Did you know that for the first time in modern history, there are now likely to be as many as five generations working together? Understanding the motivations, expectations and behaviors of your diverse team is an essential skill. But how do you align different ages and stages around a common goal?

Understanding your team

While we may have perceptions around certain generations in terms of their preferences and interests in technology, money, career progression, or even their work flexibility, our presenters discussed research which dispels some of those myths. As an example, work-life balance is important to all generations post-pandemic. Likewise, all generations expect regular pay increases.

Accepting differences

There will no doubt be differences within your team, whether that’s different generations working together, cultural differences with global teams, or even functional differences when cross-functional teams work together. But there may be more in common than you think. Our speakers discussed research highlighting similarities across generations as it relates to loyalty, purpose, pay, and their view of an ideal leader.

Adapting through human centric leadership

A simple three-point framework can be used as a starting point to adapt behaviors to enable you to better engage and motivate across the differences in your team:

• Plan for life stages, not generations. If we fine-tune our policies, benefits, approach, and communications with our team members based on the life stage that they are at, and not a generational generality, then we can move from assumptions and age-based expectations to ensuring the individual is at the center of our focus.
• Solve with purpose. We are all searching for purpose and meaning, and that can come from our personal, professional, and social aspirations. Take five minutes of quiet time to ask yourself the question, “Why do I do what I do?” The pandemic may have put us in a place where we have already asked ourselves this question. You may also take the time to ask your team about their purpose. This format of understanding someone’s purpose (personal, social, and professional) can enable us to deliver a better employee experience.
• Social interactions. The brain experiences the workplace first and foremost as a social system, although many of our interactions may feel transactional. An example of a transactional interaction is a call or a meeting focused uniquely on delegating a task to a team member, or providing a status report on a project, with no opportunity to engage in any other topic. Successful teams balance transactions with social interactions. Accomplishing this can be as simple as having a social call with a colleague or holding a weekly “water cooler” team meeting.