While it can be helpful to use generational trends to inform your management practices, it is most important to get to know your employees as individuals.
In the workplace today, we are fortunate to be able to work with people from a range of generations. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services more than 10,000 people turn 65 every day in the United States. This trend affects generational representation in the workplace.
The generations, as defined by Pew Research Center, are:
- Traditionalists or Silent Generation: 1928-1945
- Boomers: 1946-1964
- Generation X: 1965-1980
- Millennials: 1981-1996
- Generation Z: 1997-2012
There are currently four generations in the workforce. Most traditionalists have retired, boomers offer deep knowledge and experience, Gen X and millennials are being brought into the ranks of leadership, and Gen Z are new to the formal workplace, but have a firm grasp on technology. This can create an environment ripe for conflict, with differing communication styles, expectations, and values. However, this new generational landscape also presents incredible opportunities for collaboration and growth.
Communication. What seems like a professional way of communicating to a boomer, can read to a Gen Zer as old-fashioned and insensitive, and vice versa. Gen Z’s informal communication style may be read as rude and unprofessional to their older counterparts. Managers must find balance in how they communicate with their teams, but this can be a challenge.
For example, in my team, we currently range from 18 to 65. We use instant messaging for most of our project communication, but occasionally still utilize emails or even, gasp, face-to-face communication. Different members of my team receive information differently. Some prefer to talk face-to-face and make notes to refer to later. Others would prefer I email them so they can search through messages at a later date if needed. Most prefer an instant message or team chat. They are comfortable searching through messages later and prefer the more informal style.
There is currently not one method that I have found to be effective in communicating to everyone at once. No matter which I choose, someone will miss it. This means for important messages, I must use all three methods, which can be a burden and eats time for everyone.
Managing mistakes. I prefer a more “hands off” method of managing, typical to my millennial generation. My door is almost always open for walk-ins and I would rather my staff come to me with a problem that I will help them solve than for me to point the problem out. This generally works very well for members of my own generation and Gen X. However, boomers and Gen Z want much clearer, precise directions, and both generations struggle to inform me of issues. They are not as likely to deliver proactive communication. Thus, I occasionally discover mistakes at the eleventh hour.
For my older staff, it seems to be a matter of pride. Admitting a mistake is hard; even harder when your “superior” is younger than you. For my younger staff, they seem to be afraid – afraid of my reaction or of the consequences, and maybe there is a little pride at stake, too. They need a lot of reassurance from me that mistakes are expected. In the AEC industry, mistakes can be life-threatening and how we manage and fix mistakes is paramount. Managing this difference in generations is one that I am still working on.
Praise and problems. I recently did a personality survey with my entire team. One thing that I learned is that the whole team, myself included, doesn’t really like being “cheerleaded.” As a whole, they don’t want large public displays of praise – but, they do still each want praise in their own way. How I deliver it can be critical.
Gen Z prefers more frequent praise. This is the generation that grew up with lots of award ceremonies and a lack of praise makes them feel unsafe and as if they are under-performing. For boomers, no news is usually good news. They only want to hear from me if there is something to fix. I still give the odd compliment anyway, but I have to watch my frequency or it can be read as disingenuous. And for the middle folks, they want praise, but they want it to be genuine and well-deserved. Praise can come in the form of words and rewards. A team activity is great for some, others would prefer a cash reward.
For problems, there are similar considerations. The older generations want to hear it in the safety of your office, but want the issue spelled out directly. For the younger generations, some more gentle coaching is required. How you deliver the “news” matters. Shouting accomplishes very little except to make everyone upset, and then the issue still exists. My Gen Zers consider me more of a friend to some degree and upsetting that balance would be detrimental to our relationship and their own work and career.
Cross-generational collaboration. There are great benefits and challenges in cross-generational work. For every project that comes through our office, we have a team of at least two. When considering those two, I am weighing skill, experience, and personality. Generation factors into those considerations. If I put a face-to-face communicator with an instant-message-only communicator, they are doomed to failure before they even start, unless they can come to an agreement around communication expectations.
From experience, I like to pair a seasoned engineer with a young drafter, or vice versa. I find that the more seasoned individual will teach something to the younger, but the younger member will introduce a new tool or a new way of thinking that will benefit the project.
When managing across the variety of generations, it will always be helpful to consider who you are managing and the generation they come from. Of course it is important to consider the individual and not stereotype them, but you may get some important insights when stepping back and thinking about the generation(s) you are working with.
There is great value in fostering relationships amongst employees to leverage their strengths. Chip Conley, cofounder and CEO of Modern Elder Academy, talks about creating “mentern” relationships which are part-mentor, part-intern. These relationships create a dynamic of mutual mentorship between employees of different generations, experiences, skill levels, and expertise.
Why should you care? Managing people is not easy. We are human – both employees and managers. But making the conscious (or unconscious) decision to have a “hands off” style of management is not always the right approach. You must evaluate your team’s abilities and performance. Why? Because we all need the right feedback and communication to have context for our work, the ability to prioritize effectively, and to catch possible mistakes before they happen. Sometimes a “hands off” approach means there is too little or too much communication or not the right conversation at the right time.
The workplace generational shift means that we have many new people-leaders who are on their own learning curve acquiring leadership and management skills. Layer on top of that employees who have their own work styles, and we cannot afford to take a laissez faire approach to managing and guiding teams.
For managers: Put energy towards learning about the leadership and management competencies that best fit your workplace. Pause to reflect on your default approach to various situations and think if you can do things differently for better results. Evaluate how you can get to know your employees' areas of strengths, technical expertise, and work styles.
All of these suggestions take time and will require you to do some of your own research, but not putting any time or attention to how you manage people can lead to a disengaged team and low morale.
This is not just a nice-to-have. Employee engagement affects the bottom line in terms of productivity, turnover, and cost. According to GALLUP, “employees’ long-term commitment to their organizations is currently the lowest it has been in nine years.” You might think that is not a big deal, but the replacement cost of a good employee can be staggering. Gallup estimates that the replacement of leaders and managers costs around 200 percent of their salary, the replacement of professionals in technical roles is 80 percent of their salary, and frontline employees 40 percent of their salary.
But there is good news. Managers can positively affect employee engagement by having meaningful conversations about work. Let your employees know that you genuinely want to identify how to work together to balance individualization with expectations on the team to deliver.
Get to know the individual. Ultimately, everyone wants to feel that they are a contributor and that their work is meaningful. That will look different for everyone based on personality, preferences, and yes, even their generation. While it can be helpful to use knowledge of generational trends to inform your management practices, it is most important to get to know your employees on an individual basis.
You may have a boomer who has more in common with millennials or a Gen Z employee who has a lot of shared characteristics as a Gen Xer. This is because our personalities, needs, and wants are not solely determined by the generation to which we belong. That is only one part of the whole. Everyone is shaped by their environment, cultural norms, childhood experiences, and more.
The bottom line is, understanding generational dynamics can be helpful to connect with your employees. However, to be an effective manager, you will need to meet your employees as individuals.
Katherine Wilczek, P.E., is a Senior Associate and Director of Structural Engineering at Cyntergy. Cecilia Martin-Smith is Director of Employee and Organizational Development at Tulsa Community College.
