Latest / The Career Mentor Podcast with Fexingo: Finding Mentors, Sponsors, and Career Advisors / Mentorship Across Generations Bridging the Experience Gap
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want to start with something that came across my desk last week. A mid-sized tech firm in Austin — about 800 employees — rolled out a reverse-mentoring program pairing Gen Z employees with senior leaders in their fifties and sixties. The explicit goal was to reduce turnover among younger staff, which had been running at 35 percent annually. Luna: Thirty-five percent — that's almost one in three walking out the door every year. What happened? Lucas: After six months, turnover dropped to 24 percent. Not a cure-all, but a meaningful shift. And when they surveyed participants, the senior leaders reported something unexpected: they felt more engaged, more connected to the company's direction. The Gen Z employees said they finally felt heard on things like flexible scheduling and mental health support. Luna: So it wasn't just a knowledge transfer — it was a two-way empathy bridge. Lucas: Exactly. And it points to a bigger issue a lot of people face when they're looking for a mentor. If you're in your twenties and your ideal mentor is a Baby Boomer or a Gen Xer, you might worry they don't get your world. Or if you're a senior leader, you might think a twenty-something has nothing to teach you about leadership. Both assumptions are wrong, but they're common. Luna: I think there's also this unspoken fear on the younger side: 'If I ask for mentorship from someone so different from me, will they judge my priorities?' Like, you want to talk about work-life balance, but you're worried they'll think you're not committed. Lucas: Right. And on the senior side, there's often a fear of seeming out of touch. I've had executives tell me, 'I don't even know what TikTok is, why would a Gen Z employee want to learn from me?' But the thing is, mentorship isn't about shared pop culture references. It's about career wisdom, navigating organizational politics, strategic thinking — things that are largely generation-agnostic. Luna: Still, the generational differences are real. A 2025 LinkedIn study found that 60 percent of young professionals felt their mentors didn't fully understand their career motivations. And the top motivation cited by Gen Z was 'meaningful impact,' while for Boomers it was 'financial security.' Lucas: That's a gap worth naming. If you're a Boomer mentor and your mentee says they want to find purpose in their work, your instinct might be to say, 'Focus on building a stable career first, then worry about purpose.' That advice comes from a good place, but it can land as condescending. Luna: So how do you bridge that? How do you get a productive conversation going when your starting assumptions are that different? Lucas: I think the first step is to name the difference explicitly. As a mentee, you can say, 'I know we might have different perspectives on this, but I'd love to hear how you approached finding meaning in your work when you were my age.' That invites them to share a personal story, not just give advice. And as a mentor, you can ask, 'What does success look like to you in this role?' before you launch into what you think success should be. Luna: That's good. I'd also add that younger mentees shouldn't assume older mentors are rigid. I interviewed a Gen X mentor for a piece last year — she's a VP at a financial services firm — and she told me she'd adapted her entire mentoring style to be more flexible after her first Gen Z mentee said, 'Can we do these sessions over text instead of coffee?' She said she was surprised, but she tried it, and it actually worked better for both of them. Lucas: And that's a perfect example of reverse mentoring in action. The mentee taught the mentor a new communication modality. That VP probably wouldn't have considered text-based mentoring on her own. So the real opportunity in cross-generational mentorship is that both parties get to expand their toolkit. Luna: But I want to push back on something. There's a risk that we frame this as 'the older person has all the career wisdom, and the younger person has all the tech savvy.' That can be reductive. I've met Gen Z employees with incredible strategic instincts, and Boomers who are early adopters of new tools. Lucas: You're right, and stereotyping defeats the purpose. The goal is to approach each mentoring relationship as an individual pairing, not as a generational archetype. The generational lens is just a starting point for curiosity. Luna: If today was actually useful to you — if it helped you think about how to approach a mentor from a different generation — the way these episodes stay ad-free is through listener support. It's a small thing, but it really makes a difference. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, and we mean that sincerely. Every contribution helps us keep the conversation going without selling your attention. So thank you to anyone who's ever chipped in. Luna: Alright, back to the mentorship bridge. Let's talk about practical steps. If you're a younger professional looking for a mentor from an older generation, how do you actually start that conversation? Lucas: I'd recommend starting with a specific request. Don't say, 'Will you be my mentor?' That's vague and puts pressure on them. Instead, say something like, 'I noticed you led the restructuring of the supply chain team last year. Could I buy you coffee and ask you three questions about how you approached the people side of that change?' That's concrete, respectful of their time, and signals you've done your homework. Luna: And for the senior leader who wants to mentor someone younger? I think the key is to lead with humility. You could say, 'I'm interested in learning how your generation thinks about work, and I'd love to share what I've learned about navigating this company. Would you be open to a monthly chat?' Lucas: That's a great framing because it makes the exchange reciprocal from the start. And it sets the expectation that both parties will bring something to the table. Which, honestly, is what makes any mentorship work — regardless of age. Luna: I also think it's important to address the 'experience gap' directly. A young mentee might worry that their mentor's advice from twenty years ago is irrelevant. And the mentor might worry that their experience doesn't translate. But in my view, the core principles — how to build trust, how to communicate up, how to manage a difficult boss — those don't change. Lucas: They don't. The context changes, but the human dynamics are remarkably stable. I remember a mentor of mine, a Boomer, once told me, 'The fastest way to ruin a reputation is to take credit for someone else's work.' That advice is timeless. And it came from his experience in the 1980s. Still applicable today. Luna: So maybe the real advice for finding a mentor across generations is: look for wisdom, not similarity. Don't filter by age. Filter by what you want to learn. Lucas: Exactly. And if you're on the other side — if you're an experienced professional who wants to mentor — don't assume you have nothing to learn. The best mentors I've seen are the ones who are genuinely curious about their mentee's world. They ask questions, they listen, and they adapt. Luna: I think that's a good place to leave it. Whether you're twenty-five or fifty-five, there's someone out there who can teach you something — and someone you can teach in return. Lucas: Next time, we're going to talk about how to be a good mentee — the often-overlooked side of the equation. Until then, keep the conversations going.