is not only about learning but can be an
opportunity to solve real world problems in non-traditional ways. It requires
for mentee to be open to being challenged and also to be able to critically
view his/ her approach to things and thoughts. Simply put “mentee should be
ready to be pushed out of one’s comfort zone”
Choose a Curious Mind
as Mentor-
Pick up bright people with curious bent of mind who display voracious
quest for knowledge. People who are good at sharing and take pleasure from
discussions. Someone who is not afraid to ask the old mentee “to dissolve the
box let alone break it”.
Be Honest – Both the
parties needs to be absolutely clear of what they are in for and why. It is
important to talk about differences since different generations have different
views, paradigms and even different communication styles. State the rules of
engagement ‘openly’ and work towards establishing ‘trust’
Business Challenge- One has to be
cognizant of the fact that this relationship needs to bring in ideas to solve
business challenge. Mentoring needs to be productive, add value and build new
perspectives for both otherwise this has potential to very quickly degenerate
into a fad that is good to talk about
Be prepared to teach- Ensure mentee
teaches the mentor (young person) through his / her experience, build
perspective for the young mentor thus benefiting both. This can be done by
putting ideas into systems thinking without judging and shutting down. Ensure
that young mentor gets business knowledge, learns how to distill it, values the
connections and is able to build the picture by translating the information
into valuable strategic capability
Don’t make it too
formal-
Start with a conversation and build into a relationship characterized by
respect, sharing and fun. Remember it is not another HR exercise focused
on documenting, capturing ideas in a format etc. for then you run a risk
of over structuring it and killing the essence
Cut the Ego- Ensure ego is cut
down by both Mentors and Mentee. Mentee should let go of the “I know it all ,
been there done it attitude” and Mentor should not become vain by virtue of
teaching a senior leader . It is never about us versus them from either persons
perspective
Your organization
does not have a formal program? It doesn’t matter. A sure but small first step
is to take time to hang out with young people. Ask them those questions you are
struggling with and listen. You might just be surprised.
In the end all I can
say is that reverse mentoring is an opportunity to co-create something that
will potentially be superior in value.
*
Parts of this post have been published in Economic times as part of a
self-authored article by me.
