Managing by Generation: What Leaders Need to Know
Consider the difference between a boss and a leader: a boss will tell you what to do, but a leader will teach you why and how to do it.
It’s not easy to lead and manage people – especially larger teams. It’s even more difficult to manage those teams effectively. There is a key trait every effective manager has in common though.
They take the time to get to know each team member individually. Believe it or not, this is the key to leading a team to success.
One of the hardest parts about effectively leading a team is making sure they all work together efficiently. You do this by leveraging and balancing your team members’ individual strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, this tends to be easier said than done.
Taking the time to get to know each team member individually will help you understand, navigate and potentially avoid sticky situations. Once you have a solid understanding of their unique communication preferences, areas of expertise, emotional tendencies, and skill sets, you can piece together how individual team members will best work together by balancing their strengths and weaknesses.
This can be especially helpful when your team is made up of members from different generations. Knowing what potential assumptions might be made can help you prevent them in the first place.
For example, older generations may tend to label younger workers as lazy or lacking in respect while younger generations may tend to label older workers as out-of-date and unwilling to try new ideas. Knowing these tendencies shows you what to be on the lookout for within your team.
Leveraging the strengths of your team members can be much easier when you take into account some broad facts about different generations, such as the fact that younger generations have grown up with computers and technology ingrained into their lives. They’ve never known a world without computers and are much more likely to accept new technologies than older generations who got their education before computers became a household norm.
Knowledge of how different generations grew up can help you assess potential communication preferences. Workers from the Boomer generation tend to get frustrated with the overuse of technology in communication because they value face-to-face interactions. Conversely, Millennial workers tend to rely on technology for communication. Knowing this up front can help you set up communication strategies for your team, or at the very least let you know it’s something that may need to be formally discussed.
Use caution with these generational generalities though. Knowing broad facts and potential assumptions doesn’t mean they apply to everyone individually. To be an effective leader, use them as a starting point of what to look for, but don’t make the mistake of applying it to an individual without taking the time to truly get to know that person.
It’s not easy leading a team to success, and the larger the team tends to be, the bigger the challenge. Forget about being the best boss, and focus on becoming an effective leader. You’ll not only lead your team to success, but will earn their trust and loyalty for years to come.