A guide for mentees: Fresh Eyes
How to learn from a mentor who is more junior than you.
What this guide covers
What this guide covers
What this guide covers
A junior mentor
Your mentor is junior, on purpose
A junior colleague shares newer skills and a younger view with you.
- New tools what they use every day
- Their generation how colleagues and customers their age work
- Fresh eyes how the company looks from their level
Your own reason
Pick something you want to do
Older learners built digital skills mainly when they wanted to learn for themselves.
Say what you do not know
Say plainly what you do not know
People who ask for advice on hard tasks are seen as more competent.
- I have never set this up. Show me from the start. Saves you both time.
- I sort of know this already. Your mentor skips what you need.
Leave rank outside
Leave your rank outside the room
Your mentor holds back if your title sits at the table.
- Let them set the pace and the agenda
- Phone away, door closed
- Do not hand them your own tasks
- Do not move or cut their sessions
Confidentiality both ways
Promise confidentiality both ways
What they tell you about the company must not reach their manager.
- Stays between us what I do not know yet
- Stays between us what you tell me about the company
- We share the topics we covered, if we both agree
Their honest view
Ask for their honest view
Ask how the company looks from where they sit, then listen.
- What do people at your level say about this change? Listen, do not defend.
- What would you stop doing if you were me? Thank them, then think.
Give something back
Give something back
Reverse mentoring is an exchange, so share what you know too.
- Explain how one decision was made
- Introduce them to one person
- Tell them what made their teaching work
Between sessions
Practice before the next session
Use the new skill once on real work, then bring back what happened.
- Tried made the team update as a short video
- Worked more people watched it than read the e-mail
- Ask next time how to add subtitles
Mentornity in Claude and ChatGPT
Use Mentornity from Claude or ChatGPT
Ask in your own words; your assistant plans meetings, fills in tools and drafts messages.
Connect it once
Add Mentornity in Claude, ChatGPT or another MCP app, then sign in.
Ask in your own words
Plan meetings, fill in a tool or form, find a mentor, reply.
A preview before every change
The assistant shows what will happen; nothing changes until you say yes.
Disconnect any time
It sees only what you see; Settings shows what it did recently.
Connect it once
Add Mentornity in Claude, ChatGPT or another MCP app, then sign in.
Ask in your own words
Plan meetings, fill in a tool or form, find a mentor, reply.
A preview before every change
The assistant shows what will happen; nothing changes until you say yes.
Disconnect any time
It sees only what you see; Settings shows what it did recently.
Your goals and the Academy
Set goals, learn, earn a badge
Track your goals in My development and learn in Mentornity Academy, in your language.
Set your goals
Write what you want to reach and rate it at each check-in.
Badge courses for mentors
Seven skills with short practice, then a 20-question exam.
Guides for mentors and mentees
Research-based guides, a deck for every tool, and decks for your program.
Add your badge to LinkedIn
Pass the exam and share the badge page, valid for two years.
Set your goals
Write what you want to reach and rate it at each check-in.
Badge courses for mentors
Seven skills with short practice, then a 20-question exam.
Guides for mentors and mentees
Research-based guides, a deck for every tool, and decks for your program.
Add your badge to LinkedIn
Pass the exam and share the badge page, valid for two years.
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- Murphy, W. M. (2012) Reverse mentoring at work: Fostering cross-generational learning and developing millennial leaders Human Resource Management, 51(4), 549-573
- Kaše, R., Saksida, T. & Mihelič, K. K. (2019) Skill development in reverse mentoring: Motivational processes of mentors and learners Human Resource Management, 58(1), 57-69
- Brooks, A. W., Gino, F. & Schweitzer, M. E. (2015) Smart people ask for (my) advice: Seeking advice boosts perceptions of competence Management Science, 61(6), 1421-1435
- Chaudhuri, S. & Ghosh, R. (2012) Reverse mentoring: A social exchange tool for keeping the boomers engaged and millennials committed Human Resource Development Review, 11(1), 55-76
Bring one real task to start
Something from your week that you want to do yourself.