Recruiting and Leading a Multi-generational Workforce

Creating and maintaining a multi-generational team is a complex challenge. However, starting is easier than you might expect.

The first practice point is personal. Specifically, you need to look beyond your own generation's viewpoint. The second is organizational. Your group culture will need to address, and sometimes override, different generational tendencies.

Personal Development

You can only be part of one generation. As the creator of a diverse team, your generational identity represents what may seem like a natural ability to attract certain age groups more effectively than others.

If you think about it, this is due to practice. Your persuasive skill is based on experience and work.

You grew up in similar situations, exposed to similar messages — and you probably have some similar concerns because you share the same stage in life. All of this took time.

The good news is you don't need multiple lifetimes to build a diverse team. With focus, you are going to learn to connect with other generations much more quickly than you learned your so-called natural abilities to lead your own age group.

Leading With Soft Skills

Your soft skills will come to the forefront as you connect across generations. You'll need to practice empathy, active listening and adaptability as you work to understand the needs, motivations and perspectives of your team members.

The pay-off for this work starts almost immediately. By learning what motivates other generations, you can customize job offers to appeal to ideal candidates. By learning how other generations communicate, you can avoid misunderstandings and recognize hidden potential. By learning the priorities of other age groups, you can work smarter when aligning them with your vision.

Organizational Development

As you develop your soft skills, understanding, persuading and eventually recruiting your multi-generational team, you'll start to notice some changes in your organization's structure. Most notably, things are likely to become more complex.

There is no way you can address every complication personally — that's where culture comes in. Culture lets you lead without constant intervention. It encourages and empowers everyone in your organization to do the right thing in any given situation.

Leading With Culture

Culture is important because it guides decisions rather than dictates procedures. This can provide an override for generational defaults. When your culture works towards your vision, people do the right thing. If not, they are likely to revert to their default generational tendencies.

For example, a stereotypical millennial would tend to seek frequent positive feedback. This tendency could disrupt your organization and put a burden on your leadership circle's time. Establishing a culture of mentorship redirects the behavior, while advancing goals of team building, employee skill development and complex collaboration.

Bringing Your Team Together

It seems like a contradiction. To attract talent from different generations, you need to understand each group's differences. To lead a diverse team, you need to create a group that acts towards a single vision.

The two concepts are more compatible in practice than they may seem in theory. A generationally conscious recruitment stage — in terms of duties, compensation structures and so on — attracts candidates who are ready to get on board with your group's culture. All you have to do is put in the work to fulfill the expectations you've set from the beginning.

What’s your next multi-generational move?