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The Intergenerational Workplace: Challenges and Triumphs · Business Roundtable

0:02
Welcome back. We're here at the Business round Table podcast. I am one
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of your hosts. We've got four here speakers tonight. And for those that
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maybe are coming to the podcast for the first time listening to this episode,
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my name is David Carr of Stewart Your Business. I'm a coach consultant focusing
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and helping business owners and team leaders lead themselves in their teams, particularly in
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the architecture, engineering, construction, environmental consulting world, where we have another
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colleague, Carra Corsetti. Car would you introduce yourself to the audience. Sure.
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So I am a coach and an industrial psychologist and a management advisory consultant.
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So I'm really happy to here. Thank you absolutely. And we have
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Bill Hatch back again from our last week. So glad to have you,
0:56
Bill, glad to be back. I'm in my name of cos as you
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said, it's on the screen, it's Bill Hatch. I promote myself as
1:07
a leadership guide. I am currently working on my book or a series of
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books, is what it's looking like. Because the more I write, the
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more I write, I'm going to have to find somewhere to cut it off.
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And and I also do my own series of podcasts over on Bald Spots
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Productions. Great to have you here, and we have our special special mystery
1:32
guests, but those they watching videos, so some of this is audio only
1:34
if you're listening to the podcast for video. We got our special guest back,
1:38
Doxy. Welcome back. Well, thank you for inviting me back.
1:44
I have a little sun issue, so that's why I'm kind of here.
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I am but hiding behind the shadows. But yeah, Curtis Cochran here,
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we are in the mergers and acquisitions arena. We based use our e Foromat
2:00
philosophy system to help build companies, increase their value and of course someday exit
2:09
and of course that's a challenging dealing with the culture and of course what we're
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going to be talking about tonight, So I look forward to absolutely So for
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those of you that missed episode last last time. Last week, we were
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talking about team integration and one of the things that came up out of that
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conversation was how do you do that with an intergenerational workforce a very different time
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right now, and so we're going to dig deep into this this conversation tonight,
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and so I'm excited to delve into this idea or an idea, but
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what's what we're experiencing right now and understanding this generational divide? And so Cara,
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if you don't mind, I'm gonna put you on the spot a little
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bit, but just kind of set the stage for us, if you will.
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What what are all these different generations that we're facing right now in the
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workforce and kind of like just kind of set the understanding of what does that
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look like? Yeah, yeah, so there's actually I think there's about five
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generations. Although I will say my parents are You will often see mature traditionalists
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for this. Actually they're older boomers, I guess, but they're still in
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the workforce, so you might find some traditionalists who might be working. But
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in general, we have the Baby Boomers, which is one of the largest
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generations, and it's about nineteen forty five or so to I believe nineteen.
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There's kind of they divide it up into two sort of cohorts until the mid
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sixties, early to mid sixties or so. Then we have Gen X and
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Gen X starts at about nineteen sixty five and goes to late seventies. We
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have the Millennials, which rival the Boomers in terms of size, and the
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millennial generation starts around nineteen eighty or so, and then we have Gen Z
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now who I think the oldest members of Gen Z are about twenty five,
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twenty six, twenty seven, and they are now in the workplace. So
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there's a there's a large amount many different generations in terms of generational conflict and
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just what motivates people. I mean, it's all based on stereotypes of course,
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right, So we want to stay away from stereotyping, and that's one
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of the I think keys to working with different generations. But you know,
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you'll have Baby Boomers who maybe value teamwork, collaboration, more of the traditional
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promotion structures, recognition bonuses, stock options, more of that type of environment.
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You have Gen X. It's a very small generation, about half of
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the size of the millennials, and the Boomers, a very independent generation probably
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has leaped onto kind of the remote work flexibility bandwagon. Millennials who were raised
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in a different way than a lot of the Baby boomers, right, and
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so you start to get a generation that they came out of college when there
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was a recession right in the two thousands, and so concerned about job stability,
5:23
concerned about promotions. I've read that that millennials will change jobs every or
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three years, which is vastly different than some of the older generations, like
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the Baby Boomers that value staying in a role for twenty thirty forty years and
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sort of getting that gold watch, you know, that that stereotype. And
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so you start to get into, you know, a generation that really values
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work life balance. They're looking for wellness. PTO plans become very important and
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a much stronger important on the value of work and what they're doing. And
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I think you really see that in gen Z, right, and gen Z
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is a very young generation and a lot of times as a Gen X.
