Practical advice for leading a multigenerational workforce

What is the best form of leadership: authoritative, democratic or laissez-faire? Every year for 10 years, I would present college students with this question — and every year, they would debate the general merits of each before choosing democratic or authoritative. Then one year, laissez-faire took the day. I was shocked.

The millennials had arrived.

For the first time in history, the workforce comprises 5 generations, creating a meaningfully diverse opportunity for any company. Indeed, nearly 80% of CEOs say a multigenerational workforce is key to growth. But each generation brings with it different expectations and values.

When the boardroom looks like a Thanksgiving dinner table, the workplace can become complicated. Leaders must challenge themselves to understand motivations, communication styles and career expectations so they can bridge the generational divide.

As executives lead the most generationally diverse teams in our nation’s history, here are 6 practical tips to consider:

1. Talk the talk

Remember when a flip-flop was called a “thong?” If you do, you’re either a baby boomer or a Gen Xer — and chances are you had to alter what you call this particular bit of footwear. But many more diction dangers lurk, and when used in the workplace, anachronisms can come off as anything from cringey to downright offensive. Leaders who are open to learning about the evolution of language from their multigenerational team will be seen as “fire.”

Keep in mind, too, that language extends beyond words. While millennials might express happiness with a 😂, Gen Zers prefer the 💀. The key to speaking (or typing) the same language is to use humor, patience and respect to establish a workplace norm for common terms and expressions.

Yes, it takes work to speak clearly at work. But communication goes a long way toward alleviating frustrations, and it is the foundation for a successful, multigenerational workplace culture.

2. Check your tone

Punctuation is not universally appreciated. Period.

While the rules of grammar are alive and well in reports and presentations, punctuation in Slack or text messages can be viewed as aggressive, angry or harsh to Gen Zers and younger millennials. The finality of the period is like a tiny dot of disapproval, turning the simple phrase “K.” into a two-character dressing down to someone born after the Clinton administration.

Just as the period may be perilous, the ambiguity of the ellipses is downright maddening to younger colleagues. Gen Xers, who are perfectly comfortable leaving the obvious parts unsaid, tend to favor the “dot dot dot.” But keep a sentence hanging to a millennial or a Gen Zer, and …

I vividly remember my students telling me, “Stop doing that! It stresses us out.” When I pressed them for a reason, they explained that ellipses make them nervous because they’re left wondering how to interpret the rest of the sentiment. “What is my manager not saying?” — which then quickly spirals into “What am I doing wrong?” Sensitivity to how phrases look is just as important in today’s workplace as sensitivity to how they sound.

3. Give pointers

Younger millennials and Gen Zers want their managers to help them define their career path and all the steps to success. They also expect frequent feedback and to be held accountable for their goals.

This manager-as-career-counselor role can be off-putting to older leaders who had to “figure it out” on their own. But if you look through the exit interviews of Gen Zers, you’ll find that those who leave their companies tend to do so because they did not feel they had enough mentors in the workplace or that they had hit a kind of ceiling with nowhere else to grow.

To attract and retain emerging leaders, it is important to let them know that they are, indeed, emerging leaders — and to walk with them along the path to where they ultimately want to go.

4. Review your reviews

Millennials are the first generation to call their parents their friends, and Gen Zers are the first to refer to their parents as their best friends. Keep that in mind when it comes to performance reviews because friends don’t let friends fail. A managerial style that consigns feedback to one-directional annual performance reviews won’t cut it in today’s workforce.

Millennials expect everyone to have a growth mindset — which means offering feedback to their managers is not disrespectful, but collaborative. Meanwhile, Gen Zers want feedback as an ongoing, casual conversation. If you bring up something in an annual review that they haven’t heard you say before, they will feel they can no longer trust you.

Complicating matters is the fact that the millennial and Gen Zer feedback loop might rub a Gen Xer the wrong way. Members of the “latchkey generation” do not respond well to what they might consider micromanaging. This generational tension comes down to communication: As the workforce shifts, bringing the entire team on board to a new way of holding each other accountable is essential.

5. Grow your EQ

Twenty years ago, if the boss came in angry, the office would fly into a tizzy, straightening desks and trying to look busy. Thanks to a generational shift in expectations, the onus is now on the leader to adjust to the team that they’re leading. This means knowing who has a peanut allergy, whose dog recently died, and who is training for a marathon.

What do you do if your emotional intelligence isn’t as developed as your role requires? Grow it. Emotional intelligence (also known as EQ) is something you can actually improve, usually by embracing a growth mindset. For example, when you look at situations, are there things you gladly take on to solve or do you sit and stew on everything that went wrong instead?

If you tend to have a negativity bias, flip the switch and assume positive intent: We can be intentional in pursuing positivity and happiness, which, in turn, can result in the creation and release of better energy. Grow your EQ, and you will be better positioned to grow a successful, multigenerational team.

6. Look in the mirror

As a Gen X college professor, I became so intrigued by the shift in the way Millennials think about effective leadership that I made it the focus of my Ph.D. dissertation and conducted a large-scale qualitative study on Millennials’ view of leadership. The takeaway? Leaders today need to understand how they are perceived by those they lead.

Using cringey anachronisms, sending emails in all-caps, and failing to offer timely, useful feedback — these add up to how your team perceives you as a leader and your company as a workplace. According to Forbes, multi-generational teams that make decisions together are twice as likely to meet or exceed expectations. But those teams can’t work together unless their leader is seen as bridging the generation gap.

Leaders today need to be mindful that their intentions may not always align with how their actions are perceived across the age divide. Perception is reality, and being aware of — and nimbly adapting to — shifts in perception is the key to building understanding and inclusivity in the workplace.

So, with so many generations in the workplace, what is the best form of leadership? The one that is translatable and relatable to everybody you lead.

Want to learn more? Register for Bridging the Generational Gap: Leadership in an Evolving Workforce with Katherine Jeffery. The discussion will include a facilitated Q&A session with Vistage Chair Kirsten Yurich.

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