Is Doing Nothing the Least Contentious Way to Manage an Intergenerational Workforce?
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: September 11, 2024
With so much pressure to always do the right thing, be all inclusive, have an engaged and healthy workforce and still perform to the highest level, even in difficult market conditions, is it any wonder that managers and leaders now feel that doing nothing for fear of rocking the boat is their best option when managing their people? Aside from the potential missed opportunities this presents, how is that a healthy work environment for everyone involved? Martina Doherty discusses the challenges of intergenerational diversity in a markets environment.
I recently spoke on a panel at a conference about generational diversity – and how with careers getting longer, organisations and leaders are now starting to see their teams span multiple generations. We are currently in uncharted territory at work where for the first time we have a workforce made up of five generations – Gen Z (aged 27 and under), Millennials (aged 28-43), Gen X (aged 44-59), Baby Boomers (aged 60-69) and Traditionalists (aged 70-78) – and like other forms of diversity, different generations can contribute to team knowledge, skills, and networks in complementary ways. Unfortunately, the potential opportunities that this diversity presents can also be lost to the various divides and conflicts between different generations; divides and conflicts that have always existed, but have become more pronounced in recent times because of many factors – technology and different work/life expectations as just two examples.
My suggestions to the audience, as is my usual advice in most conflict situations, was for everyone to be aware of their own biases and tendencies to generalise (we all have them whether or not we want to admit it!) and then knowing these, to actively listen with an open mind to really try to understand the other perspective.
Afterwards I spoke to a head of trading who had listened to the panel and told me that while he had found it interesting, in general he felt more confused than ever and just didn’t know the right thing to do anymore when it came to managing people. In a sense he felt almost paralysed by the tsunami of advice he constantly received, and it now really only made him question everything more – to the point that he often did nothing to avoid rocking the boat.
An example he shared related to an intern who sat beside him and regularly left the trading desk to check his social media. Even as head of the desk he didn’t feel he could or should say anything in case it was an unconscious bias that was feeding his frustration, or that it would result in a difficult conversation that he just didn’t feel particularly well-equipped to handle because there were no longer any hard and fast rules about what was acceptable and what was not. After all, the intern in question could probably call out others on the team who had regular cigarette breaks or personal calls etc etc, and who hadn’t been reprimanded in the same way, making him feel victimised as a result.
Another example he shared was how he had stopped giving honest work-related advice when asked (in a mentoring capacity), because telling someone to be ‘aggressive’ in trading felt like the wrong advice to give a junior and possibly language that might be frowned upon by HR despite that advice having served him well throughout his career (and he was definitely not an aggressive personality from the conversation we had!).
So here are two excellent real-life scenarios where it would appear to easier to do nothing for fear of rocking the boat – the intern on rotation will likely move on and become someone else’s problem, and the person not getting the honest mentoring advice doesn’t actually know what they don’t know, so they will figure out their own trading style on the job.
I completely get where this head of trading is coming from, but what a shame that it has come to this – doing nothing for fear of getting it wrong. Not only does that not serve any of the parties involved well, but if not dealt with, it paves the way for new potentially destructive norms to take root.
I will first state the obvious around social media usage, cigarette breaks, personal calls etc. None of these should be a dilemma for anyone managing people. Clear company policies should exist and be known by all so that there is no ambiguity about what is acceptable and what is not. So, if they don’t currently exist in your organisation, I would suggest that you ask HR for guidance.
Working across generations makes good business sense, but if not well-managed with the right support and skills, it’s likely to create a disgruntled workforce and completely waste the potential opportunities that generational diversity can provide
For other situations where hard and fast rules are not practical, however, what might be useful is a team training or facilitated discussion to help everyone better recognise the disconnects that exist in understanding different behaviours and preferences between individuals and age cohorts. In her book Gentelligence, in which Dr Megan Gehardt talks about leading a multi-generational workforce, she discusses the need for everyone to ‘Adjust their Lens’ to understand why colleagues may behave in a particular way, rather than determining which behaviours are acceptable. Consider the following actions:
- Typing on a phone or laptop during a presentation
- Insisting on hard copy documents
- Receiving work-related texts from your manager/colleague after hours
- Questioning the decision of a manager
- Using social media on a trading floor
Gerhardt argues these actions are neither inherently “good” or “bad” but tend to be evaluated differently by individuals and across generations. Therefore, in a focused discussion it can be interesting to see how different people initially react to each example.
The next step is to understand the “why” behind the immediate reactions, because that is what will nudge everyone to think about how their behaviours might land differently with others – and how initial generalisations might just not be true. For example, making the assumption that someone who insists on using hard copy documents is not comfortable with technology might be completely wrong – maybe they prefer hard copy documents so they can focus better without email interruptions that come from reading on screen? It’s only by having these discussions and asking questions to understand reactions or behaviours that you will really know. Not difficult to do, but it does take conscious effort and intention – and to ensure objectivity in the discussion, a neutral facilitator can prove useful.
Working across generations makes good business sense, but if not well-managed with the right support and skills, it’s likely to create a disgruntled workforce and completely waste the potential opportunities that generational diversity can provide. Age biases, knowledge differences, value perceptions and generational shaming can all get in the way of working more cohesively, and not addressing them can lead to conflict, miscommunication and frustration for everyone. As one of the next big challenges to face leaders in every organisation, it would seem that doing nothing is not the best option. Or is it?
I would love to hear your opinions and experiences about working with older and/or younger colleagues. Email martina@martinadoherty.com or connect on LinkedIn.
Martina Doherty is an independent business psychologist, coach and trainer who specialises in creating and delivering bespoke people development, cultural change and employee engagement programmes in high growth companies. She has 20+ experience in financial markets and is also an executive board member of the ACI UK Financial Markets Association. For more information visit www.martinadoherty.com