Steve Evison, Director of Sustainable Growth at Essex County Council, talks to his mentor Abi Turner what it’s like to take part in reverse mentoring with her – and why other senior leaders should do it too.
I recognised that it had been a long time since I had started my career. In a hybrid world, it’s harder to make more informal connections and get feedback from people outside the traditional management line.
I felt like I had less connection with people, particularly younger people, who I don't see in meetings as much as I would have once seen in the office.
In my opinion, the biggest benefit for someone in my position is a perspective that you wouldn't get in your normal working life at my grade.
I've done mentoring before; I've been a mentee with chief executives and other senior leaders. But in this case, it's so invaluable to hear how you, Abi, think about things. All I can do is apply my own experience to what's happening now, as the world is so different from when I started. You give me a different perspective and I learn a lot from that.
The reverse has to be managed. You have to make sure you're the mentor and I'm the mentee.
Sometimes when we're doing sessions, I find it hard – I say to myself: “Don't become the chair of the meeting,” because I'm so used to it. That's the main challenge; it requires constant thought and checking that I'm playing the right role in the sessions. I have to work hard not to become a mentor.
As the mentor, you have to be comfortable in the role. It won't work if you're not comfortable leading the session and acting as the mentor. Even if you're not confident, you have to put yourself into that position. Then hopefully, that builds confidence.
You also have to be open and inquisitive. As the mentee, I also have to be open about things that I worry about without fear of undermining your view of me as a director.
You've got to play a role that isn't natural. Both of us do. You have to commit because otherwise, it becomes another meeting that won't achieve anything different from the usual.
I can see more people signing up for reverse mentoring, and more senior leaders putting themselves in that reverse position. It's a good discipline to have. We've taken what we did in a face-to-face world and transferred it to an online or hybrid world. It’s good to challenge that.
The interesting question is what flows from it. We talked in our last session about career development; that's an important subject for you, but where you are in your career, it makes me think: do I need to do a similar reverse mentoring or mentoring with somebody who is in a more of a middle manager role?
It does make me question the importance of having different engagements between senior and junior members of teams. I want to do an event with junior members of staff in the directorate, rather than what we would normally do, which would be more traditional events and senior leaders gathering together.
There's something about junior-senior engagement that I'm interested in exploring further.
Read The Guardian article about reverse mentoring.
Read the latest edition of Abi Turner's blog, where she shares her experiences of being an apprentice.