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You know, you can sort of look back at those movies, right that
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we saw in the eighties, and there was kind of a stereotype about Gen
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X that was, you know, not very sort of the slackers, right,
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not very hardworking, and actually you find that Gen X workers are actually
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extremely hard working. And so I guess I point that out that Gen Z
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is a very new generation to the workforce, and so we might have stereotypes
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about them, but you know, they haven't been in the workforce for that
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long, and so we might find over the years that some defining characteristics of
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gen Z come out and they're not a parent yet. Yeah, that's a
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great Yeah, totally. I think you know, I think all of a
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sudden, the call are in that closer to that end of the spectrum.
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You know, we've opened in the workforce for some time, and like you
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said, having that understanding and so that's something we want to get into where
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their potential conflict, they're plighting in ways things are done or like understanding and
7:15
what motivates us. But yeah, so just getting the stage. We all
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have this understanding of these kind of these different eras, if you will,
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generations that are in the workplace and how they how that's all coming together.
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So I'm excited to dig in a little bit more in there now that we're
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kind of a basic understanding of that. Curtis, maybe I'll just come to
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you next ye're in You know, Curtis, you're you're specializing in your your
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your euphore method and helping enhanced companies and so one of the things that you
7:45
you're always helping We've talked about previous episodes, how do you make this company
7:48
saleable? It's not dependent on the owner building that workforce, bringing the right
7:55
people into the organization. I mean, there's a whole host of things in
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there, Curtis, but i'd love to petive and some of the things you're
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seeing challenges right now that you know, the big challenges, all the different
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generally, all the different groups that Karen mentioned, and you know culture,
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culture is huge, and when you go to buy and sell companies, you
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know, every every company is the culture is different already, but now you
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bring in the twenties, the thirties, the forties, the fifties, the
8:33
sixties and seventies and even eighties. I mean, people look at things these
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kids, I say kids, I'll just say people. People look at things
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differently. They I mean, when you're young, guys, you you can
8:50
do almost anything. And then when you get older, you look at things
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differently, and so value changes. And with that, especially when it comes
9:01
to a merger, after we figure out what the price is going to be,
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then the next step is the culture and what's going to happen, Because
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what really happens is you have Company A that's buying out Company B, and
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Company B. They're all nervous because it's a buyout and everybody knows it,
9:24
and they go, oh, so what's going to happen to my job?
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It might not even exist, you might be gone. I mean, it's
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there's a lot of things that happened, and now you throw in the twenties
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and thirties, forties and citizens all all those age differences. Now it's it's
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really chaos. It's really quite interesting to actually be involved in it. I
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have no answers. Maybe I'll call Kara when I I think so, we're
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going to help me through that, because it really is uh, it's it's
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a it's a working for the for that watch is a thing of the past,
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a long time ago, and now what's really out there it's about it's
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about what I can get from the company and give to the company before I
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get traded. And I hate to say it like that, but the buyouts
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are going are going to come even faster now now so more than ever mm
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hmm. Yeah. And and we're going to do another episode for those listening
10:35
because with mergers and acquisitions and all that stuff. Both doxy And and Kara
10:39
have firsthand experience on that, and we're going to have a whole other episode
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specifically on that and the integration of that. But but to your point doxy
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and I'll come to your bill next here. But of you know, looking
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at this and in your company understanding you need a diversity of of of And
11:00
we're going to get a little bit more into the diverse workforce later, but
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like identifying you know, what motivates like who what motivates them Curtis to come
11:07
and stay, especially if you're getting bought out, are they going to stay
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around in the buyout process? They're gonna leave with what's keeping them there?
