People management is a must

If businesses want to transition toward a nongenerational workplace that’s tailored to all generations, they should consider Pollak’s “People Management Remix.”

This tactic focuses on helping individuals of all generations acknowledge where their leadership skills need improvement –?and how improved management can drastically elevate an individual’s career.

Today, managers find themselves under far more pressure to be effective leaders than ever before. Older generations typically just accepted the managers they were assigned to, while younger generations use on-demand information to review workplace ratings. This has created increased scrutiny around leaders in the workplace because job success and happiness greatly correlate to leadership quality.

There are three main steps to becoming a good leader: learning to lead yourself, being a good coach, and providing opportunities for apprenticeship. Let’s address these one by one.?

First,?lead yourself.?We as leaders are often influenced by our own biases that interfere with our ability to properly manage a workplace. Take one of today’s largest causes of leadership bias: remote work.?

If you’re part of an older generation, you’ve likely never had the opportunity to work from home like millennials and Gen Z have. As a leader, it can be difficult to comprehend whether your employees are actually working or not. However, the best thing that you can do is be transparent about these concerns and find a middle ground. By looking into yourself and identifying your own biases, you'll also become a more flexible leader.

Now let’s look at the second step: being a quality manager also means?being a good coach. The most important characteristics of a good coach include providing consistent feedback, listening to your employee’s needs, and holding regular one-on-one meetings.

The desire for feedback happens to be a cross-generational issue. Millennials are accustomed to receiving consistent feedback and thus have better career growth. Older generations aren’t as used to being provided with a lot of guidance, but they do want advice for professional growth –?they just might not voice it as clearly.

And finally, the third step is?providing apprenticeship.?Apprenticing others is another way to be an effective leader, and it can be a valuable tool in supporting multigenerational work teams. By simply letting an employee sit in on important phone calls, or cc’ing them in emails, you’re helping them expand their skill set and carve out new opportunities.?

In the end, it all comes down to being a good role model that promotes a healthy, multigenerational workplace.?