Navigating leadership in multigenerational workplace

With the make-up of Australian workplaces being more multigenerational than ever before, leaders can run into a number of troubles attempting to appease each demographic.

On a recent HR Leader podcast with the chief executive and founder of OOPS, Michelle Pascoe, the discussion featured some sound advice for leaders who may have a multigenerational team. As the Australian workforce diversifies in age, navigating the differences between their team can be a difficult endeavour for leaders.

Understanding the contrast in how the differing generations respond to criticism, advice, and other teachings can be key.

“Let’s reverse our thought process as a leader and look at them and see them as somebody who is wanting to please you because, remember, you’ve given them an instruction. They want to please you,” Pascoe said.

“So instead of looking at it in a negative way, look in a positive way. When they do come up and go, ‘hey, I’ve done this,’ it’s turning around and going, ‘that’s fantastic, thank you so much’. What they’re wanting is to make sure they’re on the right path.”

That positive reinforcement is something that workers in the younger generation really yearn for, whereas older workers may not need that confidence boost after completing a task. However, having a blanket approach between those differing generations isn’t the correct approach either; instead, approaching the workers depending on how they operate as an individual would be a better course of action.

“[Workers are] wanting to seek wisdom. As leaders, we also have to compromise on not so much what our values are, but our understanding of what our needs are, to more understanding what their needs are. So, it’s asking, and it’s getting to know them,” Pascoe said.

“Beforehand, we would just leave them [to themselves] decades ago. This is your job. Just go and do it. And they’d go along, and they’d stumble along, too fearful at times to even ask questions. Whereas today, our younger generations are wanting to ask questions.”

Pascoe expressed that it’s all about having conversations, especially with those employees who are a part of those younger generations who may be too shy to initiate conversations with their colleagues or leaders.

“But if we look at that generation that’s new to the workforce, many of them hesitate to commence the conversation. And I think that’s where, when we used to be in the workplace, somebody could have a joke in the hallway, at the water cooler or at the lunch desk. And it started up that, ‘oh, I didn’t realise you were interested in that.’ And it started off this really natural conversation,” Pascoe said.

“As leaders, how are you looking at starting these conversations with your younger team members? What are you saying [to] them? Are you giving them that opportunity to share ideas and sit back and relax?”

Pascoe goes on to explain how this theory needs to be applied to all generations, not just the younger ones.

“But, it’s not just about Gen Z. It’s also looking at Gen X and Gen Y and seeing, how are they interacting in the workplace as the demands and pressures build on them from their own home life?” Pascoe said.

“We look at Gen X, and for many of them, they’re looking after ageing parents, or they may still have children at home, they may even still have grandchildren, and they’re thinking, ‘when am I ever going to be able to retire?’”

“And then, of course, Gen Y, they’ve got this generation now where for many of them, they are the parents of Gen Alpha, and which is, the largest cohort is going to be about 2 billion globally at the end of this year. They’re also looking at those restraints, or how are they going to be coming into the workplace?”

Looking at each worker as an individual and understanding that each of them may have underlying issues outside of work is something that leaders must take into consideration. Juggling the different issues that a multigenerational workforce goes through is part of a leader’s jurisdiction in this day and age.

Is the solving of such issues their responsibility? No. But having the understanding and awareness that those issues may exist definitely is.

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Michelle Pascoe, click below: