It’s hard to believe that there are four generations represented in today’s workforce: Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), GenXers (born 1965-1980), Millennials (born 1981-1996), and GenZers (born 1997-2012). These generationally diverse teams are the key to business growth, according to eight out of ten leaders surveyed in a recent report by The Harvard Business Review. And it makes sense. Overseeing a team filled with varied thinking, behaviors, and ways of navigating challenges, ensures that your most complex projects are pressure-tested and tackled from many different perspectives to produce the highest quality results.
The challenge? When you’re managing an intergenerational team, you’ll often find that each group has been shaped by their own life experiences, opportunities, and values, creating differences in communication styles, expectations surrounding work-life balance, and affinities for new technologies. And that means that you, as the leader, need to tailor your management approach to match the needs and priorities of each generation in order to maximize their performance as a group. In short, with a multigenerational team, a “one-size-fits-all” leadership style simply doesn’t work.
So how do you flip the script and turn generational differences into powerful tools for strengthening collaboration?
Do your homework
Read up on each of the generations represented on your team, learning their common behaviors and why specific generations behave a certain way. For example, Millennials tend to value career advancement because they grew up in an age of recession and have a generational wealth gap with their parents, as CNN recently shared. GenZ, on the other hand, grew up with fast-paced innovation. They expect their managers to keep up with the times, craving a more personalized career journey with robust training and leadership programs, per a Deloitte survey. Understanding the “whys” of your team members’ behavior can provide you with deep insights, which you can use to inform your communication and management approach.
Challenge stereotypes
Understanding generations from a statistical perspective is helpful, but it’s only half the story. Remember that not everyone from the same generation thinks and acts the same way. Many Baby Boomers, for example, are more tech-savvy than they’re given credit for, as Workday explains. While they may not have grown up with an iPhone in their pocket, most of these team members are probably lifelong learners. At the same time, some older generations have labeled GenZ as “lazy” because they have little patience for tedious processes – when really, GenZ values efficiency and a “work smarter” mentality. So don’t make assumptions – form your own assessments based on the realities of your team.
Explore different preferences
Consider conducting a survey to understand your team’s preferences and behaviors. This could be as simple as creating a form with different workplace scenarios like, “How often do you like to receive feedback: weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly?” or, “Do you prefer a meeting, phone call, or messaging apps to resolve project challenges?” Gather the feedback, share the general results with your team, and discuss the reasoning behind certain answers. This will help give your team members needed visibility into team preferences and ensure greater team cohesion.
Address communication gaps
Different generations may have varying approaches to communication, which, if not clarified, can lead to conflict and misunderstandings. Older generations, for example, sometimes write in capitalized letters because it’s larger and easier to read. This may come across to others as aggressive. On top of that, many Millennials and GenZers agree that putting a period at the end of a sentence in a text appears overly hostile, according to The New York Post. This interpretation may come as a surprise to Baby Boomers or GenXers.
So, do your best to address these gaps with your team, and take a tip from the world’s top negotiators: try to resolve differences by finding common ground. Work together to agree on best practices for your team, letting everyone share their communication preferences.
Encourage knowledge sharing
As a leader, your role is to foster collaboration so that your team can benefit from diversity of thought. So, create opportunities for co-workers to learn from one another. Older team members have years of experience that give them insight and context for day-to-day work, whereas younger generations bring fresh perspectives and new ideas. Find instances for your employees to share their two cents and support one another. A great way to do this is by asking team members to present big initiatives they’re working on in group meetings and to leave room for others to offer their input and ideas. This approach can ensure that you maximize the wisdom and creativity of each generation to drive even greater results together.
