Connecting People, Leaders and Organizations in becoming the sought after workplaces of the 21st Century.

** NEW ** For the week of April 12th ** Strategic People Consultant and Workplace Champion, Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS leads the discussion during the week of April 12th.  Post your questions here and please be sure to stop back during the week for updates:

Workplace Advice: Re-connecting the Recession Battered Workplace

A leader asks us, “I have a diverse work team of highly qualified millennials and boomers; most are strong individual performers.  My challenge has been trying to minimize frustration between them as their generational differences seem to clash and get in the way of team performance. My millennial employees resent hearing through the grapevine that their boomer colleagues view them as slackers. That they lack the drive that their seniors had at their age. And my boomer employees are often dissatisfied with how they are spoken to by some of my millennials.  Judy, I’d have much more time to get other things done, if they’d just act as adults and work at getting along. Any suggestions?”

Dear Leader,

Thanks for the great question. Let me encourage you by saying, you’re not alone.  Many leaders and organizations face similar challenges.  And like you, they wish that they’d begin acting like adults and just get along.  The problem is that ‘wishing’, isn’t going to create the change necessary to improve relationships and team performance. Therefore, communicating a new vision, creating a roadmap to get there and coaching employees to relate further may aid in reducing frustration levels and improving performance results.  As you consider your new vision, it may benefit you and the team to focus more on the strengths of their respective generations and encourage their active involvement in expressing them.

For example, research shows that both generations prefer environments that create transparency and respect.  Therefore, open the doors of communication and concentrate on creating a participative, inclusive and consensus-building environment and not rely solely on job competence.  If goals and expectations are communicated clearly, then step back as coach and let them complete projects their own way so long as results are delivered your way and by established deadlines.

What might occur if you helped your team become coaches to one another? Generally speaking, mentors are crucial to both generations; especially Millennials who have been coached their entire lives. Millennials can mentor Boomers about new technologies and the power of online communities and in kind, Boomers can respond significantly by helping them become familiar with the professional workplace and guiding them through office politics that is often foreign to many Millennials. Boomers have tremendous experience about business, your organization and how it makes money.  Encourage this kind of dialogue and how it does well for everyone.  Try offering resources and information and resist the temptation to parent Millennials. It may go along way toward strengthening and recognizing your multi-generational team.

Give open communication time and you’ll soon begin to see the team’s strengths soar.

We appreciate your question and value your time.  Please stop back and visit us again soon.