Reverse Mentoring | Meaning and Definition

What is Reverse Mentoring? 

It simply corresponds to the act of mentoring and supervising the senior employees by the junior employees. The junior employees act as mentors/supervisors. Reverse Mentoring is an initiative by which seniors/older executives are paired with the juniors in order to exchange and share experiences and skills on current trends. For instance, a younger employee of the current generation has to be more skilled than the senior executives on the topic of social media such as WhatsApp, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and others. Consequently, Reverse Mentoring creates the much-needed balance required in today’s world, where technology is the most needed than any other commodity. The idea of Reverse Mentoring was invented by the former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch. During the end of the 1990s, Jack was of the realization that the management of the company, along with him, lacked the basic idea of the internet and the latest technology. He also did not miss to notice the knowledge of the younger candidates who joined the company regarding the trends of the internet and new technologies as compared to their senior executives. This gave him the idea of asking the juniors and the new joiners for help to fill the gaps in assisting the top and senior executives.