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Bill? Could you just speak to a little bit about your your experience are
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talking about motivations and car uh Karat talked a little bit about this, but
11:22
kind of motivations and the and and this the challenges here in this workforce as
11:26
you're understanding and learning at like what motivates these different folks as you're leading helping
11:31
lead people, and the ethics definitely comes up right ethics and values, you
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know, yeah, we'll leach of the generations. You know, the generational
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groups anyway do value vastly different things, Like like Karat said, uh,
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you know, the the boomers, uh, you know sawce stability as the
11:54
big thing, whereas the the gen z, the millennials are more about finding
12:03
the best fit. You know, nowadays, a lot of a lot of
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new workers, a lot of established workers are looking at what does the company
12:15
provide not just for me, but for the community at large? And uh,
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they're looking for for companies that that have that that ethical standpoint where they
12:26
where they aren't just about the bottom the single bottom line. They're more about
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that triple bottom line and uh where where what can we get for our stakeholders,
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what can we get for our community, what can we get for the
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world at large? And uh, you know, so that's becoming more and
12:43
more important, especially more important than, as Doc set said, more important
12:48
than the goal watch, you know. And you know because a lot of
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a lot of people, a lot of workers now especially from the from the
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millennials, are looking at having to provide for their own retirement. They're they're
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not relying on the companies they work for or the government to to provide for
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them in their old age, certainly not looking for children to provide for them
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in their old age. You know. So that's that's really the first time
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that we've seen that in a in a generation, that that we're not looking
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at others to to support us. We we have to make these plans for
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ourselves and and uh, you know so so yeah, so definitely some vastly
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different ways of thinking between the between the generations. Uh. And I think
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you know, and I'll open this up just kind of observations. You were
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talking about some of the challenges I'm seeing in this, and if you're in
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a leadership role, it's it's very you know, it's one thing to be
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on the other end, but if you're in a leadership role considering this And
13:56
one thing I've not noted recently here in Southern California. I think this is
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not just unique Southern California, but I've seen police, police departments, public
14:07
service having difficulty recruiting people because historically, like you're saying, Curtis, you'd
14:13
work with a public agency for twenty five thirty years, get a pension right,
14:20
and your your your set and that that people are not that generations coming
14:24
in are not looking at that that way. So it's very hard as a
14:30
public agency than to attract and retain individuals that they once used to have that
14:37
clear and now they're they're they're really struggling how do we do this? And
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I've seen some different strategies in compensation and workforce, and we're going to talk
14:46
a little bit more about strategies for kind of effectively managing or even attracting that
14:52
workforce. So just you know, comments or other observations you guys mean,
14:56
care out just thought to you first, maybe, but just other observations you
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guys are seeing right now the real time that are happening in our in our
15:03
in the work workplace. Let me let me just jump in real quick and
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tell you what I've seen over the years. There are a lot of people
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that are that are leading corporate jobs and leading these other you know, thirty
15:20
forty years to a company and get a watch to become an entrepreneur. They
15:26
they're tired of the corporate culture. And I don't mean that as a negative,
15:33
but I do I do know that there's a lot of people that the
15:37
latter was shall we say, knocked down from them, and so they just
15:43
made a sideways change and decided to be an entrepreneur. So think so,
15:46
I think what's happening, and that's a good thing in my opinion, because
15:52
now we're bringing in more the brighter minds in the into the workforce of an
15:56
entrepreneur, and things are things are actually changed in that regard. And what's
16:02
really fascinating is my future son in law. He had an excellent job in
16:10
the aerospace and he quit to open up his own company. And I guess
16:15
I shouldn't have nibbled in his ear told him, told him to do that,
16:21
but he's really motivated to do that. So I mean, and he's
16:25
twenty you know, he's in his twenty twenty seven. So I think that
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what used to be the golden rules, so to speak, has changed dramatically.
16:36
I think that it's changed. Kara, What do you think about that?
16:40
Yeah, I absolutely agree with that for sure. And one thing I
16:44
think, you know, one thing that comes to mind is really needing to
16:48
flex right and needing to be flexible because we look at you know, maybe
16:56
workers who are the age of your future son in law or maybe a few
17:00
years younger and gen z is I mean diversity and it's not there. That's
17:07
such a huge issue in terms of having really solid and progressive diversity and inclusion
17:12
programs, sustainability, those types of values are so important and really drive that
17:19
generation. And then you know, you have sort of who would be in
17:25
a traditional corporate structure, who is generally the ones that are in charge right
17:30
and making decisions around you know, things that drive engagement, policies, procedures,
17:36
compensation packages, bonus payouts, all of those types of structures. Probably
17:41
people would be in more of the baby boomer or perhaps traditionalist or maybe you
17:48
know, older Gen X generations. And definitely with baby boomers and older you
17:55
know, you have people that very much value that traditional corporate structure, the
17:59
true traditional packages, you know, and and there's really a disconnect. And
18:06
so I see this drive for millennials and younger to really go back, go
18:11
out and chart their own way. I definitely have hear heard a lot when
18:18
I work with staff that there's there's a perception too that sort of what it's
18:26
like for them now at their age, in terms of being able to buy
18:29
a house, particularly in urban areas that are very high, very expensive with
18:33
a lot of inflation. It's it's a totally it's a different world. People
18:38
starting out thinking about potentially having children, you know, doing what someone did
18:44
thirty or forty years ago, that's at the tail end of their career.
