How reverse mentorship can help create better leaders The Way We Work a TED series
Transcriber: TED Translators Admin
Reviewer: Ivana Korom
We’ve always thought of mentoring
as the older generation
passing down wisdom to the young,
but there’s a huge benefit
to flipping that around
and allowing the novice
to teach the master.
[The Way We Work]
[Made possible
with the support of Dropbox]
The workforce currently consists
of up to five generations
and it’s becoming more diverse
across all spectrums
of underrepresented groups.
But that change
is not arriving nearly as fast
in C-suites and in boardrooms.
Which means there’s a growing gap
between leaders and their people
in regards to their
perspectives and experiences.
Our organizations can fall
right through that gap
into the trap of stale
thinking, blind spots
and having policies that could alienate
these underrepresented groups,
not only in regards to age,
race or gender,
but all different kinds of viewpoints.
Reverse mentoring could be an antidote
to that tunnel vision.
But making reverse mentoring work,
isn’t as simple as finding a mentor
and pressing go.
You have to be genuinely curious
about learning from that individual.
And you have to be intentional
about the relationship
in order to make it valuable.
I know this because I was asked
just a year into my career
at Virgin Atlantic
to be the first ever reverse mentor
to mentor CEO Craig Kreeger.
I’d met Craig a few times
and presented to him in meetings,
but this, it was a whole
different ball game.
Craig had revealed
that he had no black women
in his inner circle
and he was keen
to understand my perspective
on how to build a more inclusive
culture at Virgin Atlantic.
No pressure.
Here’s what I learned
about how to make reverse mentoring work.
Lesson one, make your match thoughtfully.
Find someone who has a pulse
on the key spokespeople
in the organization
to help you make your match.
This doesn’t have to be
someone in human resources,
just someone who knows you
and your teams well,
because chemistry really matters.
The VP of people experience chose me
because I was open to sharing my ideas
and also my enthusiasm
for leadership development.
Also make sure
that your mentor isn’t a direct report
or part of your team,
because it will be really difficult
to elicit honest feedback
from someone who you also have to review
at the end of the year.
If you’re in finance,
find someone creative in marketing,
or if you’re in engineering,
find someone in customer service.
This will ensure
that you develop perspectives
from outside of your immediate team
and different perspectives
make better leaders.
Lesson two,
to make things simple,
set some ground rules.
The first meeting should be offsite
in a neutral location.
If you’re the mentee,
you should set the agenda.
What is it that you really want to learn?
Maybe you’d like to understand
your mentor’s career journey
or perhaps whether
they’ve had any major obstacles
they’ve had to overcome,
or maybe you’d like to understand
how specific company policies impact them
either directly or indirectly.
Agree that your conversations together
will be confidential
and whether there are any topics
which are off limits,
such as family life
or specific feedback on individuals.
Lesson three, start with an icebreaker.
I like to think of this
as a long elevator pitch
of your life stories.
Who are you?
Poignant moments in your life.
What are your hopes and dreams?
Pivot to seek differences
and not similarities
because that’s the real power
of reverse mentoring.
Craig and I found
that we had formative
experiences in common.
Both of us immigrants,
him a second generation
growing up in the US
and myself first generation
arriving in the UK from Jamaica
at the age of three.
But from there,
our stories are quite different.
Lesson four, beware of role reversion.
There were a few times in our conversation
where Craig slipped
into giving me career advice.
And I had to say,
“Craig this is really interesting
and I’d love to come back to this later,
but in our limited time together,
is there anything else you’d
like to understand from me?”
Now this was quite hard,
but you have to remember that as a mentor
for this very short period of time,
your insights are actually more valuable
to the organization.
Lesson five, make time for reflection.
Agree the key takeaways
from each of the sessions,
either at the end
or through follow-up email
and schedule your sessions
to allow time between for reflection.
We found that three to four weeks
provided a great rhythm.
And finally,
give credit where credit’s due.
In the traditional mentoring relationship
the mentor isn’t expected
to be given credit.
However, in reverse mentoring
where the mentee actually
holds a lot of the power
accurate credit really counts.
Forward-thinking organizations
use reverse mentoring as one of the tools
to help them build
a more inclusive environment.
And studies have shown
that when organizations
embrace reverse mentoring
members of those underrepresented groups
feel more confident
in sharing their perspectives.
And when accompanied
by a comprehensive diversity
and inclusion strategy,
it leads to higher retention
amongst these groups.
Personally, I found
that my reverse mentoring
relationship with Craig
enabled me to have a sense
of ownership and leadership
in building an inclusive
culture at Virgin.
And for Craig, it showed
that even when you’re
at the pinnacle of your career,
there’s still more you can learn.