Bridge the Generation Gaps

Identify the four generations

The first step to reducing conflict caused by generational differences is to know which generation your employees fall into. The four generations are:

Realize that each of these four generations grew up experiencing significantly different events — events that have shaped their values and their perception of work.

For example, the Veterans went through World War II and grew up with a strict regimen. As such, quality, respect, and authority are important to them.

Baby Boomers embraced the value of having to sacrifice to get ahead. All that sacrifice makes them very loyal.

Generation X were the latch-key children who watched their Boomer parents forge a new workplace. They were also the first generation to grow up with technology. As such, this generation cares more about productivity and less about the number of hours spent on the job.

Millennials are a generation entrenched in technology. They are the consummate multi-taskers. They bore easily. Because they best understand how to maximize and leverage the new technology, they value a balanced lifestyle and equality on the job.

Draw on each generations' strengths.

Once you know which of your employees fall into the various generation groups, you can help them understand each other so they can focus on each other's strengths.

Current research indicates that the majority of conflicts arise from the value differences of the age groups rather than the actual age difference itself.

So it's more about “my values are the right ones and yours are not.” For example, Veterans may think the “young kids” in the workplace are lazy, while the Millennials or Generation X'ers may think the Veterans and even Baby Boomers are too rigid. However, if all the generations are open-minded, they can learn much from each other.

Realize that each generation brings wonderful strengths to the workplace. And while focusing on our own individual strengths is certainly important, imagine how much more effective everyone on your team could be if you each learned from the strengths of others as well.

So publicly acknowledge what each generation's strengths are and encourage everyone to share their viewpoints and values with the group. Once you get the dialogue started, the learning naturally follows.

Adapt your management style for each generation.

Leading four different generations often requires you to have four different management styles.

For example, a Baby Boomer manager was managing a Millennial employee. Every day at 5 p.m. the employee finished his work and headed home. Even though the employee was scheduled to leave work at 5 p.m., and there were nothing major looming, the manager was miffed.

The real problem was that the Baby Boomer manager valued long hours on the job, while the Millennial employee valued life balance. The point is that you can't manage according to your value system. Rather, you need to manage according to the employee's value system.

Likewise, when conflict does arise, you need to put your biases aside. So if a Veteran and a Gen X'er are having challenges with each other, and you're a Gen X manager, you can't naturally side with your fellow Gen X'er, just because you share the same values. Rather, you need to be objective, understand the communication style of each person involved, and manage according to the situation and the people involved.

Accept what you cannot change.

No matter how hard you try, you cannot change the generations. Instead, acknowledge the validity of each generation's values and change how you motivate the different generations.