What Is Reverse Mentoring and How to Encourage It in Your Workplace

What is reverse mentoring?

Reverse mentoring is when a junior employee serves as a mentor for someone with more seniority or work experience than them. With this type of mentoring, a reverse mentor may provide feedback and coaching for a coworker who has been at the organization for longer than them, a supervisor or a member of the management team.

How does reverse mentoring work?

Typically, someone serving as a reverse mentor has experience, knowledge or a perspective that is different from the person they mentor. Depending on the goal of the mentoring relationship, the reverse mentor may provide training and/or offer constructive feedback. Reverse mentoring can be one-on-one with the mentor working with just one other person or done in a group setting with a reverse mentor explaining concepts to several members of your team at once.

What are some examples of reverse mentoring?

Here are some examples of reverse mentoring in the workplace.

Social media training

A junior employee who is very familiar with social media serves as a reverse mentor for a senior member of the marketing team. The mentor explains the different types of social media platforms, demonstrates their features and then encourages the mentee to make posts. Then, the reverse mentor provides feedback to help the senior employee use social media more effectively.

Reverse leadership mentoring

A junior member of a team serves as the reverse mentor for their immediate supervisor. They share their perspectives on their mentee’s leadership style, pointing out strengths and identifying weaknesses. Going forward, the reverse mentor provides constructive feedback about topics like motivating the team, communication and conducting employee assessments, allowing the supervisor to develop their leadership skills over time.

Diversity reverse mentoring

A junior member of a team who is visually impaired serves as a reverse mentor. They conduct group mentoring sessions with various teams in the organization, sharing their perspective and providing feedback relevant to the work that each group performs. For example, they discuss how accessible the company’s e-commerce site is with the web development team and then focus on the challenges that various policies and procedures pose for them with members of the operations team.

What are the benefits of reverse mentoring?

Introducing a reverse mentoring program at your organization can provide numerous benefits, including the following.

Increased employee retention

Serving as a reverse mentor can make a junior employee feel more valued. As a result, they may be more likely to remain at your organization and one day move up the ranks into leadership positions.

Expansion of knowledge and skills

Reverse mentoring allows you to put the unique skills and knowledge that junior employees bring to their positions to teach your entire team new concepts and abilities. Consequently, your team may become more tech-savvy or more aware of issues and trends in your industry.

At the same time, a reverse mentor also has a chance to build new skills. They may become better communicators and more active listeners while serving as a mentor. In addition, they’ll gain practice in providing constructive feedback.

Strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion efforts

Through reverse mentoring, senior employees can learn from people who are different from them and better understand viewpoints and life experiences that are unlike their own. Over time, this can foster a greater spirit of diversity, equity and inclusion in your organization.

Bridging the generational gap

Reverse mentoring can give both the mentors and mentees a more favorable view of team members from a different generation, breaking down barriers and destroying stereotypes and biases. As a result, team members of vastly different ages may find it easier to communicate and collaborate.

Spurring innovation and creative thinking

A reverse mentor can give an employee who is set in their ways a new perspective, opening the doors to innovation. Reverse mentorship can also inspire creative thinking and new approaches to problem-solving that can change a workplace for the better.

How to start a reverse mentoring program

To launch a reverse mentoring program at your organization, follow these steps.

1. Establish a focus

Before you get into the details of your program, decide what the focus of the program is. Are you trying to foster diversion, equity and inclusion in the workplace? Do you want to improve the leadership skills of your team? Are you hoping to further your training efforts through reverse mentoring? Understanding the aim of the program will help you plan an effective program.

2. Set a goal

Once you know what your reverse mentorship program will focus on, establish a goal that fits the SMART criteria by being:

Specific: The goal is clearly stated and easy to understand.
Measurable: You have a way of assessing whether you achieved the goal.
Achievable: The goal is realistic and possible to achieve.
Relevant: The goal is in line with your organization’s long-term objectives and succeeding will benefit your business.
Time-based: There is a specific date by which you will strive to achieve the goal.

For example, a SMART goal for a leadership reverse mentorship program could be, “After one year, mentees in the reverse mentorship program will increase their scores on an anonymous leadership skills evaluation survey completed by their teams by at least 20%.”

3. Choose the reverse mentors

Once you have a clear SMART goal, select the members of your team who are in the best position to serve as reverse mentors. Schedule one-on-one meetings with the employees you select, explain the program and ask if they would like to participate.

4. Select the mentees

Establish a process for choosing mentees. You may identify specific employees and ask them if they want to participate or ask for volunteers. Even if you intend to one day have all individuals in a certain role or position participate, consider starting with only a few mentees while you refine the program.

5. Create mentor-mentee matches

Once you have a list of mentors and mentees, match the employees. While you can decide on your own, it can be beneficial to solicit input from the participants, asking them to rank their top three choices.

6. Check in with participants

Periodically, schedule one-on-one meetings with each mentor and mentee. Discuss what’s working and what’s not. During these meetings, you can provide advice to help mentors and mentees overcome challenges and identify changes that you can make to the entire program to provide a better experience.

7. Evaluate and refine

At the end of the goal period, evaluate whether you achieved what you set out to accomplish. If not, assess what went wrong. Was your goal flawed, or is there some element of the program that needs to be changed? Then, refine your goals and/or the details of your program as needed.

Reverse mentoring FAQs

What are some traits of a good reverse mentor?

A good mentor understands the importance of respect and can provide feedback in a constructive, kind way. Having strong active listening skills allows a reverse mentor to communicate effectively with those that they mentor. People who like explaining things and teaching others and have a true passion for a topic may enjoy serving as reverse mentors. A high level of self-confidence can also be helpful, as reverse mentors may need to challenge the thinking and ideas of more senior employees.

What are the risks of reverse mentoring?

For all its benefits, reverse mentoring does have some potential drawbacks. Some senior employees may resent feedback or instruction from someone with less experience. A reverse mentor may experience stress when they need to have a difficult conversation. Also, more junior employees may find it difficult to juggle their everyday responsibilities and mentorship duties, which could negatively affect the quality of their work.

How is peer mentoring different from reverse mentoring?

Peer mentoring is when an employee serves as a mentor for an employee with the same seniority and level of experience. With reverse mentoring, the employee serving as a mentor has less seniority and/or work experience than the other person.

What Is Reverse Mentoring and How to Encourage It in Your Workplace

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