If you are like a typical organisation, you will have a multi-generational workforce working for you right now. Now, what is the impact of having a multi-generational workforce? One of the impacts is that leaders today are required to use different approaches to manage different generations. Doesn’t that sound logical and rational to you? Well, if it does, the hard truth is we may not be using different methods on different people.
What do we mean by that?
Most of us, by design, will fall back on the method that we’re most comfortable with. And what is the most comfortable method that we use in managing our people? More likely than not, it is how you are used to being managed by your previous bosses or supervisor.
Isn’t it easier to do something that you’re familiar with, something that you have experience in? Well, guess what? In a multi- generational workforce, what works for you may not work for them. The expectations, the exposure, the intellectual capacity and ambition from different generations have all changed. Because of that, you need to change and adapt to the contemporary leadership approaches that are more suitable for today’s workforce.
Case in point; coaching has become one of the most preferred and popular management and leadership styles in the corporate workplace. I assure you, coaching is not merely a fad or a trending topic on LinkedIn and other platforms. Coaching today has become so effective in activating, empowering and engaging our multi-generational workforce, it is one of the most preferred methods to manage performances.
For example, the very authoritative and dictatorial approach where we ask people to jump and they are expected to ask, “How high?”. In the current workforce they would like you to ask, “What would you like to do? Is it to jump? Is it to run, or skip, or merely walk?” Secondly, after the answer, for example, ‘they would like to run’, your job as a leader coach is to ask, “So, how fast do you want to run?”
And after that, you have to ask, “If you run fast enough and effectively what can we expect to get as a result?” Now, this is significantly different from the old ways, where you say jump and they ask how high. It is a very short process and goes straight to the point. However, it’s not very engaging and doesn’t leave a lot of room for negotiation or conversation.
The coaching method, on the other hand, encourages conversation and it customises the action, the option and what your subordinate and team want to do; and it co-creates those tasks and actions together with you. You move from telling to asking and engaging your team to arrive at a preferred solution.
Coaching today is extremely crucial to you and your team’s performance. It is definitely more enjoyable when you can share this responsibility to perform and co-create the process and the flow on how you want to get that. So, coach more with your team and you will start to see and learn different perspectives on how to get things done. Remember, what worked for you in the past may no longer work for the current workforce.
Pause & Notice: Leadership Across Generations Checklist
Rating guide: 5 = Highest (most true for you) 1 = Lowest (least true for you)
☐ Do I lead my team based on their needs, or based on how I was managed in the past?
☐ Have I adapted my leadership approach to engage different generations within my workforce?
☐ Do I spend more time telling people what to do, or asking questions that encourage ownership and accountability?
☐ Am I creating opportunities for my team to contribute ideas, make decisions, and co create solutions?
☐ What is one leadership habit I need to change to better support today’s workforce?