18:47
It looks completely different now, right, And so that will motivate people in
18:52
terms of who they want to work for, why they want to work there,
18:55
stuff about like Bill, Bill was saying, you know, so I
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absolutely see that that there's a a real push away from the traditional corporate structure
19:04
with a lot of these younger generations. Yeah, I think I think that's
19:08
definitely being a big one. I threw I threw up what you're talking,
19:11
Curtis, but I'll just say, because people didn't hear, but this is
19:12
a great book I read a few years ago by Michael Hye and Entrepreneurs will
19:17
Save the World. Uh. But the fact that we need more entrepreneurs because
19:21
the reality is, like you were talking about, Bill, is like nobody
19:22
else is going to come save you. We kind of thought that the you
19:26
know, the company was the government was going to save us. If there
19:29
was going to be something. I've worked for small companies, for large companies.
19:32
There's always volatility, there's gonna be some changes in there. So I
19:34
do see a move in the marketplace. Doc see it, and Carr and
19:38
I are actually part of that too. We've we've left corporate America, if
19:41
you will, quote quote unquote like setting up our own, our own,
19:45
our own shop and and honestly, as we all know, as business owners.
19:49
The ability to generate wealth in an impact candidly is that is exponential on
19:56
your own as opposed to when you're working as an employee. Not a bad
19:59
thing out of employee, but you know, if you can get there,
20:03
now, that's just the challenge. It's a challenge. It's it's it's it's
20:07
not for everybody. It's kind of crazy. Uh, if you will,
20:10
but you know, I think in that or or I would say, if
20:14
you can maybe find a place where you can be what I say, entrepreneur,
20:17
where you're in a unique position within a company, But that doesn't that
20:21
depends on you know, generation, experience. There's a lot of things in
20:23
there. So so yeah, there's a lot of challenges in here. And
20:30
I mean there's probably can go into quite a few. I mean, the
20:32
other one that came to mind is we're talking and sharing here too. Is
20:34
like just the thing how things are evolving and moving so quickly. It's just
20:41
our you know, technologies are changing. Communication. Communication has been one for
20:47
sure that I've seen a challenge with a lot of the younger generations don't like
20:52
to pick up the phone and talk on the phone. They'd rather do an
20:56
electronic form of communication. It's just interesting to see what the preffer inceans and
21:00
how we communicate and collaborate. And there is so many ways to collaborate nowadays.
21:07
I mean, I mean, Karen and I just got on we were
21:08
messaging, and we just happened to get an Facebook messenger call earlier because we
21:12
wanted to collaborate, which because it happened to be we're in that moment of
21:15
collaboration. We could have been TechEd. Just but being knowing that, you
21:21
if you're rigid in certain ways, it's going to be challenging to bridge the
21:25
gap with these different generations. You know, the rigidness, and I want
21:30
to you know, and I'm seeing a little bit about that. This the
21:33
one I see candidly right now in our is that you mentioned a little bit
21:40
care about this whole workforce remote workforce issue. You've got companies swinging both ways,
21:45
everybody back to the office five days a week. This is the way
21:48
it needs to be. There's a generation that really values that being in the
21:52
office, being seen or doing work, and then you have other generations like
21:56
why do I have to be in the office and be seen or there's nobody
22:00
else in the office that I'm collaborating with Uh, so what what purpose is
22:04
that? You know? So these are some real challenges and maybe we'll get
22:11
into a few more, but I want to I want to transition a little
22:12
bit into some solutions, particularly those are listening to this, whether you're a
22:17
business owner or a leader, we want to give you some real world answers
22:22
hopefully or suggestions that you can apply to yourself and how you're managing a team.
22:27
Hopefully you have a management team or a leadership team that's open to exploring
22:32
some of these uh strategies. Uh, we're effectively managing these these different generations.
