How Reverse Mentoring May Help Your Bizav Operation

Mentorship is typically thought of as a senior professional sharing guidance and advice to employees who are newer to a company or industry. While that remains an important part of business aviation, the concept of reverse mentoring is gaining ground.

Reverse mentoring, in a formal sense, is when junior employees offer mentorship to those who are senior to them. But the concept can be as informal as forging professional friendships, regardless of seniority, that encourage more effective teamwork and information sharing.

For example, the traditional flight crew work dynamic, which has been dominated by a top-down culture with the captain running the flight deck, is shifting. “We’re seeing younger and younger senior pilots, so today we’re adopting more of a crew-resource-management style of leadership,” said Jamal Pratt, first officer with PNC Bank’s flight operation. Senior pilots are more open for input and suggestions.

“It’s a lot more organic today on the flight deck than in the office setting just because [pilots] have an obligation to the safe outcome of the flight,” Pratt said. “There was some resistance initially from some senior pilots, but now it’s a lot easier and more comfortable to have these types of conversations.”

Sending A Message

More broadly, reverse mentoring can be especially helpful for senior employees who are looking to gain more familiarity with things such as new technologies, social media, diversity, inclusion and work-life balance issues.

“Reverse mentoring can bring a number of benefits to the company and its newer team members,” said Jennifer Pickerel, president of Aviation Personnel International. “When someone comes into a new group and is immediately acknowledged as a contributor, that permeates through the organization and sends a message that you are open to new ideas.

“It also helps the organization ‘stay modern’ and to see things through fresh eyes with new ideas,” she said.

Two-Way Feedback

Performance evaluations offer another reverse mentoring opportunity. By changing the traditional model to allow feedback to flow both ways, less-senior employees can share potentially constructive ideas about supervisor performance.

“When I do my quarterly check-ins with my employees, once we’ve talked about all that’s happened and what we can work on together, I reverse the conversation and ask them to tell me how I can do better,” said Jamie Muñoz, general manager for the Galaxy FBO at Addison Airport (ADS) in Texas. “I truly believe that unless I am better, then the entire organization can’t get better.

“It’s not easy,” she said. “It took a while for them to feel comfortable telling me things because nobody wants to tell the boss what they believe they can do better.”

Eye-Opening Revelation

But you can’t just drop something like reverse mentoring into your organization out of the blue, said Muñoz. You need to take time to explain to everyone on your team what you are doing and why.

“It was very eye-opening to me early on,” she said. “I made the gross assumption that everyone on the team would look at it the way I did. I was wrong. You have to make sure all of your team members are aligned with this kind of initiative.”

However, it’s also important to follow up. “You have to take action,” said Pickerel. “If people share ideas or information and you don’t do anything with it, even if it’s just having a follow-up conversation, doing nothing can really deteriorate any trust.”

Eventually leaders may run the risk of mistakenly signaling to team members that offering feedback is a waste of time.

Opening Minds, Lowering Barriers

“Relinquishing control is one of the most difficult parts of our ‘seniority-based’ industry,” Pratt said. “Just like with a traditional mentorship, you have to come into this with an open mind, which will allow for the transfer of ideas and experiences without barriers.”

“You also have to appreciate the fact that the younger generations have a very different understanding of the employer/employee relationship than you do,” Pickerel said. “As leaders of the prior generations fade out, those of us at a certain age are really going to have to adapt to that and take the time to teach the younger generations to communicate in ways that are respectful to everyone.”

Workforce Retaining or Recruiting

When practiced correctly, the benefits of reverse mentoring can permeate throughout the organization.

“I would encourage any organization that is having trouble with recruiting or retaining the right talent to take a hard look at reverse mentoring,” said Muñoz. “There will be benefits. It fosters a feeling of inclusion, respect and trust. They may seem like small changes, but I feel they will have a significant impact.”