Episode 3: Generational Bridges

The following is a written supplement to The Leading Lights Audiocast, Episode 3: Generational Bridges

Last week, I was speaking with a recently retired corporate executive whose insight I really value when I picked up on the fact that every time he referred to the younger professionals who he had worked with prior to his retirement, he coupled those references with some sort of subtle insult.  Stereotypical comments about the “millennial generation” were thrown around almost subconsciously during this discussion.

I asked this retired friend of mine what exactly he had been doing to effectively bridge-the-gap between his admirable, hard-working seasoned colleagues and the often dismissed earlier-career professionals during his final few years in the workplace.  His response?  “I don’t owe young people a thing.”

Two days later, ironically, a discussion with a "millennial" friend who works for a Fortune 500 corporation, turned into another vent session about the lack of cooperation, recognition, tech-savviness, and collaboration coming from his more experienced, seasoned colleagues within his organization.

I’ve been a bit deflated in realizing where we truly are as a society of business people when it comes to generational divide.  While some organizations do a commendable job of bridging this divide, we are generally in a dire situation.  If year 2030 presents any major challenges to the enterprise, it will most definitely include repercussions around the lack of work done today, or yesterday, to build bridges and prepare our up-and-coming generation for senior corporate leadership succession.

My concern about the generational divide in the workplace has actually grown since the start of the pandemic and subsequent work-from-home shift that has taken place.  I know it’s nice that corporations are finally being forced to offer some flexibility to their employees, but this could lead to some dramatic issues for our up-and-coming leaders who are now even more isolated from their seasoned senior leaders and executive teams.  

We need to take action.  There are a few things that we can do to start building bridges instead of increasing divides:

1. Zero tolerance.  There should be zero-tolerance within organizations as it pertains to complaints about generational “short-comings”.  Leaders need to step up when they hear this kind of chatter and call it out immediately while shifting the conversation toward highlighting the synergies between generations.  Stop calling out generational deficiencies, and start illuminating generational common ground and aligned values.

2. Generational diversity at the top.  I get it - senior executives have to prove themselves worthy of being elected into their role, and many times, the person best suited for a senior leadership role has more years of experience.  But that’s not always the case, and we must be more in-tune with our emerging leaders who are fully prepared to step up into senior executive roles.  Ensure senior leadership teams are diverse - this includes generational diversity.

3. Communicate the benefit.  My retired friend - bless his heart - didn’t do much to mentor or guide the younger, less experienced professionals around him, and because of this, his former employer may struggle to identify his replacement.  Same goes for my millennial friend, who could not recognize the value in engaging in honest discussions with his more experienced superiors.  We must help our seasoned leaders understand the benefits of guiding and mentoring up-and-comers prior to exiting the workforce and we also need to encourage the up-and-coming generation to establish healthy relations and lines of communication with their more seasoned colleagues.

4. Quiet the stereotypes.  If you’re in a senior leadership position, what you say is very, very important.  You’re an influencer.  People listen to you and they respond to your words.  If you are in a position of influence, you must step up immediately and build bridges between generations.  It is part of your duty to your organization to ensure it is in good hands when you exit.  We must not allow propagation of generational stereotypes, especially if you’re in a senior leadership role of high influence, as this will continue to strengthen our unintentional bias during the hiring and succession planning processes.

Chris Hadfield - a retired Astronaut who served as commander of the International Space Station - did an interview on London Reel where he spoke of his experience orbiting Earth, describing his unique perspective having seen the world in its entirety over and over and over again.

Chris’ perspective is unique because instead of seeing his own living room, his own office, his own front porch, his own generation, or even his “own country”, rather, spent a considerable amount of time seeing one singular earth in just one single visual frame, one time after another.  Because of this experience, it is easier for Chris to grasp the important concept that we’re one community, one organization, one team, and we’re generally working toward success together.

We as a society, but particularly within corporate America, must become better at seeing beyond what’s in our “own room”.  Titles and hierarchy, although necessary, certainly don’t help with this issue.  Corporations will have a serious knowledge and capability gap on their hands if they do not begin to foster a more collaborative culture between generations.  Let’s start building bridges - someday we’ll be happy we did.



 

Cultura Solutions is a strategic search firm in Minneapolis that partners with executives to help bridge high-impact leadership talent gaps. Our principals employ an extremely disciplined and transparent search process with a targeted sourcing model, and outreach focused on genuine human-to-human interaction, allowing us to turn non-active prospects into interested candidates. Visit www.cultura-solutions.com for more information.