The Challenge of Multi-Generational Conflict
Today, organizations are likely to have three, four, or even five generations in the workplace. Each generation’s approach to work and the workplace is different than the others, often leading to judgment, exclusion, and outright verbal, if not physical, conflict among co-workers. Whatever your role in the organization, you can contribute to the challenge or to the solution; there is no “neutral zone.”
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Addressing Multi-Generational Conflict
Chris DeSantis, author of Why I Find You Irritating: Navigating Intergenerational Conflict at Work[1], makes two important points that can serve as a foundation for helping you address this challenge. First, the generational differences are real, but all too often we assume everyone of a generation fits the stereotype; they do not. Second, while parents raise their children to fit in with the generation they are growing up in, when their children enter the workforce, the expectation is that they will relinquish their generational identity and behave according to the norms of their managers and leaders. Asking them to be more like somebody else is asking them to be less fully themselves. Fewer and fewer of today’s workers are willing to lose their identity in that way.
Quantuvos often finds the leaders we coach are seeking to bridge generations, to leverage the best that each person has to offer for the success of the team, the team members, the organization, and the customers they serve. This can only be accomplished in an environment of trust and belonging, an environment that allows each person to bring their best. In such an environment, people go beyond the roles that they hold, relating to one another as unique individuals rather than as tasks to be completed.
Addressing the challenge of multi-generational conflict also requires an attitude of curiosity. Approaching others with a mindset that is seeking to understand rather than to manage them changes the dynamic of the relationship. It conveys the message that the person you are approaching matters, and that you are open to learning about and from them. Who is this person? What is important to them? What gets them excited about coming to work? What can you do to help them be successful? Each of these questions, when asked from a place of genuine caring, will help to reduce the interpersonal barriers that become intergenerational challenges. Each of their answers will provide insights that you can use to nurture increased belonging, engagement, collaboration, and productivity.
The challenge of intergenerational conflict is real and if it is not navigated effectively, it is costly. When people don’t feel that they belong, that they are valued and respected, the first ones to leave are the most skilled. Those who don’t leave physically leave emotionally. Both turnover and engagement quickly hit the bottom line. Serving as a bridge between generations is the catalyst for reversing this impact. To find out more about how you can meet the challenge of intergenerational conflict in your organization, contact us at (TBD).
[1] Chris was our guest on the Qonversations: Powered by Quantuvos podcast. You can listen to “Intergenerational Conflict at Work” here. (38 minutes)
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