Latest / Unspoken Career Truths / Navigate Generation Gaps: Setting Boundaries and Building Team Success

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Navigate Generation Gaps: Setting Boundaries and Building Team Success · Unspoken Career Truths

• 0:00
  Welcome to unspoken career truths.
• 0:02
  I'm Cara Wood. And I'm Lauren Levac Gilbert
• 0:05
  and. We're here to be the Co workers
• 0:07
  you can trust. Hey Cara, how's it going?
• 0:11
  Good, just enjoying the lovely snow.
• 0:16
  Yes, it is freezing in Boston for anyone who's in New England.
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  It was 5° this morning, so hoping for some more soon.
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  But today we're going to talk about something that shows up in
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  every workplace, and that's the generational divide at work.
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  Whether you're a boomer, Gen. X, millennial, Gen.
• 0:37
  Z, soon to be even Gen. Alpha, There's so many
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  differences between how different generations react to
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  things, how they experience work.
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  We are not going to tell you who which generation we are, but we
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  are both going to talk about what our experiences with
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  different generations and what it's like working in the
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  workplace with them. And it's a really cool time for
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  because for the first time ever, 4 to 5 generations are actually
• 1:07
  working together. That's amazing.
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  It's it reminds me of when you get those photos of like
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  generations and families all together and it's like here we
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  all are with different experiences and orientations of
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  when we entered the workforce and what our norms were.
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  So it's pretty cool. And what's really crazy to think
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  about, Kara, is that it means you're working with people who
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  started their careers without e-mail and you're working
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  alongside people who've never known a world without
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  smartphones. And that's like a very big
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  divide in terms of comfort level with technology and how you
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  approach problems. Oh yeah, and what you're again,
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  how you were trained. And then also someone who
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  started without, like the inner e-mail.
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  They know how to navigate change better than anyone else because
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  they've been through so much of it.
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  So very cool. 100% And I mean, add the fact that technology has
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  advanced so much faster and there's so many more layers of
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  complexity. We just did that episode on AI,
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  which is throwing another wrench in all of this.
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  So it really makes it difficult to have everyone agree on what
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  hard work looks like, how fast things should be moving, what
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  loyalty means, how to give feedback.
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  There's so many different factors here that are really
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  important to acknowledge, to state and to understand how you
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  can better bring all those generations together on a team
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  to be successful. Yeah.
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  And there are certain very general assumptions for each
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  generation. Now, we're not trying to
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  stereotype here as we want to say that out loud.
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  We're just trying to kind of paint the picture of some of the
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  differences of what you might broad brushstroke see in
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  different generations. So if we think about older
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  generations, they were often taught work hard, keep your head
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  down, stay loyal to your employer, pay your dues and
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  don't rock the boat. Yeah.
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  And when you talk about the older generations, like you're
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  bucketing two groups, right? Like the boomers who were born,
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  you know, before the mid 60s and they were raised in the shadow
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  of World War 2. And then there's Gen.
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  X, who you know, they were taught to keep your head down,
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  but actually are like extremely independent, resourceful because
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  they, a lot of them graduated in, during this like terrible
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  economic moment in the 80s with like student debt levels that no
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  one had seen before. And now very relatably, there
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  are other generations who've experienced it similarly, but
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  remember, like OG's Gen. X.
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  So there are a lot of scrappy entrepreneurs that come out of
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  that Gen. X generation. 100% and I think
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  it's really important to state, and I think we'll continue to
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  state this. There's something to learn from
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  every generation in how they approach problems and, and how
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  they tackle things. And so there's strengths and
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  weaknesses just like there's pros and cons to anything in
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  life. So I think what you can get out
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  of this is also to look at like where the places where people
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  are stronger in a certain element or need to work on
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  something in another element. So when we look up at
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  millennials, they entered the workforce during or after,
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  again, like to your point car, massive economic instability and
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  they were told get educated hustle culture, which is
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  something that we talked about in season 1.
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  Prove your value be adaptable and then if you think about.
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  Well, I was just going to chime in with like you mentioned that
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  get educated piece and the economy and I think a lot of
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  millennials who went to college to and they were told like go
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  find yourself, go like know who you are.
