Today’s economy is flooded with young entrepreneurs, who naturally are the future of business in years to come. And while you may view them as competitors and a threat to your well-established company’s practice, engaging and mentoring such individuals can boost your own business in unprecedented ways. After all, you, too, were once just a budding businessman, and imparting your wisdom to those just starting out can yield results in a win-win situation.

Studies have shown that intergenerational workforces can rope in strong results by allowing employees to exchange working attitudes, practices and knowledge, and offer everyone the opportunity to learn from each other. Below we outline some of the ways in which being a mentor to young folk starting afresh can bring about benefits you had never considered before.

Develop new perspectives
Working closely with younger workers can force you to look at your business from their eyes, allowing you to develop a holistic perspective and opinion of its operations as a whole. There may be a new way of thinking, or ideas previously unheard of to older staff members as a result of the generational gap, and these might inspire you to think of more creative solutions to your business’s problems. Mentorship in this instance can work both ways, and knowledge transfer is clearly a two-way street.

Understand the recruitment
Knowing how your staff works and thinks is vital to ensuring your business remains profitable; after all, your employees are the reason your company is afloat in the first place. By providing mentorship to your younger staff members, you will learn what they value, how they learn, and how they operate. You will glean both the positives and the negatives from working closely with them, and will equip you with future recruitment, especially when it comes to knowing what to expect of future candidates, learning how to motivate workers, and how to retain talent in the long-run. No doubt, your managerial techniques will also change over time, making you more attractive as a boss to new staff, therefore making the company’s ethos a more positive one.

Make better investment decisions
Interacting with younger team members will force you to think about future investment plans and opportunities, as their new-age mindset may compel you to think about avenues of growth that you probably have not considered before. Mentorship may not necessarily mean new investment decisions, but learning about how younger people would use their money and where they would see future opportunities can lend itself to your own plans. This goes hand-in-hand with the notion of gaining new perspectives, and this can be fruitful in your business decisions as well by yielding good results just by taking time to work alongside fresher colleagues.

Be a good Samaritan
The youth of today are the future, and it is every businessman’s responsibility to pass on his or her wisdom to the next generation to ensure a smooth transition going forward. Mentorship is simply a good thing to do, and will force those around you to perceive you as a strong and capable leader. Moreover, being a mentor will allow you to pick your successor and train that individual as you please, so they are equipped with all the necessary knowledge and skills to take on the business once you choose to leave it.

Above all, mentorship enhances a sense of community and a share of knowledge across all ranks of employment, which is bound to equip your company for success on all levels.