One of the most valuable things Judy Kirpich has learned is that
some of the best ideas come from people who were barely born when
she started in marketing 23 years ago. "I routinely get
technology information from younger employees who have grown up on
computers," says the 49-year-old CEO and co-founder of Grafik
Marketing Communications Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia.
What Kirpich is doing is reverse mentoring--matching younger
employees who know a lot about the Internet, wireless commerce or
some other field with senior managers who aren't so up on the
latest digital domains. Joining youthful insight with elder
influence can have long-lasting benefits. Kirpich says she was cool
to technology in the 1980s, but invested in computers at the urging
of the younger set in her company. "If I hadn't listened
to the younger people," says Kirpich, "we'd be out of
business."
Reverse mentoring has probably been around forever, but it first
became a mainstream idea a few years ago when General
Electric's then-CEO, Jack Welch, ordered several hundred of his
top managers to hook up with younger employees to learn about the
Internet. Since then, reverse mentoring has been seen as useful for
managing intergenerational differences at work, understanding
younger consumers and generally fishing around for new ideas.
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The Outsiders
Keys to successful reverse mentoring include training the mentor
to be patient and restricting his or her advice to the relevant
topic, says Jerry Wind, a professor at the University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School, who oversees a reverse mentoring
program matching entrepreneurs and other executives with MBA
student mentors. Privacy and confidentiality are also important for
CEOs who don't wish to be seen as depending on tips from from
employees with less experience. Partially for that reason, Wind
says mentors should come from outside the organization. Using
outsiders also avoids issues with other employees who see a junior
worker getting special access to the executive suite.
For Kirpich, reverse mentoring has both informal and formal
aspects. She gets information about the latest software and systems
by simply unceremoniously asking questions of younger staffers she
thinks might know the answer. She also encourages and receives
unsolicited tips. The formal, public component involves inviting
younger employees to stage presentations for all members of the
company, at which they can pass on design ideas, technological
innovations or other information.
But reverse mentoring isn't always especially useful. For
example, it can't help cope with a recession, Kirpich notes,
because younger employers haven't experienced one. She also
doesn't plan to seek advice on client presentations, selling,
finance or long-term strategy from her younger workers.
Reverse mentoring is probably unappreciated by most
entrepreneurs, says Matt Starcevich, a Bartlesville, Oklahoma,
executive coach and mentoring trainer. Starcevich found little
reverse mentoring occurring when he conducted an online survey on
the topic last year. One reason may be that people do it without
officially naming it "mentoring," but Starcevich also
suspects that many reverse mentoring initiatives withered because
they lacked clear goals and adequate structure. "The idea is
good, but it needs help," he says.
For her part, Kirpich sees reverse mentoring as permanently
embedded in the way Grafik does business. She fears, however, that
entrepreneurs may be biased against taking advice from
twentysomething tech experts as part of a backlash from the
bursting dotcom bubble. "That would be a tremendous
harm," she says, "if people are so jaded by the dotcom
experience that they cut out that younger voice."