Reverse mentorships can be incredibly valuable — they promote diversity, help bridge generational gaps at the workplace, and can help you hone and refine your leadership skills. But the power inversion also creates dynamics that can pose hurdles and potential risks for the junior employee. Here are a few obstacles you may come across when participating in a reverse mentorship.

• A lack of confidence: The most obvious challenge you’ll face is the difference in positional power with your mentor, which is often reinforced by the senior person’s environment. When you find yourself feeling intimidated or in doubt, take a deep breath and remind yourself that this person has asked for your help, so you do have knowledge worth sharing.
• A lack of vulnerability from your mentee: If your senior mentee is closed off, you won’t be able to understand their challenge and development areas, making it difficult to mentor them effectively. You have to create a psychologically safe relationship. As with any mentoring relationship, this starts by building a foundation of trust.
• An overeager attitude: Before sharing your knowledge, you should spend time exploring what your mentee already knows and what they want to learn. A good approach would be to start with a question: “I’d be happy to share my thoughts. It might help for me to understand what specific questions you have. What can you tell me about where you feel the company is struggling?”
• A defensive attitude: Due to your generational differences, your mentee may have attitudes or assumptions that trigger you or make you uncomfortable. While it’s difficult, you should adopt a two-step response: curiosity followed by perspective sharing. Start with something like, “Can you tell me more about what you’ve observed that’s led you to that conclusion?” Instead of starting with a verbal shoving match, you’re keeping your mentee talking, and helping identify the sources of their perceptions.