Here is an invitation that more developers early in their careers are starting to receive. The company is running a reverse mentoring scheme, and a director would like to be paired with you. Once a month, for an hour, you will be the one teaching.

The idea is not new. Jack Welch made it famous at General Electric in 1999, when he asked hundreds of his senior managers to find younger employees who could teach them about the internet. Since then many organisations have used it, often around new technology, and increasingly to help leaders understand what working there is like for people very different from them.

There are good reasons to expect more of it. Tools and habits now change faster than the people at the top can keep up with on their own. Teams are more spread out, so senior people see less of the daily work. And many leaders have realised that an honest picture rarely reaches them through the usual channels.

If you are asked, take it seriously, because it is a real opportunity. You get an hour with someone you would not normally meet, and they get a view of the company they cannot get anywhere else.

Prepare as you would for any mentoring. Ask them what they want to understand, and suggest something concrete. Show them how you actually work, the tools, the channels, the places where things get stuck. Watching an ordinary task often teaches more than any discussion.

Be honest, and be careful. You are not there to pass on every complaint from your team, and you should not share things people told you in confidence. Talk about your own experience, and say clearly when you are giving an opinion.

Agree at the start what stays between the two of you. Many schemes treat the sessions as confidential, but it is worth checking so you both feel able to speak freely.

Remember that it runs both ways. You will learn how decisions are made at that level, what pressures a director carries, and why some things that seem obvious from your desk are not. Many people find the relationship becomes a two way one quite naturally.

And keep your nerve. Being younger, newer or less senior is the reason you were asked. The view from where you sit is exactly what they are missing.

– Asael Shinder