Thursday, April 9, 2015
Led by Teresa Knott (@tlknott)
What does reverse mentoring mean? To me, it acknowledges that while we tend to think of mentoring as being a hierarchical relationship, it can and should be a relationship based on sharing expertise or knowledge regardless of a perceived hierarchical relationship. People at every stage of their career have expertise and knowledge that is valuable to the community and colleagues.
If I don’t know how to use Twitter beyond sending a simple tweet, I can use the expertise of someone who leverages Twitter to gather information and build relationships with experts. My best source of such information could well be from someone like Nikki Dettmar (@eagledawg), who has a great deal of expertise in social media and readily shares what she knows.
From my perspective, the most successful mentoring relationships are mutually beneficial – each party gains valuable knowledge from the other.
Questions to consider:
- Have you had a successful experience in a reverse mentoring relationship? What made it work well?
- What areas of expertise do you believe are ripe for reverse mentoring?
- Would this be useful to add to the Medical Library Association’s expertise database?
Here are some articles that you may find useful:
Reverse Mentoring: What Age Can Learn from Youth from American Express Open Forum
Best quote from the article comes from Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company, explaining reverse mentoring: “It’s a situation where the old fogies in an organization realize that by the time you’re in your forties and fifties, you’re not in touch with the future the same way the young twenty-something’s. They come with fresh eyes, open minds, and instant links to the technology of our future.”
Reverse Mentoring from Clutterback Associates
Reverse Mentoring Cracks Workplace from the Wall Street Journal
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