Reverse mentorship: when leaders listen to their employees | Patrice Gordon | TEDxShoreditch Women
Summary
TLDRIn 2018, Patrice, a People Experience Officer at Virgin Atlantic, was asked to be a mentor in a reverse mentoring program, where CEO Craig would be the mentee. Reverse mentoring involves a senior leader learning from someone with different experiences, often from underrepresented groups. Patrice, a black woman, shared her viewpoints to help Craig become a more inclusive leader. The talk highlights the importance of reverse mentoring for fostering empathy, challenging biases, and driving inclusion in organizations. It also discusses the need for psychological safety and voluntary participation in such programs.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Reverse mentoring is a process where a senior leader is mentored by a junior or someone from a different demographic group to gain new perspectives and foster inclusivity.
- 👤 The CEO of Virgin Atlantic, Craig, was willing to be a mentee to understand the experiences of a black woman in the workplace, highlighting the importance of leadership's role in promoting diversity.
- 💼 The speaker's experience in various organizations showed her commitment to driving inclusion, emphasizing the need for leaders to use their power to effect change.
- 🔄 The concept of similarity bias was discussed, explaining why leaders often surround themselves with people like themselves, which can limit diversity in decision-making.
- 📊 Statistics revealed the underrepresentation of women, particularly women of color, in top leadership positions, such as CEOs in the Fortune 500 companies.
- 🤝 Reverse mentoring is not just about learning from difference but also about building empathy and understanding through genuine human connection.
- 🚀 The speaker's personal journey with reverse mentoring involved a mutual curiosity between her and Craig, which led to a transformative experience for both.
- 🌐 The script touched on global trends like the digital revolution, demographic shifts, urbanization, and climate change, emphasizing the need for diverse perspectives in leadership.
- 🤔 The importance of psychological safety in reverse mentoring was highlighted, suggesting that organizations must create an environment where underrepresented individuals feel secure sharing their experiences.
- 📈 The script suggested steps for successful reverse mentoring programs, including clear objectives, voluntary participation, and a focus on action and learning from experiences.
Q & A
What is reverse mentoring?
-Reverse mentoring is a program where a senior leader, often lacking diversity in their inner circle, is mentored by someone from a different demographic or with different experiences, typically to gain insights and perspectives that can help them become more inclusive leaders.
Why did Patrice agree to be a reverse mentor?
-Patrice agreed to be a reverse mentor because she had a history of driving inclusion in organizations she worked for and saw this as an opportunity to use her power to drive change, challenge assumptions, and help leaders understand different viewpoints.
What was Patrice's role at Virgin Atlantic before becoming a reverse mentor?
-Before becoming a reverse mentor, Patrice was the Head of Commercial Finance at Virgin Atlantic.
What initiatives did Patrice establish at Virgin Atlantic to promote inclusion?
-Patrice established the first Finance graduate Apprentice program at Virgin Atlantic and became the first non-HR person to facilitate their women's development program.
Why is it important for leaders to have a diverse inner circle?
-Having a diverse inner circle is important for leaders because it helps them understand different viewpoints and experiences, which can lead to more inclusive decision-making and leadership.
What percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs were women in 2022 according to the script?
-In 2022, only 3.7% of Fortune 500 CEOs were women.
What is similarity bias and how does it affect leadership teams?
-Similarity bias is the tendency to be more comfortable with people who are like us. In leadership teams, this can lead to a lack of diversity and a narrower range of perspectives, as leaders may be more inclined to select and promote individuals who are similar to them.
How does reverse mentoring help develop empathy in leaders?
-Reverse mentoring helps develop empathy by forcing leaders to build relationships with individuals who are different from them, which in turn allows them to understand and appreciate those differences.
What are some challenges Patrice faced as a reverse mentor?
-Patrice faced the challenge of being seen primarily as a black female rather than for her professional accomplishments, which was a new experience for her.
What steps should organizations take to ensure a successful reverse mentoring program?
-To ensure a successful reverse mentoring program, organizations should clarify the program's objectives, ensure leaders understand their responsibilities, avoid forced participation, and establish a process to support the well-being of participants, with a focus on psychological safety and action-oriented outcomes.
How can reverse mentoring be used to improve inclusivity in the workplace?
-Reverse mentoring can be used to improve inclusivity by encouraging leaders to engage with and understand the experiences of underrepresented individuals, fostering a more connected and empathetic workplace.
