Closing the Generational Gap

Leveraging the strengths of generational differences in the workplace

By Tabari McCoy , Scooter Media

LONG BEFORE DR. ANGELA

Crawford, Chief Marketing Officer and Consulting Partner with Leadership Excelleration, began helping organizations develop cultures where people from all generations thrive, she was an intern at a telecommunications company. The lesson she learned after one particularly memorable meeting has stayed with her to this day.

“It was in the 90's, and I was asked to take notes during a meeting where senior leaders were discussing whether to invest in cell phones or continue their current path of growing their success with pay phones," Dr. Crawford recalls. “Ultimately, the decision was made not to invest too much in this ‘cell phone thing’ because the mentality was ‘Who would want to carry a phone around with you?’ At that moment – and there’s always a turning moment – I promised myself that when I became the age of most of those people in that room, I would always ask the youngest people in the room what they think and also remember that even the steadiest streams of revenue can disappear through innovation.”

Now with more generations working together than ever before, she has a message for companies that might dismiss what someone thinks simply because of their age: Think again.

Talking About My Generation

Dr. Crawford has spent more than 20 years working in senior-level roles and consulting with Fortune 500 companies. She additionally spent six years in higher education prior to joining Leadership Excelleration, where she consults with organizations in various areas of marketing, leadership and workplace culture.

Approximately 8.9 million – that’s the number of people age 75+ that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will enter the U.S. workforce between 2020 and 2030 – a jump of 96.5%. Likewise, a Pew Research Center analysis found that more than six million teens (36.6%) had a paying job for at least part of the summer of 2021, the highest rate since 2008. These numbers reflect a fact many employers know to be true: More generations are working together than ever before, presenting a potential problem for conflict among them.

Noting that generational conflict is a big issue, she says leveraging workers of different generations successfully begins with examining what creates biases in today’s workplace.

"Unfortunately, hearing things like ‘Oh, millennials are like this’ or ‘Gen Z, they don’t want to work,’ these types of bias are reinforcing stereotypes … I was reading where an executive said, ‘We’re telling everyone they must come back to the office no matter what,’” Dr. Crawford says. “The younger generations are going to say, ‘Why? Why should I come to work and sit in my office all day on Teams calls?’ because their view of autonomy and power structures are typically different from other generations. A lot of that is due to the modern parental relationship being more of a partnership than a top-down hierarchy in many families and cultures. If you think about it, their questions make sense because they are not constrained by how and where work has always been done in the past.”

While learning how to manage these differences in viewpoints can be recognized and handled via professional development and coaching, the danger of not addressing these issues goes beyond potential legal action that happens when age discrimination occurs against older workers.

“If you are not leveraging the strength of your entire workforce, you will also miss opportunities to innovate and meet the needs of diverse markets,” she says, noting many people leave companies where they don’t feel like they fit the culture as they see their careers sidelined or feel pushed out as they near retirement, which is detrimental considering that companies need people from all age demographics.

Words Of Wisdom

Dr. Crawford says that research is split on how much life stage, versus age, impacts our views of work, so focusing on life stage is also important to resolve generational workplace issues. She adds that “When I graduated college and started my career my priorities were different from when my children were young and even now that they are grown. Every team member we hire has a unique journey and we need to respect and honor them at each of their life stages. By providing flexible work arrangements and cultures where there is a sense of belonging for people of every age and background, we can leverage the strengths of each person.”

Changing people’s ways of thinking, she says, can change lives, regardless of how young or old they may be.

“I once received a thank you email that touched me. It said, ‘Thank you so much for the session you did because my boss is now asking my opinion, and he hasn't done that before,’” she recalls. “The woman who wrote it had just graduated from college and said her boss attended one of my sessions. That's what I love about my work. I get to develop leaders at every level and industry to help them bring out the best in themselves and create cultures where everyone gets a chance to be their best.”