Leadership Advice for Young Managers with Older Employees
As an ambitious Millennial, you’ve worked hard, gained some valuable experience and have just been promoted into a leadership position – all just a few years into your career. Congratulations! You’re qualified for your new role and are excited to jump in and get started.
It’s the first day of your new leadership role and just a few hours in, an employee who is 10 or 20 years your senior stops you and asks point blank, “Just how old are you?” As someone in a leadership position in their twenties, you probably anticipated getting that question at some point, but it still stops you in your tracks.
Rather than worrying about older employees respecting your authority, focus on successfully leading your team, despite age gaps and experience, while earning the trust and confidence of all your team members. Here’s some advice on how to do that:
Be prepared to answer the age question. While it’s illegal for anyone to ask your age in the workplace, as a young leader, you’re still going to get the question from your older employees. Give how you want to respond some serious thought ahead of time so you aren’t caught off guard and give an answer you didn’t fully think through. If you’re comfortable sharing your age, go right ahead! If not, a good solution may be to smile and politely say something like, “Old enough to do the job.” The important thing is to have an authentic response at the ready so you can answer with confidence and move on rather than letting it become a topic of continued speculation.
Take the time to get to know the individuals on your team. A good leader recognizes the individual strengths, talents and experience of each employee and leverages what each brings to the table. Rather than bucketing employees into categories and assuming their work habits based on generations, get to know them on an individual level so you can utilize each person’s unique strengths to achieve successful outcomes. Everyone has something different to bring to the table, and it’s your job as a leader to appreciate those strengths and bring everyone together in mutual understanding and respect.
Make changes when necessary, but show respect of tradition. While ‘that’s how we’ve always done it’ should never be an excuse to forego change, sometimes there’s a specific and excellent reason it’s done that way. Take the time to talk to your veteran employees and discover how and why things are done the way they are.
Likewise, changes are necessary to keep a company and team competitive and efficient, so don’t be afraid to make changes. Take the time to discuss the changes with your entire team and ensure they understand why the changes are being made and the impact they’re expected to have.
Communicate frequently, transparently, and effectively. It’s critical to your success as a leader, and to the overall success of your team, that open and honest communication is a core value. As a leader, being transparent about expectations, goals and decisions ensures age becomes a complete non-factor. Regular communication within teams is also proven to foster higher productivity, overall happiness and satisfaction, and loyalty.
An important factor in effective communication is understanding the way in which your individual employees respond to different types of communication. Many millennials place value in consistent feedback and public shout-outs for a job well done, while most Boomers tend to prefer a more private thank you for their achievements.
Seek respect from your team, not approval. As a leader, you need to understand the difference between being respected and being liked. While being well liked by every one of your employees would be nice, more important to your success as a leader is being respected. You aren’t going to work to find your new best friend, you’re going to work to do a job and achieve results. You will have a difficult time doing your job and achieving results if your team thinks they don’t have to follow your instructions because you’re a pushover, or if you’re scared of offending them by providing effective feedback. Work hard to gain your employees’ respect as an individual and as a leader, and you’re well on your way to leadership success.
You may be young, but you’ve worked hard to earn your new leadership position. Managing employees older than you can be challenging, but with the right approach you can earn their respect and trust as a leader.