Outlines
🔄 Reverse Mentoring for Inclusive Leadership
The speaker begins by recounting a 2018 conversation with Virgin Atlantic's CEO, Craig, about a reverse mentoring program. Reverse mentoring involves a senior leader being mentored by someone from a different demographic to broaden their perspective and foster inclusivity. The speaker, who had been advocating for diversity and inclusion at various companies, agreed to mentor Craig. Despite her success, she was often seen for her achievements rather than her identity as a black woman. The program aimed to help Craig understand different experiences to become a more inclusive leader. The speaker highlights the lack of diversity in leadership positions, with only a small percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs being women, and even fewer being women of color. She emphasizes the importance of challenging assumptions and biases to create a more inclusive environment.
🤝 The Power of Reverse Mentoring in Building Empathy
The speaker discusses the concept of reverse mentoring as a tool for developing relationships with individuals who are different from oneself, which in turn fosters empathy and understanding. She shares her personal experience as a mentor to Craig, where he sought to understand her 'lived experience' as a black woman. The speaker found it revolutionary to be seen and valued for her identity. Through their interactions, Craig became more curious and open to learning about different experiences, which helped him become a more inclusive leader. The speaker challenges the audience to lean into discomfort and engage with people who have different perspectives, as this is essential for being better global citizens. She also touches on current global trends, such as digital revolution, demographic shifts, and urbanization, and how these factors influence the need for more connected and inclusive workplaces.
🌟 Implementing Successful Reverse Mentoring Programs
The speaker provides insights from her research on how to implement effective reverse mentoring programs within organizations. She emphasizes the importance of psychological safety, especially for underrepresented individuals, and the need for organizations to be clear about their goals for such programs. Leaders must understand their role and responsibilities in these mentoring relationships, stepping out of their comfort zones to grow. The speaker advises against forced participation, as it can lead to increased burden and discomfort for the participants. Instead, she suggests starting with a small, voluntary group to test and learn from the experience, then expanding the program. The speaker concludes by encouraging individuals to seek out and engage with people who are different from themselves, both in personal and professional settings, to build more connected and inclusive environments.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Reverse Mentoring
💡Inclusion
💡Protected Characteristics
💡Empathy
💡Psychological Safety
💡Leadership Styles
💡Underrepresented Individuals
💡Curiosity
💡Growth Zone
💡Connection
💡Active Listening
Highlights
Introduction to the concept of reverse mentoring and its significance for leadership development.
The personal experience of being asked to mentor a CEO and the impact on organizational culture.
The importance of having diverse viewpoints in leadership to foster inclusivity.
The speaker's background in driving inclusion within organizations.
The speaker's initiative in setting up the first Finance graduate Apprentice program at Virgin Atlantic.
The role of reverse mentoring in challenging assumptions and biases in leadership.
Statistics on the underrepresentation of women in CEO positions and the need for change.
The natural human tendency towards similarity bias and its implications for leadership teams.
The benefits of reverse mentoring in developing empathy and understanding through relationship building.
The speaker's personal journey with reverse mentoring and the transformative impact on their identity.
The importance of curiosity in the reverse mentoring process for both mentor and mentee.
The speaker's research into reverse mentoring and its potential for driving organizational change.
The current global trends affecting organizations and the workplace.
The disconnection felt by many employees and the need for more connectedness at work.
The evolving role of leadership and the necessity for a more adaptive leadership style.
The steps to ensure a psychologically safe experience in reverse mentoring programs.
The importance of voluntary participation in reverse mentoring and avoiding forced involvement.
Advice on starting reverse mentoring programs with a small group for testing and learning.
Encouragement for individuals to engage with difference in their personal and professional lives.
The potential of reverse mentoring as a transformative tool for building a more inclusive world.
