business - The Learning Café

1 40theELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTOR Jan. though mentoring is one of the most effective career de -vel opment paths for young employees, surveys show that only one infive organizations offers a formal mentoring program. This is in spiteof the need especially for today s electrical distribution organizations for fast, point-of-need Learning partnerships to help share criticalknowledge, onboard new hires, develop talent, and grow future lead-ers. This makes it very likely that you and your team are left high anddry when it comes to mentoring newer or younger employees but itdoesn t mean you can t set up an effective program yourself. Managers and supervisors at all levelshave a simple, viable strategy availablefor providing mentoring to their teamswithout waiting for senior managementto set up a formal program.

2 This do-it-yourself option is called reverse men-toring because it turns around mentor-ing as most know it. Traditionally, a person with more ex -perience will mentor a colleague withless experience; this method has beenproven through master/apprentice rela-tionships that have allowed knowledgeto be handed down over hundreds ofyears. In reverse mentoring, a moreexperienced employee, or even a man-ager, actively seeks the council of anemployee with less overall modern twist has older employeesdepending on younger staff for freshperspectives, trend spotting, and tech-nology guidance. As Alan Webber, co-founder of FastCompany( ), put it, Reverse mentoring is when the oldfogies in the organization realize that bythe time employees are in their 40s and50s, they re not in touch with the futurein the same way as the 20-somethingsare.

3 They come with fresh eyes, openminds, and instant links to the technol-ogy of our future. Reverse mentoring refreshes learn-ing for veteran employees and man-agers while helping to build leader-ship skills and experience of the neweremployees who are, of course, alsolearning new insights during the rela-tionship. And when a manager is pairedwith a 20-something employee, thementor gets a glimpse into the world of leadership and top-level leaders something the younger generation par-ticularly values. WHY REVERSE YOURMENTORING?Reverse mentoring has some uniquebenefits that should be of special inter-est to the industry, many of which haveto do with attracting and keeping em -ploy ees in the Millennial generation(those born between 1977 and 1998) an essential demographic for any forward-thinking organization.

4 These six benefits specific to reversementoring are just the tip of the iceberg:1. Reverse mentoring helps to en -gage, retain, and promote younger tal-ent. It creates a two-way conversation,allowing supervisors to learn whatworkplace conditions younger employ-ees seek to advance themselves in alongwith the interests of the from thebottom up, part 1 How and why to do it yourself with a cross-generational mentoring program. by Diane Thielfoldt EMMANUAL HIDALGO/ISTOCKPHOTO 40, 12/14/12 8:26 PM Page 40 Stories of successAt Werner Electric in Cottage Grove,Minn., President Ben Granley hastapped into reverse mentoring in aneffective yet informal way.

5 DustinRanem, a Millennial delivery driver,regularly visits the marketing depart-ment to provide his perspective onthe company s social media presenceand to give specific recommenda-tions. In fact, when Granley was pro-moted to president, he asked Ranemto re view his LinkedIn page and hissocial media presence and provide alist of recommended improvements. He has educated our entire orga-nization about the power of socialmedia, corrected some of our mis-takes, and helped me out personallywith Twitter chats and more, saidGranley. At Milbank Manufacturing ( ), a small group started areverse mentoring program in Oc to -ber 2012. It s gone well and I thinkwe ll learn a lot from each other, saidChristine Henry Vetter, a Millennial-generation marketing specialist who ispaired with the CEO.

6 My overarchinggoals are to gain a better understand-ing of how Milbank operates at a30,000 view, as well as to developways to make the company moremultigeneration friendly. CEO Lavon Winkler wants to usethe program to understand the dy -namics of Millennials and how com-panies can create opportunities thatare exciting for members of that Milbank pairs have agreed tomeet once a month during the firstyear of the DIY program. After thispilot period, the reverse mentoringprogram will be rolled out company-wide. 13 theELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTOR41 Recruiting & Retention2. Reverse mentoring engagesyounger and newer employees, promot-ing their loyalty and generating Reverse mentoring empowersemerging and established Reverse mentoring shrinks bigorganizations and transcends bound-aries that normally wouldn t be crossed.

7 5. Reverse mentoring begins to closethe knowledge gap between long-timeemployees and newer Reverse mentoring offers different,fresh, and/or younger mentoring is ideal in situa-tions where it is desirable for establishedem ployees and managers to gain tech-nical expertise from business appli ca -tions to smartphone apps. The same istrue of Learning about new and emerg -ing trends in marketing or areas of work and society that might impact thebusiness. It can also strengthen the team as itgrows the skills and strengths of indi-viduals involved. For example, when apeople-savvy associate is paired with a manager working on winning over aprospective client, everyone can benefit.

8 BEST PRACTICESB efore sending a seasoned executiveand an intern into a conference roomand saying Go, there are a few high-level guidelines to consider. No matterhow simple the structure of the mentor-ing program is intended to be, take timeto make a plan. Reverse mentoring can take place asinformally as desired or even withinan existing mentoring program. It sim-ply calls for matching up pairs of em -ploy ees of different generations andthen encouraging them to meet regu-larly to exchange ideas and challengeeach other. Note that these relation-ships shouldn t be restricted to people of the same gender or who have similarbackgrounds because there is so muchthat can be learned from those who aredifferent from oneself.

9 Take some time to consider the hardglue and soft glue that can hold asuccessful program together: The hard glue:1. Define expectations. Both partnersneed to be very clear on what they wantto Agree on the rules. Each partnermust be fully committed to the mentor-ing relationship with regular meetingsand activities and to getting together atleast monthly. Partners should agree tobe cooperative and respectful. The soft glue:1. Willingness to learn. In a reversementoring relationship, both partiesmust genuinely want to learn from andshare with the Mutual trust. The goal is to pushthe other outside of his or her comfortzone and try new ways of think ing,working, and being.

10 Ideally, the pair willcreate a safe, risk-taking environmentand maintain confidentiality. 3. Transparency. Partners must beopen with their feelings and with whatthey are thinking. They must be able toovercome differences in communicationstyle and be open to seeing situationsfrom different angles. My research shows that the biggestdangers to any successful mentoringrelationship are neglect (a lack of com-mitment, time, and energy), breaches of confidence, and the failure to under-stand culture and generational differ-ences. As a reverse mentoring programis implemented, be on the lookout forthese pitfalls. Next month, part two of this serieswill outline a basic action plan for areverse mentoring program.