Are you struggling to manage people who are older than you? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of workplace consultant Lindsey Pollak. They talk through what to do when you’ve been promoted above more experienced colleagues, you’re not sure how to motivate older reports, or senior employees are skeptical of the technology you want to implement.
From Alison and Dan’s reading list:
HBR: What Younger Workers Can Learn from Older Workers, and Vice Versa by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott — “Some older workers have learned how to exercise control over their work. They have learned what and when to delegate, when to push back on the demands of others, and when to accept demands. They have learned that some of the constraints they thought were immovable could be reframed by thinking more creatively about how they perform their tasks and what they consider the boundaries of these tasks.”
Book: The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace by Lindsey Pollak — “While some companies are embracing the intergenerational mix, most organizations are struggling to appeal to all generations of employees at once. Today’s employers say they want people with experience but complain that experienced workers are more expensive or stuck in their ways. Employers say they want bleeding-edge tech skills but lament that young people with those skills don’t always have the professional savvy they desire.”
HBR: Engaging Your Older Workers by Peter Cappelli — “Research also suggests that putting older and young workers together helps both groups perform better. They make good allies in part because of their similar interests, but because of their different stages of life, they are less competitive with each other than workers in the same age cohort might be. That means that they are more likely to help each other and to form good teams.”
HBR: Leading Older Employees by Jodi Glickman — “How does one lead without power? What do you do if you’ve got the title but not the experience? What if you’ve got the experience but your baby face betrays you? What do you do when your boss supports and respects you but you suspect your colleagues simply don’t?”