Monday,
December 02, 2019 / 11:00AM / Nduneche Ezurike / Header Image Credit: Nduneche Ezurike
The convener of the Employee Marketplace Initiative, Nduneche Ezurike, has challenged organizations, wishing to compete in the era of the 4th industrial revolution, to embrace reversed mentoring as a way of bridging the knowledge gap that exists between Millennials and the older generations in the Nigerian workplace. Mr. Ezurike made this call during his presentation at the year 2019 Employee Marketplace (EMP) initiative; a leadership engagement session on workplace innovation. This year's session was titled: "Who Really Cares about Workplace Motivation?
According to
him, there currently exists an inter-generational conflict amongst the two
dominant generations, which is fueled by differences in experiences, attitudes,
and expectations. He noted that while there have been positive efforts in most
organizations to create a more congenial work environment, such as implementing
flat structures and first name basis communication, a major militating factor
is the inability of some generation X professionals in today's digital
workplace to effectively leverage technology to solve everyday problems. Hence,
there is a need to learn digital skills from the Millennials whilst at the same
time supporting them with the much-needed supervision and emotional
intelligence to achieve a better workplace.
Considering
the prerequisite humility required from both generations to teach and learn
from each other, it is inevitable that will be incongruence between
expectations one generation will have from the other. In his words, "whilst
the traditional mentoring system has helped to instill in the younger
professionals the basic values of teaming and ethical conduct, there is however
an urgent need for organizations to embrace the policy of reversed mentoring as
one radical way of bridging the knowledge gap in the era of internet of things"
Responding
to fears that reversed mentoring is fraught with many dangers, given that
cultural impediments do not encourage the younger generations to teach the
older folks, Mr. Ezurike explained that the cultural barriers are less
significant in threat than the danger of not embarking on this bold step. He
emphasized that driving workplace motivation, particularly amongst the
millennial employees, is not just about teaching and learning. Rather, it is
about creating opportunities for knowledge sharing as well as improving the
level of confidence and communication on both sides.
This forms
the nucleus of reversed mentoring as it allows experienced employees to achieve
sustained efficacy on newer technology without the need for more formal
training. Thus, they can adapt to changing workplace technologies and trends
like social media, phone messaging apps, crowdsourcing, or other new Software.
Moreover, Reverse Mentoring also helps strengthen relationships within the
workforce and makes employees feel more connected to the company and its
values. Mr. Ezurike further emphasized that reverse mentoring has become
inevitable, given the changes in the 4th industrial revolution, which demands
that organizations are agile and adaptable in other to compete in the open and
interconnected world.
Making
contributions during the session, the Registrar and CEO of the Chartered
Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Mr. Awojobi, highlighted the need for
leadership emotional intelligence that recognizes the different cultures,
experiences, skills and values that subsist within each generation, while
providing opportunities to harness their inherent strengths to drive
co-existence and co-creation in line with organizational goals
The Employee
Marketplace Initiative, now in its second year, is an initiative designed to
generate research and stimulate conversations on how to achieve, generational
stability and workplace innovation in the modern workplace.
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