Power Bite: Understanding Your Multi-Generational Team

You’ve probably come across one of those articles on your social media feed promising you an interesting read on why the different generations, such as baby boomers, Generation X, millennials, and Generation Z, can never coexist with one another in the workforce. Characterising different groups of people in one broad stroke is not only highly questionable in my opinion, but can also be a hindrance for leaders who want to get a diverse, multigenerational workforce to work well together. A competent workforce is multigenerational. Just as you need dynamism, recklessness and fun, you also need tradition, experience and wisdom.

Companies like Uber and Airbnb tend to do away with tradition. They’re bold, disruptive, and fun. In the first couple of years of their existence, the overwhelming opinion was that this was the way to go. It seemed like these “younger” companies knew something that larger, more traditional companies didn’t. 

Yet when you move fast and break things, you also can land up in a lot of trouble. There must have been something missing that landed Uber in trouble. Perhaps they went too far in being disruptive that they lost sight of the big picture, or they lost the diversity that would’ve provided a system of checks-and-balances.

In my opinion, the missing piece could be a multigenerational workforce, where each generation brings something to the table. Older people might say that this new technology is too fast for me. Younger people might find that compliance gets on their nerves. Boom! You have stumbled onto a distribution of labour: who does what, who challenges whom.

The primary challenge that you might face is spending too much time figuring out whose opinion to support. In some companies, the prevailing narrative is that young people have to get in line because they don’t have as much experience or haven’t taken as many risks. Traditional companies may tell their younger employees to slow down, learn, watch, and earn their ability to make decisions with time.

In other companies that have a less traditional business model, it’s the other way around. The older generation is seen as being not as technologically savvy, resistant to change, and unfamiliar with the demands and challenges of a VUCA world. They put millennials in charge because they tend to be disruptive.

Neither of these approaches is effective. Instead, focus on allocating roles to each generation in the workforce. In evolutionary terms, what’s happening here is that the young person is at the border of the tribe and is scouting the horizon. When something is moving in the bushes, they want to run over and check it out. But typically, the older members of the community want to stay back. They want to mend the wall, and to pass their knowledge on to the next generation. Yet this distinction is not absolute, and there might be members of every generation who defy all stereotypes.

So when you’re hit with a new challenge, think about the various members of your team and figure out who should experiment with the new, and who should make sure the existing systems are functioning at optimum levels. One tool which our company uses to better assign roles is an assessment system called NeuroColour, which was developed by renowned brain researcher Helen Fisher. This tool will help you understand how people in different personality groups and generations think, and where their strengths and weaknesses lie.

As a manager, you don’t want to be seen as taking sides, or favouring the ideas of one generation over another. Make it clear that every voice is important and should be included to facilitate healthy discussions. Invite different generations to talk through why their ideas contribute to the company’s goals, and encourage them to use data to back up their arguments.

You could also be intentional about fostering collaboration between members of different generations. If an older employee is struggling with technology, pair them up with a younger team member who might be able to help them through it. A client I’m working with shared about senior colleagues in China who were unfamiliar with video conferencing, but were forced to use it due to the pandemic. To help bridge the gap, a mediator group was set up, consisting of younger colleagues who would assist the senior employees in navigating the tech and follow ups.

And it goes both ways. There are lots of skills that older generations can impart to Gen Z individuals. As a manager, it’s your job to identify each person’s unique strengths, create opportunities where they can learn from each other, feel empowered to share their ideas, and in doing so create a vibrant and inclusive workspace for all.