Date · Friday, 8 May 2026, 16:30 CEST
Hosted by · UNLB and UN Secretariat
Session page · UNOG learning
Speakers
- Fedor Anisimov · Early-career professional, UN Secretariat (DMSPC-OHR) · Bio
- Paola Pinto · Adult Learning Specialist, UN Global Service Centre (Brindisi) · Bio
Mentoring works best when learning flows both ways and when everyday work becomes the classroom. In this practical session, we demystify reverse mentoring (what it is - and isn’t), show why it accelerates inclusion, innovation, and leadership readiness, and outline the core principles that make pairs succeed: open mind, clear goals, respect, trust, and authenticity. We then translate those insights into practice with a simple playbook for on-the-job learning: scan current tasks and skills, set SMART goals, and design bite-size practice with real time feedback - all in a cadence teams can sustain.
Key takeaways
- Reverse mentoring requires no platform, programme, or supervisor approval. Two people and a commitment to learn from each other are enough. Stop waiting for institutional permission and start next Monday.
- The action plan is five concrete steps: identify your goals, find a partner from a different generation or background, propose with a clear and compelling ask, set ground rules together (frequency, communication, confidentiality), and commit to a three-month launch horizon.
- Use the REAL framework when setting mentoring goals: Relevant, Experimental, Aspirational, Learning-based. Review and adjust regularly because the learning needs change as the relationship progresses.
- The five principles that make pairs succeed are open mind, REAL goals, respect, trust, and authenticity. Authenticity and trust reinforce each other in a cycle; inauthenticity makes the relationship transactional rather than transformational.
- Vulnerability runs in both directions. Senior leaders admit what they don’t know; junior mentors openly share their apprehensions about giving feedback to an executive. Without vulnerability on both sides, the relationship cannot deepen.
- Reverse mentoring delivers measurable evidence at scale: 30% more market-ready ideas in cross-generationally mentored teams, 90% higher job satisfaction among participants, and a 19% higher promotion rate for junior staff serving as reverse mentors. Linklaters scaled to 176 pairs globally; GE has been doing this since the 1990s.
- On-the-job learning is the practice that makes mentoring operational. Structure the moments most offices already encounter, onboarding, reassignment, parental leave replacement, partial handovers, into designed learning events rather than self-navigation through handover notes.
Fedor Anisimov
Fedor delivered the reverse mentoring half of the session, opening with a definition and a deliberately low barrier to entry. Reverse mentoring is the practice of junior staff mentoring senior leaders on workplace culture, generational perspectives, technology, and modern trends, but with one critical qualifier: it is mutual, not one-directional. The junior brings fresh perspective; the senior brings strategic context, organisational history, and career guidance. Both move. His framing throughout the section: this does not require a formal programme, supervisor approval, or a platform, it requires two people and a commitment.
He grounded the case in three structural forces. By 2030, millennials and Gen Z will form roughly 70% of the global workforce, bringing communication styles and expectations that create friction if unaddressed. The World Economic Forum’s projection that 44% of skills will be disrupted by 2027 makes continuous learning structural rather than optional. And hierarchical structures create silent knowledge, junior insights rarely reach senior decision-makers, leaving leaders disconnected from emerging trends. Reverse mentoring directly addresses the slow transfer of skills between generations.
He shared four organisational case studies as evidence: PwC paired over 100 junior employees with senior partners for six months and saw measurable improvement in millennial retention; Pershing reached 97% retention against a 70% industry average; Linklaters scaled to 176 pairs globally with 100% participant endorsement on inclusion; GE has run reverse mentoring since the 1990s, originally to teach senior executives about the internet. The practical numbers from research across 500+ private organisations: 30% more market-ready ideas in cross-generationally mentored teams, 90% of participants reporting higher job satisfaction, and a 19% higher promotion rate for junior staff who served as reverse mentors.
His action plan was deliberately minimal: identify your goals (what do you want to learn or share), find a partner from a different generation or background, propose with a clear and compelling ask (he gave the exact wording: “I would like to learn from you about AI. Would you be open to a reverse-mentoring relationship where we meet regularly to exchange knowledge?”), set ground rules (frequency, communication preferences, confidentiality, goals), and commit and launch with a three-month horizon. The repeated instruction throughout: do not wait for institutional permission.
He then introduced five core principles for what makes pairs succeed. Open mind means curiosity over conviction, a common pitfall is senior leaders listening only to defend their position and junior mentors hesitating to share. Both parties have to enter each conversation with the goal of learning, not proving.Goals should follow the REAL framework: Relevant (matter to both parties and align with organisational priorities), Experimental (open to trying new approaches and learning from failures), Aspirational (big but still achievable), and Learning-based (focused on growth, not task completion). Goals should be reviewed and adjusted regularly because what you want to learn changes as the relationship progresses.Respect shows up in four dimensions: how you speak, how you listen, how you treat each other (boundaries, punctuality, appreciation), and how you treat the relationship (preparation, confidentiality).Trust is built through believing in best intentions, openness to giving and receiving feedback, follow-through, and confidentiality, and it requires vulnerability from both sides: senior leaders admitting what they don’t know, junior employees openly discussing their apprehensions about giving feedback to executives.Authenticity completes the cycle: presenting yourself with sincerity, discussing hardships and failures, sharing real opinions rather than what you think the other wants to hear. The authenticity-trust loop reinforces itself; inauthenticity, by contrast, makes the relationship transactional rather than transformational.
