New Trend: Social Media Savvy Youngsters Fill Reverse-Mentor Roles To Corporate Exec GreyBeards

You’re a corporate titan, and your marketing execs are pushing you to be more proactive in your use of social media, but you still don’t get it..Well, as reported by Sue Shellenbarger in today’s WSJ Home & Digital column, the new trend in corporate mentoring is finding youngsters in corporate settings taking on a reverse role; they’re now doing the mentoring. Whether its best practices when it comes to Twitter, Blogging, the use of Linkedin or Facebook, we’re reminded of the adage, “..out of the mouths of babes..”  The JLC Group endorses this new movement! (P.S. We’re also looking for interns to mentor our corporate clients!!!)

“There is a growing digital divide in workplaces—between twentysomethings with social-media savvy and tech-impaired older managers. To address it, more companies are trying reverse mentoring, pairing young employees with older colleagues to work on tech skills.

 

The practice “is up quite a bit in the last three or four years,” says Didier Bonnet, a global practice leader in London for Capgemini Consulting. “The main aim is to raise the digital IQ of business leaders in the firms.”

The pair-ups don’t always work, Dr. Bonnet says. They are often intimidating to young mentors and awkward for older colleagues, who may be embarrassed to reveal how little they know. Clear goals, good chemistry, a time commitment and an open-minded attitude among senior executives raise the odds of success, he says…”

For the full story from the WSJ, please click here.

 

New Trend: Social Media Savvy Youngsters Fill Reverse-Mentor Roles To Corporate Exec GreyBeards