It is no longer an HR gadget or a communication posture. Reverse mentorship is gradually installed in the practices of French leaders as a tool for monitoring, strategic adaptation and sometimes even managerial transformation. By giving the floor to the youngest in a logic of upward transmission, some business leaders experience a voluntary reversal of roles, to remain connected to uses and sensitivities that they do not always share instinctively.
A strategic necessity more than a symbolic gesture
At Orange, the reverse mentoring program was formalized in 2013 under the leadership of the DRH Brigitte Dumont, before being extended to several hierarchical levels. The initial objective: to help managers better understand the digital codes of incoming generations. But logic has evolved. Today, it is as much a question of integrating reflexes linked to digital sobriety or transparency as to acquire technical skills. The company assumes that some leaders over 50 can learn from a 23 -year alternating, provided that the exchange framework is structured, confidential and recognized.
This type of initiative exceeds the simple image effect. It is part of a logic of benevolent confrontation with the dominant representations within the management committees. Far from “labs” or other internal incubators, this is an individual work, over time, between two people of different generations and statutes.
An intellectual opening effect for experienced leaders
In 2021, the Mazars France firm launched an inverted mentoring experiment with a group of young voluntary employees. One of the partners, interviewed in Le Figaro Economy, recognized that the exercise had shaken some of its certainties in terms of working time and relation to the hierarchy. “What I was taking for casualness was actually a expectation of clarity on the meaning of tasks.” This questioning resulted in concrete managerial adjustments, especially on the conduct of internal meetings.
The impact is not immediate but cumulative: by dint of exposing leaders to direct and not filtered returns, these exchanges gradually modify their reading grid of social, digital or environmental issues. A collateral, but assumed effect, also consists in changing the relationship to power and authority in very verticalized organizations.
A practice that extends to the public sector
Reverse mentoring is not limited to large private companies. In 2022, the Paris town hall launched an experiment with its senior administrative executives. For six months, young agents of the city accompanied directors on subjects linked to digital uses, inclusion or non -hierarchical communication. The objective was to expand the managerial vision of very institutional profiles. The project, carried out by the HRD of the community, was renewed in 2023.
Same logic on the side of the National School of Administration (ex-ENA), where an experimental module was integrated into the upper improvement cycle, with exchanges between young graduates of Sciences Po and senior officials in office. Again, it is a question of creating a structured dialogue space where ancient habits can be jostled without losing face.
A demanding role in reversal for young mentors
For young professionals involved, the posture of “mentor” vis-à-vis a leader supposes a subtle learning. At BNP Paribas, where the device was deployed in certain business directions, juniors are trained in speaking, management of silences and active listening even before their first session. The supervision is provided by internal coaches to avoid clumsiness and guarantee a framework of confidence.
This preparation is essential: it is not a question of criticizing, but of opening a field of reflection. Some mentors report that the first sessions are often marked by mutual discomfort, quickly lifted by the recognition of the utility of the exchange. The leader, for his part, discovers another way of questioning his own reference system without giving up his role.
A Welcome to Professional Certitudes
In an interview with the digital factory in 2020, Frédéric Mazzella, founder of Blablacar, explained that he had integrated an inverted mentoring format in his own driving mode, by bringing together a group of young volunteers each month. The idea: testing your intuitions produced, challenging the proposals of the Comex and identifying blind spots. This format, informal but regular, has become a ritual of strategic adjustment as much as a cultural connection tool with new entrants.
This testimony illustrates an emerging trend: leaders are waiting for transmission only in a sense. They recognize that the expectations of the younger generations are not simple HR trends, but strong signals to integrate in their own way of deciding, of managing, listening.
Towards a cross learning more than a reversal of power
Reverse mentoring does not pretend to reverse the roles, but rebalance the looks. He offers managers a double posture: that of a listening decision -maker, and a professional in permanent learning. If the system is still marginal, it gains in maturity and leaves the anecdotal framework to become a lever of personal and organizational evolution.
In 2023, the Makesense platform launched an experiment with several SMEs partners, in which managers are accompanied on CSR issues by young people from the Jobs That Makesense program. The initiative has enabled several bosses to review their commitment policy and redefine their role in terms of transition. Proof that by reversing the roles, we sometimes also reverses the meaning of priorities.
