In order for organizations to stay relevant in today's fast-paced world, continual innovation and awareness of how best to serve one's audience is key. Reverse mentoring is an invaluable tool that lets executives stay in touch with trends and changes in technology - and promotes the cross-pollination of thought that is so important to innovation.  Reverse mentoring can also serve as a tool for identifying and training the leaders of tomorrow, making it a creative new way to approach succession planning. What can reverse mentoring do for your organization?

What is Revese Mentoring?   

Benefits of a Reverse Mentoring Program       

An executive-level employee in their forties or fifties has had the time and experience to garner invaluable information about how to run an organization. By the time these individuals are twenty or thirty years removed from business school, though, they're no longer up-to-date on emerging business technologies and current workplace trends.

In a reverse mentoring relationship, the younger member is empowered to share valuable information with an established executive. The younger mentor is expected to offer insights into current technology, new schools of thought from business school, and perspective on the current marketplace - and where the future is heading. However, the experienced executive also gets to share valuable information gained through years of successful management experience. In this way, reverse mentoring is a critical tool that promotes knowledge transfer in both directions.

In short: reverse mentoring helps foster an environment that nurtures thought sharing - including the creative thinking process that is so vital for innovation.

Reverse Mentoring Works: Practical Case Studies    

One of the earliest reverse mentoring successes goes back to the man who championed reverse mentoring when he was the chief executive of General Electric: Jack Welch. While he was CEO, he ordered top-level executives to reach out to younger employees to learn how to use the Internet. He was paired with an employee in her 20s, who taught him how to surf the Web. The younger employees gained the opportunity to form a personal relationship with high-level executives, promoting engagement and increasing visibility. A comparable example today might be mentors teaching their mentees about Facebook and Twitter.

In another reverse mentoring program, a 42-year old world-wide managing director of Ogilvy & Mather learned how to "jazz up" his Twitter posts, as well as where to look for today's popular culture references. He says that the knowledge is invaluable in the fast-paced advertising industry, and the program has also helped to boost morale and retention, with younger mentors reporting satisfaction feeling that their voices are being heard.

Citibank is another organization that is using reverse mentoring to drive innovation and better serve its customers. Citibank launched a reverse mentoring program for specific projects aimed at today's audience, such as mobile payments, social media, how to communicate with millennial generation customers, and how to create compelling job pitches for young talent.

Finally, in a case study involving a global multinational technology corporation, Cisco Systems implemented a successful reverse mentoring program to promote engagement within specific regions. In this unique program, each respective region created its own reverse mentoring program to meet its specific needs and resource allocation. The mentoring focus for Cisco's program was inclusion and diversity challenges. Through a carefully developed process, Cisco was able to promote a business culture of approachability and collaboration - and foster an attitude of valuing diversity that is critical to the company's future commercial success.

Harnessing the power of mentoring means different things for different organizations. It's important to develop a mentoring program that addresses your company's unique needs in order to maximize this valuable tool. When you begin the process of developing a mentoring program, you need to: 

• Identify the business challenge you're trying to address
• Establish metrics to measure the success of the program
• Incentivize mentors and mentees alike to participate in the program
• Provide resources for mentors and mentees

Partnering with the experienced consultants at Expert Access can help your organization develop the perfect mentoring program to address your needs. Our consultants have developed successful mentoring programs for small businesses and large organizations alike. Meet with one of our experts for a complimentary consultation to explore how a mentoring program can benefit your company, and what you can do to implement this powerful tool!