22:41
And so Bill, if it don't mind put you on on on the
22:44
spot a little bit here, but I think just you know, considering you
22:47
know, these different generations and some things we should consider. You know,
22:52
you could just give one or two if you want, But you know,
22:53
how can we maybe improve the communication or just make it like car is talking
22:57
about inclusive or inclusiveivity and our policies, our procedures. Just what's what are
23:03
some thoughts there from from you? Bill? Well, we we've talked about
23:08
improving communication before and UH, and just how difficult that is to do because
23:15
you can't improve something that you cannot measure. And so you know, how
23:19
many communications can I can I do better on it's it's it would send the
23:26
it would send the grammar check into uh into overdrive just reading that sentence.
23:32
UH. But you know, obviously what we need, what each generation needs
23:38
to do, is learn about how the other generations communicate, especially those that
23:45
are in their offices, those they have to communicate with. Newer generations tend
23:49
to prefer electronic you know, Alexander Graham Bell called, he wants to know
23:55
why we went back to the telegraph, you know, text messaging and UH
24:00
and other forms of messenger like messenger and UH, you know, and slack
24:07
and UH and what all else there is now that I've probably already fallen behind
24:11
on. Uh. Style of communication is also is also important. The newer
24:18
generations, the gen Z especially, likes to likes to talk, and likes
24:25
to communicate in ways that would that would fry your average grammar checker. They
24:30
don't they don't necessarily spell words out, They use numbers in place of letters.
24:37
They use a lot of emojis, you know, and that can be
24:41
confusing, especially if you'll go all the way back to to a boomer having
24:45
to communicate with them. You know, it's it's bad enough being a genets
24:51
are trying to deal with that. But you know, but and vice versa
24:56
too. You know, baby boomers per or face to face communication. They
25:03
talk on the phone and they use complete sentences. So the newer generations have
25:08
to understand that and uh and have to learn how to communicate with that.
25:15
And one of the best best ways I've learned to uh to accomplish that is
25:19
to establish mentorship programs, you know, mhm, get the get the generations
25:26
together, not not like that like that air people up, you know,
25:33
run classes. You know obviously if you if you have actual classes, you're
25:38
gonna have to uh figure out how to do it in ways that the people
25:42
that the people of the different generations are going to pay attention in those classes,
25:47
you know, uh, you know, live for for the older generations
25:52
and uh and uh on demand for the newer generations. But uh you know,
25:59
uh yeah, yeah, definitely definitely have found mentorship is a is a
26:06
great way to go on getting that getting over that hur And if if you
26:11
don't have and this is the thing too, an important thing as we have
26:14
this podcast here, is if you don't have somebody in the organization that is
26:18
really is in a place to be a mentor. I mean you have Oftentimes
26:22
I find companies have people that want to be mentored, they just don't have
26:26
enough mentors candidly to pour into them. That's why you can hire a consultant.
26:30
That's why we're all here. You reach out, reach out to HOLP.
26:33
We can be augmenting your look. Look it doesn't an FBS, but
26:37
you guys can talk with us. We're here to help answer your questions and
26:40
see if it's a good fit. Uh. Karen and I were just talking
26:42
about that today. But another potential client that she has like, hey,
26:45
how can I help you? What I understand? We're always constantly evaluating and
26:48
seeing how we can assist them in and use modern tools today. That's why
26:55
I'm just speaking, uh Gret for you and I certified giant guys. The
26:57
reason why we have these we're with these different and I'm with with the wake
27:03
Up Boy or two. We want to curate the tools and the resource to
27:06
help folks make impact as quickly as possible. But Caer, I know you
27:11
have so much experience in this area. I'd love to get your thoughts on
27:15
some of these effective management strategies. Oh yeah, they're so I think there's
27:19
so many. I love. The one thing that I would really say that's
27:23
the effective management strategy is the mentoring and the and the pairing up people,
27:30
and that can be really, really effective. So I really love Bill's suggestion
27:34
there. I think another thing too that's important is really knowing yourself, right,
27:41
So all of us as leaders, really knowing ourselves, knowing where our
27:45
bias is, because you know, you will all of these ideas about generations
27:52
are stereotypes, right, and so you might have that thirty year old that
27:57
is a technophobe for whatever reason, right, and they just hate technology and
28:03
they don't have some of the characteristics of their generation, just like you might
28:07
have someone who is in their late sixties but you know, really loves technology
28:12
and is an early adapter and actually is very very into those types of modality.
