As a leader, your three primary responsivities are to your work group, to management, and to yourself. Successful leaders balance all three. Here are tips for managing your team up the generations.
Respect Their Experience
Stephen Covey’s fifth of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is: “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.” If you are a new manager observe first. Honor the experience of others by inquiring about their current position. Ask open-ended questions. Learn what they’ve done, what they’re doing, and how they think things can be improved.
Ask, “Can you describe a person in my current role doing an ideal job?” Early on in your role, set expectations for communication. Find out the cadence and communication they prefer. Is it weekly phone calls, monthly face-to-face, or daily emails?
*Check out this video highlighting, “The top nine questions every manager should regularly ask.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r4StiMXjJQ
Give them Room
Millennials may struggle when managing Generation Xers. Xers tend to be stubbornly independent. If you’re a Millennial who has been helicopter-parented it may be difficult to understand why Xers don’t seem to be keen on your frequent check-ins.
Don’t Ignore Senior Staff
Younger managers have a tendency to ignore infractions of seasoned employees, reasoning they’ll be retiring soon. This is not an effective leadership technique. Other employees are watching and you are setting a precedent.
Capture their Wisdom
Generations, Inc.: From Boomers to Linksters–Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work by Meagan and Larry Johnson reminds us of the importance of capturing explicit, implicit, and tacit wisdom. Experienced professionals know the facts, figures, and procedures. These need to be recorded in Standard Operating Procedures or similar documents. More important, the implicit info seasoned employees have requires in depth conversation. Find out how they handled a tough situation. Ask for clarification. Tacit knowledge gets down to the gut feel. This is best acquired through a close, mentoring relationship.
Implement Changes Deliberately
You’ve taken the temperature of the current environment, ensured everyone is in the best place, and has what they need. Now is the time to move forward. When you make a change, do it with confidence. Your employees will follow your lead. Here’s a quick bullet list for implementing change.
- Build your long-term vision
- Include the team
- Share it with key staff
- Ask how they would like to achieve the vision
- Publish the plan
- Challenge the process, but be respectful
- Set attainable goals and achieve them
- Make changes incrementally
- Move with purpose
- Plan your goals like events
- Break them into parts
- Put on timeline
- Put into calendar as tasks
Motivate/Appreciate on Their Terms
A younger manager has a specific challenge of showing appreciation and motivating employees of prior generations. Appreciation is a core need. It makes us happy at work and reduces costly turnover.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs includes esteem. To move up the pyramid toward self-actualization, we must feel good about ourselves. Be sure to praise appropriately. Watch for a future blog on how to show appreciation the way your employees feel it best.
Suggested Reading
- The Courage to Lead by R. Brian Stanfield
- 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Gary Chapman and Paul White
