Reverse Mentorship In Tech

This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Greg Dolan, CEO, Keen Decision Systems.

getty​For decades, senior employees passed down institutional knowledge, business judgment and hard-earned experience to younger colleagues. That mentorship model still has tremendous value, but as the workforce and technology landscape change, there is just as much for senior leaders to learn from the people coming up behind them.

Now, several generations are working together for one common goal. At the same time, hybrid work, AI and digital platforms have rewritten many of the unwritten rules of doing business. For leaders who built their careers in a different environment, keeping pace requires more than another training session. It requires getting closer to the employees who are already navigating these changes every day. ​

​Reverse mentorship flips the traditional model without replacing it. Junior employees share their knowledge of emerging technologies, communication habits and cultural shifts, while senior employees provide the experience, context and judgment that come from decades in the workforce. Both sides become better at their jobs, and organizations become better equipped to adapt.

​This is especially true at my company, where we have built a conscious culture. As part of our reverse mentorship program, which we view as generational empathy, employees are encouraged to work across teams and age ranges.

​While there are advantages to incorporating this idea at founding, any company can benefit from reverse mentorship.

Hybrid work is no longer an experiment. Among employees with remote-capable jobs, Gallup found that 52% currently work in a hybrid environment, while just 22% are predominantly on-site. Hybrid work has fundamentally changed how teams communicate and build relationships. Instead of peeking over a cubicle, teammates turn to Slack for quick communication. Brainstorms can unfold across channels, documents and time zones.

​For leaders accustomed to managing primarily through face-to-face interaction, the challenge isn’t learning how to use those platforms but understanding the norms that have developed around them.

​This is where reverse mentorship can be especially useful. Younger employees can offer insight into when a Slack message is more effective than another meeting or how to make virtual communication feel engaging rather than transactional. They can also encourage leaders to use office time for collaboration and relationship-building, instead of just recreating a normal workday in a different location. Employees who entered the workforce during or after its transformation may see possibilities that leaders accustomed to the old model overlook.

The same principle applies to AI. AI innovation has accelerated at a rapid pace. With each tool having its own unique capabilities and agents, it can be hard for employees of all ages to keep up, let alone those who grew up with or before the early internet. Digitally native employees can help ease the transition and educate senior leadership on how to best leverage these tools.

​According to Lorka AI, 42% of “18-24-year-olds use AI for work or professional tasks,” compared with 28% of the overall population. Rather than treating that knowledge as something confined to junior-level work, leaders can bring it into the broader organization.

​A younger employee might demonstrate how they use AI to accelerate initial research for a new business presentation or how to design a new slide deck to impress potential clients. A senior leader, meanwhile, can provide the judgment necessary to determine whether the output is accurate, appropriate and actually useful.

AI proficiency combines technological fluency with business context, critical thinking and experience, and reverse mentorship can help your staff achieve all of that. Neither generation necessarily possesses the complete package on its own, so combining forces creates a more well-rounded organization. ​

Reverse mentorship can also help organizations understand how culture is changing outside the workplace. Younger employees are fluent in social media. They grew up on TikTok and YouTube instead of traditional television and newspapers. Even the ways that younger employees use LinkedIn are different, with video and personal anecdotes leading the way instead of typical company updates.

​Senior leaders don’t need to become influencers, but they do need to understand how these platforms influence their customers, employees and industries. ​Reverse mentorship can help veteran employees gain digital literacy, identifying which content performs best and learning how to navigate our new algorithm-driven world.

This can help staff identify new trends and connect with new business prospects. It also helps foster a culture where employees can talk about cultural moments in real time, creating a more inclusive workplace.

Perhaps the greatest opportunity for reverse mentorship lies in bridging the cultural gap. ​

Younger generations are entering the workforce with different expectations around communication, transparency and inclusion. Research shows that over 80% of Gen-Z value diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) when deciding whether to join or stay with an organization, while “63% expect their workplace to promote inclusive decision-making.”

​Leaders don’t need to adopt every preference of every new generation, but they do need to understand what motivates the workforce they are trying to attract and retain. Reverse mentorship creates a mechanism for those conversations to happen before cultural disconnects become retention problems. Instead of relying solely on annual engagement surveys, leaders can hear directly from employees about how company policies and leadership decisions are experienced on the ground.

​Just as importantly, the exchange shouldn’t be one-sided. Younger employees need exposure to the context behind difficult business decisions and the institutional knowledge that isn’t captured in a company handbook or Slack history.

By consciously striving to understand your colleagues’ or clients’ perspectives, you can create a shared experience that will lead to better results. By building a healthy, inclusive and high-performance culture from the start, you’re setting yourself up for long-term happiness and success. ​

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