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  So there is that prove your value and it's also kind of like
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  know your value which degenerations even giving them
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  that advice hadn't necessarily had that opportunity.
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  And it's that find your purpose, which we also talked about in in
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  Season 1, right? Like to your point, like find
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  your value, find your purpose. What do you want to be in life?
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  And that's a different way of approaching things.
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  And then if you think about Gen. Z, they grew up watching burnout
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  in real time, and they've seen careers that are not guaranteed
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  security. Loyalty is not always rewarded.
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  Mental health, finally is talked about openly and publicly, and
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  you can share how you're feeling in those certain situations,
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  which is a bit different than all of the other generations
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  before them. Yeah.
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  And one of the other things I think about when I think about
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  Gen. Z is that you mentioned at the
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  top, their experience is always smartphone.
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  And so they are some of the most sophisticated, like Gen.
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  Z has some of the most sophisticated ways of being
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  online because they were teenage awkward teenagers online.
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  And once you've been awkward teenager so publicly to like a
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  potentially worldwide audience, like hands down, like you're the
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  expert in how to, you know, crisis communication.
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  I feel like they have experienced that online in a way
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  that no other generation before them has.
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  And I think that's a really great point.
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  I was talking to someone the other day and they were talking
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  about their boomer and they were talking about social media and
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  they were expressing that they just don't have the urge or the
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  understanding of like sharing things online.
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  And if you talk to someone who is like a Gen.
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  Z, it's their first natural instinct, right?
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  Because they have the smartphone and their world is a little bit
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  more community focused and more on social media.
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  And so it's also like how you're approaching and where you're
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  coming from from a generation standpoint in terms of how you
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  interpret new technologies or new trends.
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  Yeah. And I think about that in terms
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  of the way that people learn as well, because one of the go to
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  is for how to learn for a Gen. Z might literally be like search
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  the Internet, watch a YouTube video, like see what everybody
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  on Reddit recommends. Like throw it out to like my
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  followers online versus someone who's a boomer who might be
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  like, let me find the expert. Let me find the book.
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  Let me, you know, learn it first hand and get to practice IRL
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  before I even tell anyone that I'm thinking about learning it.
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  Yeah. And think about even Gen.
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  Alpha, the new newest generation, they might go
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  straight to ChatGPT or to any LLM and ask it a question and
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  and not even go to their community or their network or
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  social media. So it's going to continue to
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  change. I think we're going to see that
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  rapid shift as this coal AI kind of generation plays out in the
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  way that we use it. Yeah, when I think about what
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  vibe code coding, like if your vibe coding your homework right
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  now as a Gen. alpha, then that's you testing and learning is
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  going to be your your kind of your norm and your go to.
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  Oh gosh, that's a whole other topic.
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  I feel like going to Carl. We'll leave that one there.
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  I think that's important also to think about some of the stats
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  behind this, which were really interesting when I was reading
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  them. So as of 2024, millennials are
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  the largest share of the US labor force.
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  So they're 36% with Gen. Z at 18% and baby boomers at
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  15%. So in terms of the distribution
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  of work, it's definitely more millennials right now.
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  And millennials and Gen. Z are projected to dominate
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  global workforce headcount nearly 74 to 80%, where we're
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  going to see a lot of boomers start to retire and a lot of
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  some of those traditional businesses maybe turn over to
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  their children or be bought out by millennials.
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  Yeah, that is interesting. And these ones are also really
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  interesting in terms of the workforce and the way that
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  people communicate in the workplace.
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  So 60% of employees say generational differences are A
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  cause of workplace communication challenges or conflict.
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  That's exactly why we're talking about this Cara.
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  One of the things that like, honestly, I it's like my
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  favorite sort of like tell, but also one of those things that
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  you might be causing sort of like conflict or discomfort and
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  not even know it. If you don't know, like the
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  generational difference is this communication edit when it comes
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  to like either chat or text or what's normal.
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  Like you might get a call from a boomer or someone in Gen.
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  X, like an actual phone call. And if you're a millennial or
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  like a Gen. Z person, you probably abhor
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  phone calls. Any other?
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  I'm like those of you who can't hear her.
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  She's laughing at my joke. It was.
