When young managers join the leadership ranks, they often find themselves dealing with entrenched workers old enough to be their parents
An axiom of business has been that authority comes with age. But that is changing, and it’s not unusual to see young people joining the leadership ranks and supervising people who in some cases may have been born decades before them.
Picture an up-and-coming leader at a typical organization. She’s finally been given the opportunity she’s been waiting for, one the recruiters talked about when they hired her straight out of school. In five years with the company, she’s been on the fast track, taking on a variety of increasingly challenging assignments. The big promotion follows, and when she meets with her new team of direct reports for the first time she discovers most of them have been with the company longer than her and half of them are as old as her parents.
Suddenly, she’s faced with a leadership challenge she hadn’t really considered before: How can she establish mutual trust and respect and get the team to take her seriously? These are critical, sometimes difficult, questions for a new leader.
Research conducted in 2004 of 3,500 workers in the United States by the New York-based Families and Work Institute, Generation and Gender in the Workforce, found one in five of the mature workers in the study said they’d had problems with their younger bosses. These baby boomers sometimes chafed under the supervision of younger managers. In addition, the study revealed there are real differences between generations at work in terms of attitudes, priorities and actions.
Savvy organizations recognize the challenges a young leader faces when it comes to supervising and motivating a staff that’s from a different generation. Often in these situations, a professional coach is used to better position these new leaders for success.
An experienced coach, aware of the specific challenges these young leaders face, will raise specific issues including:
•Put the leader in the workers’ shoes: Ask the new leader how she would feel if she had to take direction from someone younger. What would she want to know about that person? What specific things can she do to establish credibility with the older team members?
•Stereotypes: What stereotypes does the new leader have about her new direct reports? Does she have the urge to label them as set in their ways? What can she do to get to know them as individuals? What can she do to understand what is important to them and find out what motivates them?
•Experience: What experience does her new team have with the organization? What insights and knowledge can they share with her? What are their past successes that she can acknowledge? What can she learn from them?
•Fear and resentment: Could the older members of the team feel threatened or resentful? Is it possible they don’t think they have the skills and abilities to deal with the challenges the new leader faces? What can she do to support their learning and growth?
•How work gets done: What are some of the ways the older workers get things done? What is their working style? How might some of their ways be different than hers?
It’s not impossible for a young leader to build effective relationships with older team members, but it’s certainly a priority and requires focused effort. ROI for Executive Coaching, a survey of 100 HR managers and executives in the U.S. conducted by Right Management Consultants in December 2004, found the top reason for failure by new leaders is the inability to build strong working relationships in a team. There are, however, a variety of specific actions a new, young leader can take to begin the process of building a foundation of mutual trust and respect with her older workers. These include:
•Meeting one-on-one with older employees to build rapport: During the meeting, acknowledge the disparity in age and the potential for differences in attitudes, priorities and action. The meeting is an opportunity to get to know the individuals and their interests, better understand their experiences and expertise, and understand what matters to them in their relationship with a boss. This is also an ideal time for employees to ask the new boss any questions they might have.
•Hold regular feedback sessions with older employees: This is a time to discuss how the relationship is working out for each of them and address issues immediately so they don’t build up and cause tension.
•Enlist employees to deliver on vision: This is accomplished by painting a compelling picture for how things will be and how each person contributes to the success of the team. The manager needs to acknowledge individual experiences, expertise and successes and encourage employee involvement. It’s important to delegate responsibility to individuals while providing support and encouraging learning.
Leading older workers is becoming more of a workplace reality. Younger bosses are finding that if they have and show respect for their people, regardless of age, more often than not it will be reciprocated.
Jane Hawkrigg is vice-president and national practice leader for development with Right Management Consultants in Toronto. For more information e-mail [email protected] or visit www.right.com/ca.
Picture an up-and-coming leader at a typical organization. She’s finally been given the opportunity she’s been waiting for, one the recruiters talked about when they hired her straight out of school. In five years with the company, she’s been on the fast track, taking on a variety of increasingly challenging assignments. The big promotion follows, and when she meets with her new team of direct reports for the first time she discovers most of them have been with the company longer than her and half of them are as old as her parents.
Suddenly, she’s faced with a leadership challenge she hadn’t really considered before: How can she establish mutual trust and respect and get the team to take her seriously? These are critical, sometimes difficult, questions for a new leader.
Research conducted in 2004 of 3,500 workers in the United States by the New York-based Families and Work Institute, Generation and Gender in the Workforce, found one in five of the mature workers in the study said they’d had problems with their younger bosses. These baby boomers sometimes chafed under the supervision of younger managers. In addition, the study revealed there are real differences between generations at work in terms of attitudes, priorities and actions.
Savvy organizations recognize the challenges a young leader faces when it comes to supervising and motivating a staff that’s from a different generation. Often in these situations, a professional coach is used to better position these new leaders for success.
An experienced coach, aware of the specific challenges these young leaders face, will raise specific issues including:
•Put the leader in the workers’ shoes: Ask the new leader how she would feel if she had to take direction from someone younger. What would she want to know about that person? What specific things can she do to establish credibility with the older team members?
•Stereotypes: What stereotypes does the new leader have about her new direct reports? Does she have the urge to label them as set in their ways? What can she do to get to know them as individuals? What can she do to understand what is important to them and find out what motivates them?
•Experience: What experience does her new team have with the organization? What insights and knowledge can they share with her? What are their past successes that she can acknowledge? What can she learn from them?
•Fear and resentment: Could the older members of the team feel threatened or resentful? Is it possible they don’t think they have the skills and abilities to deal with the challenges the new leader faces? What can she do to support their learning and growth?
•How work gets done: What are some of the ways the older workers get things done? What is their working style? How might some of their ways be different than hers?
It’s not impossible for a young leader to build effective relationships with older team members, but it’s certainly a priority and requires focused effort. ROI for Executive Coaching, a survey of 100 HR managers and executives in the U.S. conducted by Right Management Consultants in December 2004, found the top reason for failure by new leaders is the inability to build strong working relationships in a team. There are, however, a variety of specific actions a new, young leader can take to begin the process of building a foundation of mutual trust and respect with her older workers. These include:
•Meeting one-on-one with older employees to build rapport: During the meeting, acknowledge the disparity in age and the potential for differences in attitudes, priorities and action. The meeting is an opportunity to get to know the individuals and their interests, better understand their experiences and expertise, and understand what matters to them in their relationship with a boss. This is also an ideal time for employees to ask the new boss any questions they might have.
•Hold regular feedback sessions with older employees: This is a time to discuss how the relationship is working out for each of them and address issues immediately so they don’t build up and cause tension.
•Enlist employees to deliver on vision: This is accomplished by painting a compelling picture for how things will be and how each person contributes to the success of the team. The manager needs to acknowledge individual experiences, expertise and successes and encourage employee involvement. It’s important to delegate responsibility to individuals while providing support and encouraging learning.
Leading older workers is becoming more of a workplace reality. Younger bosses are finding that if they have and show respect for their people, regardless of age, more often than not it will be reciprocated.
Jane Hawkrigg is vice-president and national practice leader for development with Right Management Consultants in Toronto. For more information e-mail [email protected] or visit www.right.com/ca.
