Four tips on successfully leading a multi-generational team

As a manager, you must be able to lead people of different personalities, backgrounds and also ages. It is desirable within a team to have a fresh graduate alongside a seasoned worker: generally speaking, young people bring new, non-biased ideas and insights to a company, while older ones offer experience and a certain overview. This article offers four tips on successfully leading a team whose members are of different generations.

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Tip no. 1: Know the expectations of the older members of the team

According to INC.com, you must realise that people of different ages have different requirements and expectations, and on a general level the priorities of younger and older colleagues differ in many ways. Though it is not a rule applicable 100% of the time, generally speaking older workers more often look for stability; they want a job that is meaningful to them and in which they can use their experience. Older employees are often more conservative (though no less creative) and more sceptical towards insufficiently thought-out changes.

Tip no. 2: Know the expectations of the younger members of the team

As regards younger team members, they often seek more opportunities for development and education than their older colleagues. They are also more aggressive and trying to get ahead, which is why you must keep in mind that you need to offer them such opportunities for development and growth.

Tip no. 3: Do not apply the above-mentioned rules all the time and have an individual approach towards employees

The above-mentioned specifics of both age groups are general and may not all be applied to all individuals. Generally speaking, the specifics of the various generations must be taken into account by managers, but they must also keep in mind the requests and specifics of the individual employees. It is very bad if a manager is prejudiced and does not give, for instance, older workers space for creative job or does not focus on training of young employees regarding new technologies because they expect every young person to embrace new technologies easily.

Tip no. 4: Support cooperation within your team

The aim of leading a multi-generation team is to use the potential of all team members in order to reach the best possible results. Managers of such teams should therefore above all support cooperation of the team's individual components. People of various ages should be involved in individual projects so that everyone can work on the final goal and any barriers between the employees of various age groups are removed.

 

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Article source Inc.com - a U.S. magazine and web focused on starting businesses
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