Reverse mentoring – the other point of view?
Posted by eileenb on November 3, 2009
Long before Microsoft, I used to work in a company that paired the very junior in the organisation with the very senior. It served 2 purposes.
It helped the junior staff understand organisational challenges or running a medium sized business and gave them confidence in dealing with people working at much senior levels to them. But more than that, it gave the organisational leaders an insight to the challenges of starting out in the organisation, the problems of junior menial tasks , lack of responsibility and decision making at lower grades.
The most beneficial pairings were when young females were “mentors” to the senior male managers. These young women had such a fresh approach to every day tasks that often, a totally new process was implemented. A refreshing change.
But I thought that this approach was limited to smaller organisations, and the big guns stayed away.
So I was delighted to read that Dell have adopted this reverse mentoring approach where female middle managers coach the senior male leaders.
The programme helps men to understand the ways in which women approach their roles and to develop appreciation for their different styles of working. Sales, for example, is typically seen as a function more suited to male traits, but women have key selling skills that are often over-looked such as listening, collaboration and diplomacy.
The pilot has helped to remove some of these misunderstandings and, given Dell’s male workforce, a greater appreciation of their female colleagues’ skillsets. The firm calls this ‘inclusive leadership’,
What a brilliant piece of leadership Dell, a very refreshing approach to an age old problem of miscommunication and misunderstanding.
Thank you for taking the lead. Now all of the other companies in the “Connecting Women in Technology” need to follow suit. Because with the big guns in the Technology industry leading, many other smaller or less enlightened companies will eventually follow suit…
