Reverse mentoring is not a new concept for public relations professionals, but it is something that is being shared and discussed not only in the workplace, but also in academia. The prime audience who is becoming the teachers (especially when it comes to new media and mobile technologies) are millennials. However, for this audience, it is not only a way to stay social and connected with friends and family, but they are more engaged and it does come down to the balance of both social networking and business for these individuals as well – and they definitely know how this new medium is working.
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So, who exactly are millennials? Pew Research Center defines this particular age cohort as being individuals who are ” confident, self-expressive, upbeat and open to change.” These individuals are also Using millennials (18-29 years old) proactively will not only help in research, but also generate fresh ideas and perspectives for research studies, teaching innovations and concepts, and help in creating new ideas for strategies and campaigns. While there are many options for how businesses and PR professionals can engage and interact with millennials in the workplace, but the same issue and questions arise in both research classes and in the classroom. Here are just a few ideas on how senior professors (and even newly minted PhDs) can do this:
- Giving students action steps and ways to learn and grow as a scholar: Encourage students to expand their horizons – push them to further their ideas into publications or share their ideas for a campaign with a business to give them real world experiences. These students want to be part of making a difference and see their work make a contribution to the field.
- Be transparent with your actions and projects: Making sure to have an engaged, open, and transparent conversation about potential research projects and studies is key – plus, it is also important to make sure to give credit when credit is due. It is about creating a proactive academic partnership.
- Remember what it is like to be a student – and take the new academic and professional environment into consideration: Understand both the challenges and opportunities there are for students is key as well as being aware of what are some things that are similar and different from the business environment from when you were a student compared to know. Let yourself be the student and they be the teacher as well – we can all learn from each other. 🙂
- Giving them a seat at the table and hear their voice and ideas: Giving these individuals the opportunity to let their voice and ideas being heard in real situations (conferences, meetings, presentations, etc) will not only be rewarding for the students, but will also show them what they need to do to succeed in the profession. This also will give them a platform to show the community who they are as a PR professional and researcher, which is what they are ultimately trying to do with their studies and research.
- Ideas and hard work are the building blocks for success: This generation of students understand the harsh economy situations they are facing, so they are willing to work hard to achieve their goals. In addition, they are coming in with fresh new ideas and unique perspectives about the field – which are very valuable and relevant to the field. Looking at these two factors – the right mentoring and proactive learning culture could produce a dynamic, energetic, and hybrid PR professional of the future.
- Paying it forward: These students want to learn and grow as scholars – and the best way for them to do that is to learn by example through mentoring. Given the students action steps to take and lessons you learned along the way that will help them in their studies and research as well as in teaching. Imitation is the highest form of flattery as well.
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