28:19
So I guess that's one thing too, is making sure to for all
28:23
of our teams, really make sure that people are trained on unconscious bias because
28:29
intergenerational conflict, that is the area. We might think it's gender, we
28:33
might think it's different nationalities, religion, but actually the most workplace conflict arises
28:41
in teams from different generations, So it really is an important thing. I
28:47
think. The other thing I just wanted to touch on too, as I
28:49
think about sort of the generational change that's going to be happening here and all
28:56
of the Baby Boomers over the time that will be retiring and that might be
29:00
in leadership roles now, and then you have gen X that is half the
29:03
size of the baby Boomer generation. Baby Boomer is about eighty million people,
29:10
there's about forty million Gen X, which means that you're going to have people
29:15
that need to scale up very quickly, and they're not going to have the
29:18
same type of perhaps career trajectory that people did in previous generations where they work
29:26
their way up over ten, fifteen, twenty years. They're going to be
29:30
asked to step up earlier than that, right, And so that's really where
29:34
mentoring programs, I think, leadership development trainings, all of those types of
29:41
tools to really purposely make sure that people have the skills to backfill because I
29:49
think that's going to be a really great challenge that a lot of leaders and
29:53
business owners are probably facing that they just don't they just I think they just
30:00
don't have the leaders to actually backfill positions. That is certainly something that we're
30:07
going to be looking at. That's a great perspective, Cara, because I
30:11
know and Doxy, this is something I know you're working with. Is if
30:14
you're a business owner, you're looking to sell your firm in the next five,
30:17
ten years or something, Let's just say, if you don't have the
30:19
team there, how valuable is that company? Right? If you don't have
30:23
the key players and you're trying to sell this company, you're like, yeah,
30:29
right, Taras said something there that is these baby boomers and the people
30:36
that lead some of these companies, they're actually quite nervous about what's going to
30:42
happen because of that gap. And you know, every group, every generation
30:52
seems to think that they do more than the other, you know, so
30:56
to speak. But the baby boomers, they they have actually taken our economy
31:03
to new levels, levels that we've never seen before, and now they're kind
31:11
of nervous and who's going to take it over? And you hit it,
31:17
David when you said, you know, that's what I teach and that's what
31:21
I actually consult and coach and so forth, is to who's going to be
31:26
that next president's CEO. I Car was spot on. I mean, it's
31:33
it's going to be some challenging times ahead of us, for sure. Yeah,
31:37
I'm seeing it at least in our industry. Car and I've come from
31:41
I'm literally seeing with some fairly decent sized firms. I've seen them made.
31:45
The change was getting some gen xers, if you will, into those leadership
31:48
positions late forties, probably early fifties. Like I said, that typically means
31:52
it, and they're becoming CEO president of a firm that's been around for thirty
31:56
plus years, let's just say, which typically made I mean that would have
32:00
happened as sooner, but I think that there's a need to move. Like
32:02
you said, we're literally seeing this right now now. A couple of firms
32:07
I've seen they've had people at that firm for ten, fifteen plus year.
32:09
They're very fortunate they've had somebody stay with the firm that can grow, and
32:13
not all firms have that. Are the fortunate to have that, and people
32:17
then depart for other opportunities, and then you've got to bring somebody else in
32:21
neew and that goes back to what you said, Docy earlier too. Culture,
32:24
right, if you're bringing somebody from an outside into this organization, it's
32:30
not just the generational thing, it's the culture, just the company culture.
32:34
We again, Karen, we talked about this a bit before off, not
32:37
on the podcast, but you know, just the challenges of that, it's
32:44
very difficult. So you know, as we look at strategies for effective management,
32:51
and I think these are these are really key times right now to figure
32:54
out how you're going to navigate this and depending on your where you're at,
33:00
your in your business cycle or what you know, what where where are you
33:04
where the generations? I mean, you know, it's it's it's just a
33:07
very interesting time. You know, where are you bringing these people in?
33:10
Because you know now you have, uh, at least in California, we
33:15
have like you know, with the with the minimum wage going up and other
33:19
things. You're trying to attract different generations, if you will, to the
33:22
workforce, you know, with the food industry and other things. And it's
33:25
it's it's it's just very interesting to see again what motivates them because sometimes it's
33:30
not just it's not just money, it's it's really more lifestyle. You know,
33:36
you know, it's like Okay, it's still you try to get the
33:38
more money and you're like, Nah, that's not really what I'm looking for.
