Having a diverse team composed of members with different skills and experiences is certainly desirable. However, leading such a team, where there are significant age differences among members, requires a specific managerial approach. In this article, we will introduce several tips on how to successfully lead a team consisting of members from different generations.
This text is based on an article from Entrepreneur.com.
Understand the different priorities of older team members
People of different ages also have different requirements and expectations. In general terms, the priorities of younger and older colleagues differ in many ways. Although this is certainly not an absolute rule, it generally applies that older employees more often seek stability, want work that gives them meaning, and where they can make use of their experience. Compared to younger colleagues, older employees are also often more conservative, although not less creative, and sometimes more skeptical toward insufficiently considered changes.
Take into account the needs of younger employees
Among younger generations and graduates, compared to their older colleagues, you will more often encounter a desire for development and education. Younger employees are also often more ambitious and seek further advancement. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that you primarily offer them opportunities for growth and progress.
Adopt an individual approach toward employees
The above mentioned characteristics of both age groups are general and cannot be applied to all individuals. In general, managers should take the specifics of different generations into consideration, but they must always also take into account the individual requirements and characteristics of specific employees. It is very problematic if a manager suffers from prejudice and, for example, does not give older employees space for creative work or does not focus on training younger employees in new technologies because they assume every young person will easily master them.
Support cooperation within the team
The goal of leading a multigenerational team is to use the potential of all team members to achieve the best possible results. A manager of such a team should therefore primarily support cooperation among individual parts of the team and involve people of different ages in projects so that everyone can contribute to the final result and barriers between employees of different age groups can be broken down.
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