5 Reasons You Should Reverse Mentor with your Millennial Employee

Wonderfully so, there are many opportunities for young professionals to be mentored by seasoned management.

What if management took the day to learn from their millennial employees?

Here's 5 reasons you should try reverse mentoring:

1. They'll probably have something to teach you about social networking or technology
What's Hootsuite? How do they have 100 followers? How can I easily sync my phone with my laptop? Millennials have grown up immersed in technology and have experience with more social networking platforms than you know exist.

2. Getting to know them better will help you to help them succeed
Sometimes we don't know what we need. Work with us. Learn who we are. Chances are spending some one on one time with us will show you which ways we absorb information and how you can help us to be better employees and professionals.

3. You'll most likely learn how to improve your company's culture
It's possible that you have employees who have worked at your company for 30+ years. A young employee will likely take in your culture quickly, and hear about your employees' unhappiness soon after starting their job. Without betraying other employees' trust, they could have insight or ideas about how to improve culture in your work place.

4. You'll gain each other's trust
It's intimidating and difficult to become comfortable with your boss. You want to impress them and hide your shortcomings, which makes it difficult to ask for help. Spending time with your millennial and letting them know that you are there to help them and grow their abilities will make it easier for them to come to you when they need advice.

5. Hearing from them will give you a fresh perspective about how you do things
8 am meetings every Tuesday morning. Sending mass emails about meetings. It's easy to get into a groove about how we do things and forget about searching for more effective ways to get our tasks done. Maybe your millennial will have a system that inputs meetings and requests into a collaborative calendar. Having fresh eyes may improve how you do things.

Reverse mentoring is a great way to get to know your millennial better and improve your working relationship.