Transcripts
thank you so it's
2018 and the people experience officer
at Virgin Atlantic says to me Patrice
we're thinking about launching a reverse
mentoring program Craig the CEO wants to
be the mentee would you mind being the
mentor first of all what is reverse
mentoring I had no idea what it was when
she explained it to me I come to
understood that Craig didn't have any
black women in his inner circle or in
his work Circle and he wanted to
understand my viewpoints my lived
experience so that he could be a more
inclusive leader so first of all what
did I say the Clear answer for me was
yes but why was it yes you see it wasn't
my first rodeo of speaking truth to the
powers at B I had kind of made it my
business to drive inclusion around the
organizations that I'd worked for from
British Airways to Royal Mail and now to
Virgin
Atlantic I sat around the leadership
team table I had power and I recognized
that I needed to use that power to drive
change I became a manager at 25 I became
a finance director at 29 but what that
meant was I had people in my circle who
were almost at the coldfront these are
the people that did the day-to-day work
but the meetings that I sat with there
was a massive disconnect between what we
talked about at lunchtime versus some of
the conversations I was having in these
leadership rooms and that always drove
me to have the conversations with senior
leaders to challenge them about some of
their viewpoints and opinions when I
came to Virgin Atlantic it was pretty
clear that I'd stepped into my inclusion
Journey fully I came in I said look I'm
an exec coach I really love to drive
inclusion and I'm really good at my job
at that point I was head of commercial
Finance so when I joined you know I got
involved in a few extracurricular
activities the first thing was I set up
the first Finance graduate Apprentice
program can you believe it a brand like
Virgin Atlantic with no graduate program
how are we going to feed the pipeline
the second thing I did was I was the
first non-hr person to become a
facilitator for our women's development
program apparently Role Models only
existed within HR before and
I came along to challenge that status
quo and now facilitators are only not
from HR so finally when it came to me
being a reverse Mentor it was natural
for me to step into that position to
really challenge some of the assumptions
that were held so first of all kudos to
Craig who was really Brave about
acknowledging where his gaps were he was
ready to step into that growth com
growth Zone and really step out of his
own comfort zone so first of all does
anyone know what reverse mentoring is
for those of you who don't know reverse
mentoring is where you get somewhat of
difference and in my definition I look
at it in regards to the protected
characteristics so that may be age
gender ethnicity disability sexuality
veteran status just to name a few my
intention with reverse mentoring is to
make sure those senior leaders around
that table have an alternative Viewpoint
a Viewpoint that they may not have in
their personal Circle or their inner
Circle as Craig acknowledged why is this
a
problem did you know that in
2022 only 6% of the foot C 350 were
women it's 19 19 women out of 350 as
CEOs whilst the board composition has
improved the people that actually hold
the pen and hold the power those CEOs is
only 19 of them the Fortune 500 guess
how
many 37
37 female CEOs and you know I am a woman
and I'm a woman of color I'm not going
to labor on that point too much but
ultimately those are some of the stats
that we are the most comfortable in
talking about we know that similarity
bias exists around the senior leadership
team table and why is that we're really
comfortable with people who are like us
right like you go to an event you see
someone who's like you you naturally
gravitate towards them because that is
innate in us you know it's daismachine
us now what happens when someone's like
us we think oh well if I have a new
opportunity maybe I'll ask them to do it
because I think because they're like me
they're going to they're going to
perform at a really high level right who
who thinks that who thinks that right
but then if I only select people who are
like me to do the things that I want
them to do what happens to those
individuals who are unlike me so around
the senior leadership team table we have
these individuals who are alike they
maybe went to the same University or the
same standard of University live in the
same area maybe called
John but ultimately you know it's a
natural Human Experience to want to
gravitate towards someone like you so
one of the reasons why I'm a particular
fan of reverse mentoring it because it's
forces you to develop a relationship
with someone of difference and we know
that empathy is developed when we spend
the time to get to know and understand
of difference so using reverse mentoring
as a tool back to my story Craig was
really clear that he wanted to like
really understand my lived experience
and did I find that
uncomfortable it was the first time that
I was
seen as a black female now you might
find that strange but ultimately I was
known for going in doing an amazing job
and getting results so I didn't identify
as a black female first I identify as
someone who does a really great job so
someone wanted to see me and see me that
was revolutionary for me and as we
progressed through the relationship one
of the things that we both agreed on was
the reason that this transformative tool
was so helpful was because Craig had a
curiosity to learn I had a curiosity to
help him learn and then between the two
of us we got to a point where he could
understand some of the experiences that
I had and how it could lead him to be a
better more inclusive leader and when
you think about it in your organizations
or in your day life how much do you
really lean into people of difference
how much do you have an insatiable drive
for
curiosity to understand an alternative
point of view you know many of us want
an easy life we lean into like people
who think like us so that we can kind of
agree and have discussions but not too
much on the edge because that makes us a
bit
uncomfortable I think we'll all agree
that the recent events across the world
over the past 3 years have given us
almost no option but to lean into this
discomfort if we are to be almost
Citizens of
Humanity reverse mentoring with the Crux
of it being curiosity Craig took away
that ultimately around the senior table
they needed to really be more curious
ious about people who are different to
them so we launched a program at Virgin