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  A silent. It was a silent laugh, but I
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  wanted to like, make sure everyone knew that I was.
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  Getting one. And but no, but and the other
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  piece is that if you are in a generation, honestly, any
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  generation, but Gen. alpha, there is an additional like
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  level of sarcasm now with emojis that are used in a way that it's
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  a completely different way to interpret like every emotion.
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  So like, I don't I I don't know, Lauren, if you've experienced
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  the like thumbs up emoji as an FU, but I have no.
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  I didn't know that was a thing. It's a thing, it's a thing, it's
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  a thing and you don't even know it's a thing sometimes.
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  I'm worried. Yeah, it's like a it's a thing.
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  OK, well, I mean, even to your point with like the slang about
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  how people just communicate, I was, I was in an interview and
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  someone used the slang word and I was like, I'm sorry, I really
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  don't know what that means. I felt very old.
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  But also like, they just communicate and they think
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  that's like part of natural conversation where you might not
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  know what that actually means because it's slang that was
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  maybe just made-up a couple days ago, like 6-7.
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  Right. And yeah, exactly or and then
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  again, even 6-7 is there's so many layers to that.
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  First of all, sixes and sevens is like a term that was used
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  like 80 years ago. And I saw I actually find that
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  kind of humorous that like in some ways we've circled back.
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  But then in other ways, 6/7 as a term was meant initially to
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  almost troll everyone trying to understand it as a term.
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  So that like again, level of like Meta I think goes into a
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  lot of different short term or even just newer slang that if
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  you're using emojis in another way, it actually comes across as
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  super cringy to a younger generation because they are
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  viewing it through like a few additional lenses on top of the
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  initial purpose of the emoji. Common theme here.
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  Know your audience. And Cara, you gave a really
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  great example about phone calls. So we're going to go into a
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  couple examples in terms of a certain generation and how it
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  might be perceived and what the reality is.
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  So let's take a Gen. Z example here that might be
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  misconstrued. So here's the example.
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  You see a millennial looking at their phone during a meeting and
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  typing. The perception of that might be
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  that they're disengaged, they're not paying attention, they're
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  just playing around on their phone.
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  But what I find in a lot of cases and what can be the
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  reality is they're probably taking notes on their phone from
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  the meeting because they prefer to use their phone versus
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  writing in a notebook. I experienced this in a
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  presentation I was giving, actually, where I was on stage
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  and I was presenting and it looks like everyone was on their
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  phones. And I was like, I don't know, is
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  this content not resonating? And then I actually talked to a
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  couple people afterwards and they're like, oh, we were taking
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  serious notes on our phones. Like we sent a bunch of things
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  back to our team. So just know that depending on
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  what generation and who's in the audience, that could actually
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  just be them very intently paying attention.
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  Yeah, I love that example. That's great.
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  So let's take another one. Here's a boomer example that
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  might be misconstrued. So let's say you send a message
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  to someone, whether it's Slack or Teams or insert name of
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  messaging app that you have at work and they don't respond for
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  four or five hours and you're like, Oh my gosh, what's
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  happening? The perception might be for
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  someone who is like a Gen. Z or who might be used to
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  instant texts or instant communication that that person
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  is ignoring you and they don't want to talk to you and they're
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  not getting back to you. The reality meeting might be
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  that they might just not be as connected.
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  They don't check their e-mail as often.
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  They don't check messaging. That's not their formal way of
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  communicating. And so it's important to also
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  understand communication styles. Cara, to your point when you're
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  working with different people on your team or even with your
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  cross functional teams? Yeah, one of my favorite
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  questions is like, just to straight up ask someone what
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  they prefer, because I've experienced that one in a few
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  different ways. Sometimes maybe you Slack and
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  someone else calls you or or writes an e-mail or immediately
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  starts an instant meeting. And it's because maybe an older
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  generation knows like, hey, it's actually faster to just like
• 14:22
  talk through something. But a younger generation might
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  feel like I expressed myself best through texting.
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  So I've had Co workers who tell me directly and usually they're
• 14:33
  from a younger generation where they'll say I actually want to
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  text through this. Like I don't want, I want to
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  minimize my my direct calls with you.
