A funny thing happened while we were listening to a podcast. In the episode, a pivotal moment involved someone picking up a landline extension and overhearing a conversation. In the midst of telling the story, the podcast host suddenly stopped and had an ‘Aha’ moment. She laughed and said she would take a minute to explain how a landline worked because there were definitely listeners in her demographic that would have no clue what she was talking about and it was key to the story (if you are one of those people, check out how they work here).
This simple story illustrates how the generation you grew up in influences your point of view. Each generation has seminal reference points that define their lived experience and mold their perceptions of the world.
These perceptions impact people in all aspects of their lives and the workplace is no exception. Today, there are more generations working together than ever before in large part because people are retiring later. Most research shows that there are up to 5 generations sharing a workspace. Depending on which end of the generational spectrum you are on, your boss could be as old as your grandparent or as young as your child. This flips the traditional business model of working your way up a corporate ladder where the leadership ranks are predominantly filled with senior managers.
In today's world, leaders have to figure out how to motivate across generational divides. Research shows that each generation has varying definitions of work satisfaction, efficient communication and effective leadership.
If the goal is to be a leader who inspires,
How do you get people on the same page when they may not share the same values?
How do you know if your message is being heard when your employees may communicate in radically different ways?
How do you know which style of leadership will cultivate a productive team?
An essential leadership task is nurturing a culture that celebrates what each person can offer. In the modern era, this includes creating bridges between the different generations to foster respect and appreciation of what everyone brings to the table.
So we have to ask this question:
Are you cultivating a melting pot or a salad bowl?
What?!
The melting pot analogy used to be a way to describe the goal for immigrants when they came to the United States. Long ago that idea fell out of vogue because it insinuated that people should abandon their cultural roots and assimilate to some common US standard (whatever that would be?!). The melting pot idea transformed to a salad bowl analogy. This focused on the value of people retaining their unique talents and mixing them together to achieve great things.
The workplace is the perfect place to build a salad. Taking time to recognize and champion each generation’s contributions builds a vibrant work culture.
To create a superb salad, you have to fully appreciate all of the ingredients. In the business world this means understanding your multifaceted workforce. In the upcoming weeks, we are going to provide a menu of tools that will help you bring out the best in cross generational teams.
We are going to start with a bit of reflection:
Picture events that have shaped our world and how they might impact the viewpoint of the people you work with.
Technology: There are those in the workplace today who have learned to type on a typewriter and a calculator represented high tech. Compare that perspective to those who grew up knowing only the cellphone which is like carrying around a tiny computer in your pocket.
COVID: It transformed the world in many ways and of course had an influence on the workplace. Think about those with established careers who were comfortable in the traditional business model. Did the move to more flexibility and remote work feel jarring? And for those new to the workforce, did this expansion of flexibility foster different expectations of worklife balance?
Connection: Between technology development and Covid, the definition of connection varies widely between age groups. Where social relationships at work were formed by the water cooler back in the day, now there are virtual company events. How do leaders meet the varying definitions that employees may have for connection at work?
While there are many factors that define company culture, understanding how to work
across the generations will be key to organizational success. To leverage each group’s
strengths to an organization’s advantage, leaders must take time to understand how the
generation each of us were born in shapes our work life.
Next week, we are going to give you a Generational Primer, reviewing key characteristics of each age group. The more you know, the better equipped you will be to support and inspire your teams.
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