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If you are a young employee, when it comes to mentoring, your primary focus may be on identifying an older business colleague who can mentor you. However, there also could be opportunities for you to mentor an older employee. Some firms even include reverse mentoring in their formal mentoring programs. One way that younger mentors often can make a contribution as a mentor is by sharing their knowledge of cutting-edge technology, online tools, smart-phone apps and social networking with older colleagues.
If your firm has a formal mentoring program that includes younger mentors, seriously consider taking part. Even if it doesn't, watch for opportunities to take on this role when it makes sense. Here are five reasons to become a mentor to an older employee.
Enhanced Reputation
Being a mentor could burnish your reputation as a team player, which, in most businesses, is considered a big plus and, at the same time, identify you as someone willing to be creative and take the unconventional path, also a positive.
Higher Profile
Mentoring could raise your profile in the firm, single you out as an up-and-comer, and create opportunities for you to interact with senior executives that you otherwise would not meet. These are the sort of contacts that might benefit your career in unexpected ways in the future.
Satisfaction
Being a mentor can be very fulfilling and could give you a great deal of personal satisfaction. Also, working with a more experienced employee could boost your self confidence.
Improve Interpersonal Skills
As a younger employee, mentoring an older employee can be tricky, since you may have to deal with ego issues or even a little defensiveness. While that can be challenging, learning how handle these issues to create an effective mentor/mentee relationship could be invaluable in the long run, since having strong interpersonal skills can be essential to professional success.
Learning Opportunities
As your mentoring relationship progresses, you may find that there is a lot you can learn from the older employee that you are mentoring. Often when a younger employee mentors an older one, the relationship becomes mutually beneficial. While the younger employee may have a lot to teach about using technology and the Internet more effectively or even about the perspective that younger employees can bring to the business, an older employee may have just as much to share about more traditional aspects of business.
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