Atlantic I was the lead Mentor but there
was still something inside me which made
me feel deeply uncomfortable that this
tool wasn't used more widely I'm a child
accountant first I'm also an exec coach
and an emotional intelligence expert so
this F fit really nicely in my
wheelhouse and ultimately since
2019 I have devoted a great amount of my
time and energy to researching this
topic to understanding not only how I
felt nice and warm and fuzzy inside
because I was seen and valued but how
could we use it to really Drive change
within organizations so I'll give you a
bit more of a bigger picture there are
several Mega Trends happening at the
moment the first is obviously a digital
Revolution
right we have an absolute great change
in terms of the demographic makeup that
we've got globally which means that
there are up to five Generations in the
workforce at the
moment we
have intense urbanization which means
that the GDP almost in some cities is
greater than some country
gdps and finally we of course have
climate change amongst all this within
organizations we have
69% of individuals saying they feel
disconnected at work 58% of us want want
to feel more connected at
work 38% of us don't actually trust our
co-workers now we all have a role to
play right and ultimately to drive
inclusion within the workplace we need
to be able to drive connectedness and
that means we need to seek people of
difference and understand people a
little bit more but on top of that we
have this thing where in the old days a
leader would have a leadership St
and what he said or she said would
go so everybody in the team had to kind
of assume the position and
and respond and reply to the leader in
that way now leaders have no choice now
but to really lean into different
leadership team Styles the recent deoy
human insights report has told us that
94% of individuals believe that a
different style a more adaptive style of
leadersh ship is now
required unfortunately only 23% of those
actually believe their leaders have
those skills to do
it so how are we going to fix this enter
reverse
mentoring now we know as we said that
empathy drives connection and we want
more
connection and ultimately with reverse
mentoring there are a few steps that we
need to take to ensure that it is a
psychologically safe experience through
my research and through the pandemic it
was really clear that organizations were
a little bit responsive not necessarily
proactive in regards to what they needed
to do to drive engagement which meant
that on the whole there were lots of
listening exercises lots of reverse
mentoring occurring but actually what
they really failed to do was Center The
Experience around psychological safety
particularly for the underrepresented
individual and you've got to remember
that an underrepresented individual
going in front of a senior leader
they're already entering into the
situation with a really um Keen aspect
of where that Power Balance lies so my
research showed me there were a few
things that we needed to make sure the
organization had in place in order to
ensure a successful reverse mentoring
program the first thing is that they
needed to be clear as to what exactly
were they trying to use reverse
mentoring to fix the second thing was
making sure the leaders understood the
responsibility that was on them as they
entered into this relationship so really
tapping into stepping out of your
comfort zone and leaning into that
growth Zone which we can talk about so
easily when it comes to sales or when it
comes to operations but when it comes to
developing deeper relationships we have
a problem with that the third thing is
just really making sure that individuals
aren't forced to participate forced
participation in Reverse mentoring is
Rule 101 please do not do it ultimately
the research showed that those
individuals felt almost put upon to
participate in these these programs and
the burden only increased of being an
underrepresented individual so the
programs that we run are really around
ensuring that there's an application
process so you can understand what a
person can give and what a person needs
in this whole Learning
Journey making sure that there is a
process where HR or the program lead is
delegated and responsible for the
well-being of those individuals there's
checkings that we go through the program
to make sure we're we're matching
towards the objectives and most
importantly that there is a bias for
Action so a lot of the questions that I
get challenged with and asked is like
can you force a leader who definitely
needs reverse mentoring to
participate I would advise not no um we
all know that bad news travels more
quickly than good news and ultimately in
these situations what you do see is not
only the effect on the individual the
the impact on the group and also an
impact throughout the wider organization
so it's particularly important that
those individuals come to the table
because they really want to and then
finally I advise starting in a small
group test and learn and then expand it
too because you want to make sure that
it's useful for the organization and it
will mean that some things will go wrong
when you enter into the Learning Zone
and in the grow growth Zone you all know
that things can go wrong and that's fine
we'll use it as a learning opportunity
but ultimately tap into it to make sure
that it gets better with time so how can
can you use this in your life as well I
mean we are here today please tap in and
speak to someone that you might not
normally speak to as we enter into the
socializing part later but ultimately in
order for us to be great citizens of the
world we really need to tap into
difference so really look at your circle
of friends identify where you might have
a gap and lean into that Gap and and
really understand and lean into the fact
that actually difference brings more
connection
in your workplace you might not want to
do it as a formal Arrangement but really
those individuals that may not speak up
in meetings those individuals that you
may not have had a conversation with tap
into that difference and really lean
into building more inclusive
environments and so the listening the
active listening the empathetic ear the
understanding that ultimately we need to
build more connectedness as opposed to
lead into a lot of the negativity in the
polarization that is happening in the
world is one of the key reasons that I
believe reverse mentoring is one of
those transformative tools that is
really going to change the world so
thank you
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