Leading Different Generations in the Workplace
When I first began researching and speaking about generational diversity, I was a scrappy, skeptical 20-something Generation Xer – an enthusiastic member of the youngest generation in the American workplace at that time. Today, as I write this blog, only a fraction of the Baby Boomers who shepherded my generation into the workforce are still working. Most have happily retired, leaving a legacy of hard work, optimism, and team spirit behind them. Additionally, two younger cohorts have since entered the workforce, Millennials (also referred to as Generation Y) and Generation Z. Times are certainly changing. In fact, the youngest generational cohort, Generation Z, is “expected to overtake Baby Boomers in the workforce” this year.
From Baby Boomers to Generation Z, each cohort comes with its unique strengths and preferences at work. While the integration of multiple generations within an organization provides a wealth of perspectives, experiences, and skills, effectively leading across their differences can be complicated. In this blog, I will outline strategies for leading each of the generational cohorts and fostering a cohesive multigenerational workforce.
Effective Strategy for Leading Multi-Generational Teams
One size does not fit all when it comes to managing employees across the generational spectrum. In a perfect world, the most effective leadership strategy is to tailor your leadership approach to accommodate the generational preferences, communication preferences, and working styles of each employee to create a harmonious and productive work environment. A general understanding of the generational cohorts can provide you with useful insights as one possible starting point for understanding the people you lead. For example:
Baby Boomers (1946-1964) prefer specific goals, clear deadlines, hard work, teamwork, and being invited to share their knowledge and experience by mentoring others. They currently make up 19% of the U.S. workforce.
Gen Xers (1965-1980) prefer direct feedback, efficient work environments, independence, autonomy, informality, and being invited to solve problems or offer suggestions. They currently make up 35.5% of the U.S. workforce.
Millennials (1981-1996) prefer to be personally known by their leaders, value challenges and growth (seeking frequent and in-depth discussions about their development), seek meaning in their work, and appreciate flexible work arrangements, including the opportunity to work remotely. They currently make up 39.4% of the U.S. workforce.
Generation Z (1997-2012) prefer to be self-directed, entrepreneurial, autonomous, free to multitask, invited to engage in plenty of development opportunities, and able to exercise work-life balance. They currently make up 6.1% of the U.S. workforce.
In the real world, it can be difficult to adjust your leadership to a wide variety of generational differences while also delivering a singular message, providing consistent work direction, and creating a unified team. For example, if you lead a team of customer service representatives, how can you simultaneously foster teamwork (Baby Boomers) and independence (Gen Xers)? Or, how do you balance sharing in-depth insights about personal performance (Millennials) and promoting autonomy and self-direction (Gen Zers)? Some of the preferences of the generational cohorts seem contrary to the preferences of other cohorts. So, what is a leader like you to do? The answer is to understand the generational profiles of the people who report to you, and then follow this three-part strategy:
Part #1:
Ensure that information shared across a generationally diverse team clearly outlines the expectations for consistency in terms of when, where, and how it’s required (including problem solving steps that must be uniform), where teamwork is expected, and the importance of any deadlines. Also, be specific about where employees have autonomy to make decisions, work at their own pace, work independently or remotely, or solve problems creatively.
Part #2:
Conduct regular one-to-one (1:1) meetings with each of the employees who report to you. During the 1:1 meetings, fill in gaps regarding any additional information or instruction that may be helpful to them based upon their generational (or temperamental or character development) profile.
Part #3:
Actively seek feedback from members of each generational cohort regarding your leadership style, communication, and direction. Ask what is working for them and what is not. Continue to look for common themes that you can integrate into Part #1 and ferret out the unique preferences that you can address via Part #2.
Building a Cohesive Multigenerational Workforce
If you follow the three-part leadership strategy above, you are already well on your way to building a cohesive multigenerational team. Your next step is to help build trust among team members, which means that you will need to create meaningful opportunities for team members to learn from one another and work together.
There are endless ways that you can structure these opportunities in a manner that works well within your workplace. If you have not yet been intentional about fostering trust-building opportunities between team members, consider the following generational-specific ideas.
Recognize that mentorship and knowledge-sharing can bridge the generation gap. Invite seasoned professionals, especially Baby Boomers, to pass on their wealth of experience to younger counterparts. This helps to build relationships within the team and it also, notably, facilitates the transfer of organizational knowledge which is invaluable.
Embrace modern communication tools that accommodate the preferences of tech-savvy Millennials and Gen Zers. Invite well-spoken members of either of those generational cohorts to engage in reverse mentoring to coach less tech-savvy teammates and to create helpful tutorials or reference resources.
If you employ flexible work arrangements (perhaps to accommodate younger generations), create visibility and transparency regarding individual and/or team productivity to demonstrate respect for the older generations who often place tremendous value on work ethic and may be suspicious of flexible work arrangements.
If time allows within your workplace, assign relevant professional development books, TED talks, or articles to the team for discussion at team meetings. Facilitate discussions regarding diverse points of view based on the assigned homework. Not only does this create a team learning environment (helpful for creating greater trust across a team), but it also provides teammates with an opportunity to gain insight into the perspectives of teammates from other generations.
Look for opportunities to create intergenerational teams to work on shared assignments. Be clear about expectations and timelines and offer any appropriate instruction to set them up for success.
Finally, provide team learning opportunities that are tailored to the generational mix and learning styles of your team (as well as the training objectives, environment, budget, etc.). Team learning builds relationships, trust, shared understanding of information, and common vocabulary.
It’s up to you to effectively lead the unique mix of generations in your company to enhance productivity, problem solving, innovation, and progress. It’s a worthy undertaking and one we would be glad to help you with. Contact us to explore customized in-person or virtual training solutions that appeal to all the generations represented within your organization.
