I had an idea about what servers were, had never seen one in person. I had an idea of what a data center was but had never been to one. I had an idea, theoretical knowledge, but no practical exposure. It was therefore quite natural for me to be overwhelmed by the new role.
I remember reaching out to one of the technical leads within the program and opening to him about my limited knowledge in infrastructure. He was kind enough to acknowledge my shortcomings and offered a helping hand. Over the course of the next few days and weeks, I learnt the nuances of infrastructure management. Things that I learnt from him helped me over the course of next year in delivering several back-to-back successful projects. This is, reverse mentoring at play.
Other examples of reverse mentoring could be where we have asked the youngest member of the house about operating the newest gadget or the way to maneuver a new phone. We are in awe of the way even school kids use technology with ease. Youngsters today are the digital natives and are hence comfortable with anything. So is also the case with music, films, the OTT platform, and cuisine. The young ones know more at a young age that most of us did at ours. It is no surprise that this aspect of our behavior has also seeped into the corporate world workplace where young staff mentors seniors staff members.
Mentoring is a very subtle role, where someone guides a fresh entrant into areas like academics, work, films, music, leadership or sports. It takes some amount of handholding, especially in highly competitive and complex fields. A person who mentors the other must first be adept at what he’s sharing and at peace with his/her own accomplishments in life. An insecure person can rarely become a good mentor.
What is reverse mentoring all about
It’s a way of the youngsters mentoring the seniors and the latter learning from them with an open mind. Someone would say what is this brouhaha about, whoever mentors, how does age matter? It does, wish a resounding yes! Seniority, for long, has been associated with age and experience and not with the quantum of knowledge and skills that one possesses. So the more numbers of years you have put into your work and organization, the more senior you are perceived to be. But gone are those days now. We routinely have young bosses, as young as in their twenties many times, who are dynamic leaders, thoroughly professional, and well versed with their domain knowledge. Their levels of understanding, adaptability, flexibility towards work and life, grasping new knowledge quickly and being able to apply it to the work at hand, is much superior that most ‘seniors’ who have been digital migrants.
Reverse mentoring enables someone senior to be mentored by a younger person. If this happens in an office environment, it can give dramatic results. The younger ones have a fresh perspective about technology, social media, art and consumer insights. They are more forthcoming in sharing, give candid feedback and are open to sharing whatever they know for they know there’s plenty of stuff out there that anyone can have access to. Read more....