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  I want to minimize my like one on ones with you.
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  And then I've had other, you know, Co workers again, be like,
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  let's just pick up the phone. If we exchange 3 emails, I want
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  to be a in a face to face conversation with you in some
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  capacity in order to just suss something out.
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  So, you know, you, you don't always know every scenario ahead
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  of time, but even just finding out what someone's preferred
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  method, yeah. And I think that's a great
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  point. Like think about when you sign
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  up for, I don't know, have you ever signed up for like
• 15:08
  utilities or even like you've submitted a question about
• 15:12
  something. They usually ask like when would
• 15:14
  you prefer to be contacted and how would you prefer to be
• 15:16
  contacted, right? Because everyone has different
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  preferences. So especially if you're a
• 15:20
  leader, you're a manager and you have people on your team, it's
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  really just important. Like Cara's examples, you just
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  ask how they prefer to be communicated to.
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  Just helps all around for everyone.
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  Yeah. So some of the biggest
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  differences in general across generations that we see in Cara,
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  I'd love to see if there's any that you think are missing from
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  the this list. We, we kind of hit on
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  communication. Usage of time is a big one.
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  So like if you're using time to strategize and iterate and you
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  want to be in a room together and you want to talk to people,
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  or you want to have alone time where you can think and
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  strategize and do different types of work.
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  Usage of time is definitely something that's different
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  across generations. Adaptability to change, so being
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  flexible and being comfortable with change and also hierarchy.
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  So how you treat making a decision?
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  Like do you feel like you have to go to your boss and ask for
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  permission or do you feel like you have autonomy to make that
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  decision and then tell your boss?
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  Those are some of the big difference areas that I see.
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  How about you, Cara? One of the other ones I'm
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  thinking about is priority, like depending on where you and I
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  think it falls into both where you are in your life and also
• 16:37
  where you are in your career. So people have different
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  priorities and different viewpoints of what is important
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  either based on how much time they've been in a role in a
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  company, in a, in a, in an industry or also just in their
• 16:51
  life. And then I also think each
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  generation we talked about before, I like how you're taught
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  about work means. So work takes different
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  priorities maybe depending on which generation you're from.
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  Boomers, again, it was like a foundational like reflection on
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  both you, your family and your value system.
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  Whereas when you get into millennials, you might see them
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  kind of again, having this whole like, but does it connect with
• 17:19
  who I am as a person? And then Gen.
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  Z has a real sophistication around setting boundaries around
• 17:27
  exactly how they want to live. Yeah.
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  And and again, to kind of reiterate the point, I said at
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  the beginning, all of them are valid, right?
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  Everybody's approach is, is valid to how they look at
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  things. It's just really important to
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  understand how everybody mixes together.
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  So if you're leading a multi generational team, it's just
• 17:47
  important to have clear communication, have trust, ask
• 17:51
  these questions. And there's a lot of different
• 17:54
  models out there that could potentially be of help for you
• 17:56
  to think about multi generational teams,
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  multicultural teams, right? So that's another added element
• 18:03
  that we didn't get into. Maybe you have someone who's in
• 18:06
  Europe or Latin America or Asia and they have different ways of
• 18:10
  communicating in different styles as well.
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  So Car actually shared with me the Lewis model, and it's a
• 18:16
  really great way of thinking about how to interact with
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  multicultural different teams. And some of the key themes talk
• 18:25
  about like understanding people's reflective, reflexive,
• 18:29
  excuse me reactions, understanding the organizational
• 18:32
  culture and acknowledging that this can really be a big factor
• 18:37
  in team effectiveness. Different generations, different
• 18:39
  cultures mixing together to try and get to a well oiled machine.
• 18:45
  Yeah, when I think of the Lewis model and I learned it in the
• 18:47
  context of cross cultural communications, like when I
• 18:50
  think about it, I think about two quick things, time and
• 18:53
  hierarchy. So is it that there is one
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  decision maker at the top and then everyone's following those?
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  Or is it that it's important to gather consensus and that does
• 19:03
  change. Those norms change depending on
• 19:05
  what country you're from. And again, there are people who
• 19:09
  don't feel the same way that everyone else in their country
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  does, but you might have been raised with that expectation.
