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5 Tips to Successfully Manage Older Team Members · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: It can be pretty nerve-wracking and intimidating to manage team members significantly older than you.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: You might be a new manager or you might have a new team to manage.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: You might worry that they think that you are too young or inexperienced to do your role.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: There may even be resentment towards you.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or the older team members may fear how a younger manager may treat them.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: As more older employees stay in the workforce longer, managing larger age gaps is becoming more common.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: There will be many reasons why you are in the manager position.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Older and more experienced doesn't necessarily mean that they know what you know or have the skills that you have.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm taking you through five tips to successfully manage older team members, which are, firstly, relationships matter.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, treat everyone in the team equally.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Third, remind yourself of the value you bring.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, keep an open mind and respect the differences.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And fifth, leverage older team members' experience.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Help older team members feel valued and contributing to the success of the team in a considered and supportive way.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll make your job of managing older team members a lot easier.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Towards the end of the podcast, I share some very interesting stats that frame the importance of being happy and skilled at managing older employees.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles, and I've had a 25-year management career in corporate and household names such as Innocent Drinks, Fosters, EY, and Peer Consulting, all the way through to SMEs.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: From professional level through to board director level.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And one of my first jobs after university was advising partners of a management consulting firm who are much older and much more experienced than me.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was seriously intimidating, and it took me quite a while to realise I had knowledge and time that they didn't.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've since managed many older people than me.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhanced.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And do visit us at enhance.training and take a look at the courses and resources for you to improve your management skills and the outcome your team delivers.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: The first tip to successfully manage older team members is relationships matter.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your relationship with each of your team members matters.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: It really doesn't matter if they are younger, older, similar to you, or very different.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: To be a good manager to them, you must build a genuine trusting relationship with them.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So be genuine, be yourself.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Show interest in the older team members.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them lots of questions to get them talking about themselves, what they do outside of work, what the challenges of their job are, what they would change at work and what their ambitions are, etc.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Get to know them.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Work out what you admire about them and show that admiration.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Compliment them.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Be humble and respect the older team members' achievements.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: The more you value the older employees, the more at ease you will put them and the more likely a genuine trusting relationship will be built.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Look for some quick wins to reduce the older employees' pain points.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Taking proactive action to make their lives easier does the wonders for relationship building.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Find common areas of interest and have fun talking about them together.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Employ all your relationship building skills when you manage older workers as you would with any other team member.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: The second tip when managing older team members is to treat everyone in the team equally.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is so important to be consistent when being a manager.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Your decisions and actions are sending unspoken messages to the team, which they are absolutely paying attention to.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Being consistent in your decisions and actions establishes the rules for the team and constantly reinforces them.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure your actions and decisions towards the older team members is consistent with the other team members.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency will make them feel that you don't have a problem with older people, that you are a person that they can trust.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Communicate with an open style and communicate often.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Set expectations for everyone in the team clearly and be consistent with your expectations.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Expect all team members to meet mutually agreed expectations and work hard to support all team members in reaching the goals set out.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: A really useful approach is to book in weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your team.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Use the meetings to develop mentor feedback and to learn.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Treat everyone equally in everything you do.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: The third tip to successfully manage older team members is to remind yourself of the value you bring.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reminding yourself of all your achievements that have progressed your career to this point.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Remind yourself of all the hard work you've put in, of all the skills you practice day in and day out to develop.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And don't feel that you need to be an expert at all the jobs your team does.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to be able to tell your team all the answers.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: You just need to be able to help your team get to the answers.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Be confident in yourself.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Your job is to get the best out of the team, to deliver value to the company through others.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of the team doesn't have your management skills.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: A great exercise to build your confidence is at the end of each day, in a notebook, write down three things that went really well that day.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It could be small or it can be large.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: The act of thinking about the positive things will remind you of what you have achieved.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then looking back at the weeks of achievements written down, little or large, builds a lot of confidence for you.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Be confident in your skills and use those skills to help the team achieve great results.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth tip when managing older team members is to keep an open mind and respect the differences.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: A study published in the Journal of Organisational Behaviour found that most workers with younger managers reported having more negative emotions such as anger and fear than those with older bosses.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Older workers who are not happy cite reasons such as the younger manager thinking that they know more, or they show favoritism towards younger workers, or they don't like their decisions being questioned.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: When managing older team members, don't assume that they lack energy or the desire to learn.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Keep an open mind and find out what the older team members are interested in, what their ambitions are and how you can support them achieving those ambitions.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Find out what you can learn from them.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Work out how you can use their depth or breadth of experience in helping the team perform.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Treat older workers as a great source of knowledge and experience in their areas that you have available to you and the team.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And also work out with them what developments and learning opportunities they are interested in, just as you would with the rest of the team.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: You have skills and experience to share.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Keep an open mind and respect the differences between all team members.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth tip to successfully manage older team members is to leverage older team members' experience.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: The older team members have a lot of experience.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Learn about their experience by asking questions and getting them to tell you about what they have done and seen.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, they may have seen successive managers try to implement a new process that just didn't work.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing this and finding out why it didn't work will save you making the same mistakes again.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Older team members will have different skills and experience compared to you.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: How can you use these for the benefit of the team?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: What can you personally learn from them too?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: There is truth in the saying that it is hard to teach new dogs the old tricks.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Strong teams make good use of all the differences within the team as well as the similarities.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is the different backgrounds, the different viewpoints, the different experiences combined within an environment of safety that brings great solutions and great results.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Find and understand the differences the older team members have with you and others and use their strengths and experience.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as promised, a few stats to frame the challenges in managing older employees.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Forty percenters have a younger boss.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the fears of older workers who are not happy with the younger boss include 55% worry that a younger manager will think they know more.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Getting comfortable and skilled at managing older workers will only get more important as time goes on.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, in summary, manage older team members in the same way as you would manage everyone else in the team.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: There are more barriers to break down, both in your own mind and in theirs.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Make older employees feel valued by finding and using their extra experience and skills to help the team deliver more.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Use these five tips to successfully manage older team members.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, relationships matter.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, treat everyone in the team equally.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Third, remind yourself of the value you bring.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, keep an open mind and respect the differences.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then fifth, leverage older team members' experience.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Older team members have a lot to offer you and the team.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Make best use of their experience and skills.training and I'll get back to you.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.