Paola Pinto
Paola took the second half and shifted the focus from reverse mentoring as a peer relationship to on-the-job learning as a structured organisational practice. Her core argument: mentoring becomes truly operational only when it is embedded in daily tasks. On-the-job learning is the process of developing skills, knowledge, and a growth-oriented mindset while performing regular duties under the guidance of a more experienced colleague, learning by doing, making mistakes, observing, and receiving real-time feedback.
She listed the contexts where it applies and where most teams currently leave it unstructured: receiving someone from a different organisation, reassignment for reskilling, anticipated separation (retirement, resignation with a handover period), parental leave replacement, onboarding interns, JPOs, or YPPs, and partial handovers of a portfolio. Her implicit point: every UN office encounters these moments, but few treat them as a designed learning event. The cost is the experience most participants will recognise, being given handover notes and left to navigate hundreds of documents and emails alone, which slows time-to-performance and damages the organisation’s reputation in the meantime.
She gave four reasons to formalise it: it accelerates learning and performance through immediate, timely feedback; it preserves institutional knowledge by structuring the transfer from seasoned to junior staff; it fosters a culture of continuous learning aligned with organisational values; and it boosts engagement and retention because new staff feel welcomed and supported. Her practical anchor was a three-stage Mentoring Plan Map that mentor and mentee design together: Scan (identify the learning gaps versus the role’s requirements), set SMART goals based on those gaps, and design a personalised on-the-job learning plan. She emphasised that goals must be revisited and adjusted as needs evolve, echoing Fedor’s earlier point.
The most actionable contribution was the description of the Mentoring Essentials Workshop, designed and delivered by the UN Secretariat’s CDOT office for current and future mentors. Her framing: not everybody is born a mentor, and seniority alone does not equip someone for the role, preparation and support are required. The workshop has three prerequisites: completion of an online course called “The Art of Mentoring”, attendance at a pre-workshop seminar, and completion of a job task and micro needs analysis. Participants leave with three things: skills (active listening at a deeper level, awareness of different communication styles, ability to adapt to different learning styles, and the ability to give and seek timely specific feedback), a mindset shift (understanding the value of psychological safety, the impact of intentional and unintentional behaviours, and the flexibility to remain open to the mentee’s input rather than assuming the mentor has all the answers), and a toolkit (templates, checklists, and conversation guides usable during the journey). She closed with three structural recommendations for organisations: integrate on-the-job learning into HR and learning strategies, communicate it effectively, reward mentors in the performance document, and secure leadership sponsorship.
Frameworks and models
| Name | What it stands for | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Five Principles of Reverse Mentoring | Open mind, goals, respect, trust, authenticity, the foundation that turns a pair of names into a transformational learning relationship. (One of the three layers consolidated in the Reverse Mentoring Playbook.) | Apply at the start of any reverse mentoring relationship and revisit when friction or drift appears. Each principle has concrete behaviours: curiosity over conviction, REAL goals, four dimensions of respect, vulnerability for trust, and sincerity for authenticity |
| REAL Goals Framework | Relevant, Experimental, Aspirational, Learning-based, the four criteria for setting goals in a reverse mentoring relationship. (The goals layer of the Reverse Mentoring Playbook.) | Use when defining goals at the start of a mentoring relationship and when reviewing them mid-cycle. Goals should matter to both parties, allow for experimentation and failure, be ambitious but achievable, and prioritise growth over task completion |
| Reverse Mentoring Action Plan | Five-step launch sequence: identify goals, find partner, propose with clear ask, set ground rules, commit and launch. (The action layer of the Reverse Mentoring Playbook, with the cross-reference to How to Approach a Mentor for the senior-to-junior outreach pattern.) | Use when starting reverse mentoring without institutional support. Three-month initial horizon is enough. The proposal step has a specific format: name the topic, ask for a regular knowledge-exchange relationship |
| Mentoring Plan Map | Three-stage process for on-the-job learning: Scan (gaps versus role requirements), SMART goals (based on gaps), Personalised plan (designed jointly with the mentee). (The operational core of the On-the-Job Learning page.) | Use whenever on-the-job learning is needed: onboarding, reassignment, parental leave replacement, partial handovers. Mentor and mentee build it together and revisit as needs evolve |
| Mentoring Essentials (Skills + Mindset + Toolkit) | A three-part preparation model for mentors: skills (active listening, communication and learning styles, feedback), mindset (psychological safety, intentional and unintentional behaviours, flexibility), toolkit (templates, checklists, conversation guides). (The mentor-preparation triad on the On-the-Job Learning page.) | Use as a self-check before mentoring or as a curriculum framework when designing mentor preparation. Seniority alone is insufficient; all three components are required |
Resources
| Resource | What it is / What it’s for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Harvard Business Review, “Why Reverse Mentoring Works and How to Do It Right” (2019) | Comprehensive article on implementation and best practices for reverse mentoring drawn from private sector cases | https://hbr.org/2019/10/why-reverse-mentoring-works-and-how-to-do-it-right |
| McKinsey Quarterly | Articles on cross-generational collaboration and innovation through diverse teams, supporting the case for reverse mentoring | https://www.mckinsey.com/quarterly |
| Kronos blog, “7 Reverse Mentoring Program Best Practices” | Recent practical guide with multiple actionable tips for designing and running a reverse mentoring programme | https://www.kronos.com (search title) |
| Mentoring Essentials Workshop | UN Secretariat (CDOT) workshop preparing current and future mentors with skills, mindset, and toolkit. Prerequisites: “The Art of Mentoring” online course, pre-workshop seminar, and job task / micro needs analysis | Contact CDOT, UN Secretariat |
| ”The Art of Mentoring” online course | Prerequisite course for the Mentoring Essentials Workshop | Available via UN Secretariat learning platform |
Last updated 2026-05-10.