{"id":2120,"date":"2015-03-12T14:27:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T18:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/?p=2120"},"modified":"2015-03-12T14:27:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T18:27:55","slug":"supporting-younger-managers-to-effectively-lead-experienced-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/?p=2120","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Younger Managers to Effectively Lead Experienced Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the past few weeks I have had several conversations with clients regarding how to support and assist their youngest managers in effectively leading their more senior employees, both in experience and age. \u00a0This is such a hot button issue that we dedicated a chapter to this topic in our book <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/advanced-leadership-skills-upgrade-now\">Upgrade Now: 9 Advanced Leadership Skills<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3>How Experienced Employees can Feel<\/h3>\n<p>Often, there is a lot of emotion tied up in situations where younger managers have responsibilities earlier in their careers than the people who report to them.\u00a0 Experienced employees can experience a range of feelings in these situations, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Frustration that they have more \u2018life \/ work experience\u2019 than their boss<\/li>\n<li>Envy that promotional opportunities were provided to younger managers<\/li>\n<li>Disappointment with their own career development<\/li>\n<li>Respect for their managers\u2019 competency and skills<\/li>\n<li>Motivation to progress in their career<\/li>\n<li>Enthusiasm to be working for a dynamic leader<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Challenges that Younger Leaders can Face<\/h3>\n<p>We support and coach younger leaders to recognize generational differences when leading more experienced team members to ensure they can increase engagement and performance levels. No one generation are naturally good leaders.\u00a0 All of us require support and help to become strong people leaders.\u00a0 However, there are some unique challenges that younger leaders face.\u00a0 These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Building rapport with experienced employees<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrating competency to \u201cprove\u201d they can do the job<\/li>\n<li>Gaining the trust of experienced employees<\/li>\n<li>Balancing a desire for change with respect for \u201cthe way it has always been done\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Maintaining one\u2019s position in the face of resistance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Generational Differences That May Come Into Play<\/h3>\n<p>The are 5 fundamental generational differences that are important for younger manager to recognize in order to be most effective.\u00a0 They are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Work styles\n<ul>\n<li>While younger employees want a flexible and fluid work style, often more experienced employees will expect and desire their leader to provide guidance on how and when work should be completed.\u00a0 When leading a multigenerational team, managers need to harmonize work style preferences and create a work environment that supports experienced employees\u2019 needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Communication\n<ul>\n<li>While younger managers may be happy to instant message, email or text employees throughout the day, this won\u2019t necessarily be perceived by experienced employees as formal, professional or appropriate in all situations.\u00a0 Baby Boomers or Traditionalists minded employees seek more face to face communication and expect that their leader will engage them in meetings, often with consensus building as the goal. Younger leaders often alienate experienced employees by relying too heavily on technology to communicate and not providing enough opportunities for direct conversations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Risk tolerance\n<ul>\n<li>Risk tolerance can be quite different across the generations due to ones\u2019 exposure to rapid changes and distributive technologies.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, younger generations tend to be less risk adverse and are more comfortable launching a \u2018beta\u2019 version of project.\u00a0 While experienced employees may expect that projects are perfect before they go live and might question their leader\u2019s choices if they aren\u2019t clear about how risks have been evaluated and calculated in advance.\u00a0 Younger manager should discuss their risk tolerance and communicate how experienced employees will be supported and encouraged to take more calculated risks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li>Respect\n<ul>\n<li>In many organizations respect is still bestowed on leaders based on title, tenure and experience rather than competencies and skills. Younger employees and especially younger managers expect that the results they deliver will speak for themselves and that they will be respected for what they do, not who they know. When leading more experienced employees it is important for managers to acknowledge the experience of their team members, validate their expertise and gain respect by being a high performer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>Time\n<ul>\n<li>The concept of time is tied to work styles.\u00a0 The amount of \u2018face time\u2019 that employees believe is required to be successful may differ substantially from a Baby Boomer to a Gen Y.\u00a0 How time is spent at the office \u2013 meetings vs. casual collaborative discussions vs. networking can differ. Core office hours may also be interpreted differently, are they fixed all week \/ year long? Do they apply to every role?\u00a0 These types of questions are important for younger managers to discuss with their teams and ensure they are clear about face time expectations and when employees can \u2018disconnect\u2019 fully from their work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the past few weeks I have had several conversations with clients regarding how to support and assist their youngest managers in effectively leading their more senior employees, both in experience and age. \u00a0This is such a hot button issue &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/?p=2120\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[159,16,202,9],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2120"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2125,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120\/revisions\/2125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}