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  So like consensus building versus like a more
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  authoritarian, hierarchical. And then the other one is time.
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  And that's just how you perceive time.
• 19:22
  I actually learned a cool fact the other day in French, there
• 19:26
  are two words for day. One of them is jor.
• 19:29
  Like we think of Bonjour, but when you say goodbye to someone,
• 19:32
  you usually say Bonjour, which is still means good day.
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  But Azure is like that moment of time.
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  It's a static thing. Journey is your process, your
• 19:44
  progress through time. So how you're actually like
• 19:47
  progressing through time versus an element like a day that can
• 19:50
  be measured. So when you're greeting someone.
• 19:53
  Yeah. So when you're greeting someone,
• 19:54
  you're like how this day is starting.
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  Whereas when you're saying goodbye to them, you're actually
• 19:58
  like, enjoy the rest of your day is like sort of implied, like
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  how will you journey through the rest of your day?
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  It works the same when you say good evening as well.
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  Bonsoir, Bonsoir E So anyway, quick.
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  But again, like how you perceive time might be different
• 20:11
  depending on again, your your generation, which is what we're
• 20:15
  talking about, but also culture. I also think another thing to
• 20:18
  call out here is that where we are in the world and with the
• 20:26
  entrance of AI, like we talked about in the last episode, it
• 20:30
  actually kind of puts all generations in the same boat
• 20:34
  where AI is new, at least generative AI in the way that
• 20:38
  we're using it. And everybody really needs to
• 20:41
  learn this. Like if you think about when the
• 20:43
  Internet came out, right? Everybody needs to figure that
• 20:45
  out and learn that. Now, some generations might be
• 20:48
  more predisposed to be comfortable testing and learning
• 20:51
  and playing with the technology by like AI, but everybody still
• 20:55
  needs to get educated on it. Everybody still needs to learn
• 20:58
  it and understand how it impacts their lives.
• 21:00
  And I think that could potentially be a way for
• 21:03
  managers and leaders and teams to bring everyone together
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  because everybody's learning this together, everybody's
• 21:10
  figuring this out. So it could be a really
• 21:12
  interesting way of saying, hey, we're all going to do this
• 21:15
  together. We're all going to learn and
• 21:16
  we're all going to play on our strengths and how we can figure
• 21:20
  out how to use this to the success of the entire team.
• 21:24
  It's funny because I think that's another place where a
• 21:26
  perspective comes into play. Because if you're someone who's
• 21:29
  been through multiple changes in a workforce, then something like
• 21:32
  AI as changing as it is and as fast-paced as it is.
• 21:36
  And I've had plenty of conversations with folks from a
• 21:38
  boomer generation who are talking about the pace of change
• 21:41
  now versus the pace of change when they were experiencing
• 21:43
  change and social upheaval in their 20s versus when they're
• 21:48
  experiencing it now in their 60s or 70s.
• 21:50
  However, they have experienced a lot of it already and they know
• 21:55
  how they like to approach learning new things versus
• 22:00
  someone who's in Gen. Z or Gen.
• 22:02
  Alpha who's like, this change is the change.
• 22:06
  And it's the big change that I'm experiencing that's so
• 22:09
  important. There's some generations who are
• 22:11
  going to be like, it's one more thing.
• 22:13
  I've learned many things. I'm confident that I can learn
• 22:15
  many things. And then there's other
• 22:17
  generations that are going to be like, it's the thing, Oh my
• 22:19
  gosh, no one has ever seen a change before.
• 22:22
  Not just kind of reminds me of like teenagers who are like, no
• 22:25
  one's been in love, but maybe and everyone's like actually
• 22:29
  everyone's been in love. But we've all been through it.
• 22:33
  Thanks so much anyway. I love it.
• 22:36
  So just to kind of end on some things to think about as you are
• 22:41
  working with your colleagues, with your teams, with your
• 22:44
  direct reports that can really help set you up for success.
• 22:49
  Be really explicit about expectations.
• 22:51
  Use The Who, what, where, when kind of model so that it's clear
• 22:55
  on what you're asking. Focus on outcomes, not optics.
• 22:59
  So be clear about the what you want, but you don't need to
• 23:04
  necessarily be clear about like how it gets done, right?
• 23:07
  So if someone has a different approach to getting there, as
• 23:10
  long as the outcome is clear and it sets the expectations that
• 23:12
  you want, that's OK Createspace for different working styles.
• 23:16
  So once you're clear on those expectations, allow everyone to
• 23:19
  get to the the result the way they want to, in the way they
• 23:22
  want within boundaries, of course, right?
• 23:24
  Like can't just work one hour a day and then decide to leave for
• 23:28
  the rest of the day, right? There's definitely some
• 23:30
  boundaries there, but just being clear about that, assuming good
• 23:33
  intent. There's a lot of ways that all
• 23:37
  of these multicultural, multi generational ways of working can
• 23:41
  be misconstrued. Just assume good intent.
• 23:46
  Just flag that that's that's a wisdom that we like debated at
• 23:50
  one point that assumed good intent.
• 23:52
  And I think it's actually a perfect time to interject like
• 23:55
  Lauren, I didn't talk about our explicit generations in part
• 23:58
  because there is ageism in a workplace.
• 24:01
  And so there may be people who perceive your questions about
• 24:06
  like you don't want to ask direct questions about what
• 24:08
  generation people are from because there are people in your
• 24:10
  workforce that don't want to share their age and so assume
• 24:14
  good intent. But then someone could say,
• 24:16
  well, if you're asking me all these questions about like who I
• 24:19
  am, you might be using it for I'll adaptive purposes.
• 24:23
  Well, actually I think that will leads perfectly into the next
• 24:25
  one where you can think about things like a Myers Brigger
• 24:29
  assessment or any kind of assessment that's out there in
• 24:32
  terms of like people's working styles or personality styles.
• 24:35
  Because what that really gets to is how they want to communicate,
• 24:38
  how they work, what their style is, and how you can then match
• 24:42
  those with different aspects of the team or just know how to
• 24:46
  present to them or how to work with them.
• 24:48
  So that's a way that you can do this without being like how old
• 24:51
  are? You and you know, what I like is
• 24:54
  actually like also sharing what your assumptions and what your
• 24:58
  intentions are. And so if you start the
• 25:00
  conversation with like, my intention is to make sure that
• 25:03
  everyone's comfortable with the way that we communicate.
• 25:05
  And when you do XYZ, my first assumption is going to be this.
• 25:11
  And so it correct me if I'm assuming incorrectly, like if
• 25:14
  you leave early after just an hour of work, I'm going to
• 25:17
  assume that you're not really invested.
• 25:19
  But if you give me additional context or you're telling me
• 25:22
  actually I always have to walk my dog at 10 AM and I'm going to
• 25:25
  be back at three, you know, and at work through the night like
• 25:29
  that, that may be. A really long dog walk.
• 25:32
  Yeah, that may be a new normal that your office is willing to
• 25:36
  set, or it may not be a new normal that your office is
• 25:38
  willing to set. But you at least shared the
• 25:40
  assumption, the intention, like all of those things to like,
• 25:44
  help people see how you're thinking about what their
• 25:47
  actions are. I love that Cara, and I think
• 25:50
  we'll just end on you can learn from everyone.
• 25:54
  We are all figuring out this future of work.
• 25:57
  We're all figuring out how to better communicate, how to
• 26:00
  better work together. There's all kinds of different
• 26:03
  factors with new technology, the pace of change.
• 26:06
  So just remember, we're all figuring this out and there's
• 26:10
  something to learn from everyone.
• 26:11
  Yes, I am absolutely in love with everyone from other
• 26:15
  generations because if they're older than me, then again, they
• 26:19
  bring a perspective and an experience that I do not have.
• 26:23
  And if they're younger than me, they bring a fresh set of eyes
• 26:25
  to tell me what I'm missing that I wouldn't have even seen.
• 26:28
  So it's very exciting to work with other generations.
• 26:33
  I agree. That's a wrap.
• 26:35
  Thanks for joining us on Unspoken Career Truths.
• 26:38
  Don't forget to follow us on Spotify and Instagram.
• 26:41
  And if you liked this episode, share it with a friend.