33:40
I'm looking for more flexibility or like Billy, you're saying, is like
33:45
what I'm actually contributing to what's the vision or mission there? So it's not
33:50
a one of right, Yeah, the values, the value that I think
33:55
another thing that is going to become more and more important than I It kind
34:00
of ties into a lot of what we're saying is really having a solid formal
34:04
career development program where there is a very clearly articulated pathway for people to advance.
34:12
Because there is also a real sense a lot of with the younger generations.
34:17
And I think this is kind of a stereotype, right, sort of
34:21
the the immediacy aspect, you know, and I think we all have heard
34:23
anecdotally of that, you know, young employee who's been in there for six
34:28
months and wants to promotions during that time, and that is a stereotype,
34:32
but that actually does happen so in terms of retention and attracting employees, having
34:39
a very solid career development program where you can actually show a potential employee the
34:45
pathways that they can take. For advancement I think is very is very important
34:52
too. Yeah, yeah, and I really, I really think you're right,
34:59
Carol, the on the flexibility part of it. You know, it
35:02
can't just be the stair step. Here's your one pathway up to greatness.
35:08
You know, there's got there has to be choices. There have to be
35:12
choices and and allowed, even if they're only superficial choices. If if I
35:19
might might borrow an idea from the matrix. But but yeah, because it's
35:27
it's all about the flexibility. That's why people leave their jobs for new jobs
35:31
or leave their the corporate situation. For the entrepreneurship situation is because they want
35:39
control of their own their own lives. Yes, I would be curious,
35:46
honestly, and maybe this is porpodox here our Carara, because it gets again,
35:52
I like the pathway, Kara, And I know every business faces some
35:57
challenge like if they want to be sold, but again an ownership or how
36:00
do we do that and structure that so if there's you know, if you
36:04
can keep people in a good way, like offering them some incentive to you
36:07
know, be part owner or shares or you know, keeping Some revenue models
36:13
are being very specific about how you're doing that. Again, there's particularly Curtius
36:19
or or or care of this, because I think that I think you're gonna
36:22
have to come up with some different strategies to keep it retained. People.
36:25
Yeah, David, you're you're You're right. And Bill touched on, of
36:30
course, carved too about flexibility and I like that word because people are people
36:38
are getting smarter and you can't intimidate me by fear anymore. I mean,
36:45
it used to be back today that the baby booger said, you know,
36:50
if you know, if you don't, if you don't do x y z,
36:52
I'm gonna fire. Okay, I'm gonna do x y Z. We're
36:55
smarter than that. I mean, we're getting smarter, more intelligent. I'm
37:01
hoping as a whole that everybody agrees with that. But I like that idea
37:07
of flexibility because there's not there's not one direct path. There should be a
37:12
path for those that maybe didn't go to college, those that do, you
37:17
know, whatever that might be. You should have that straight you know,
37:22
not straight, but that flexibility to get you know, to climb the corporate
37:25
ladder. I like that, right, I mean some people, and this
37:30
is where it throws a wrench in not a bad way. It just like
37:34
some people like I would rather have more time off than more pay or getting
37:37
you know, bonuses. It's like, how do you make how can you
37:38
work the business to allow for that? So then it's like you're not getting
37:43
people people special treatment, but it's like, hey, these are the incentive.
37:45
How can we be flexible, Carol, like you're saying, because if
37:49
we're super rigid and we're trying to apply this to all these generations, it's
37:52
just this is this the way it is? Like you said, Doxy,
37:54
I don't I think that that's going away as people get more aware and they
38:00
start talking, I mean, go on the internet, start looking. You
38:01
can find a lot of different things to compare, you know. So,
38:07
uh, the last part I want to just touch on here as we're you
38:10
know, coming is I want to just focus on you know, we talked
38:14
about effective management, but let's let's talk about how we leverage these different generations
38:17
as we understand them and help in the stuff earth workforce. So as we
38:22
talk about and we can talk about a specific generation that'd be great, but
38:25
you know, or but just how do we leverage these things, cause they're
38:30
all good there's good and bad on both sides we talked about, but let's
38:34
look at like focusing on the good aspects, the things that we as business
38:37
owners or leaders can leverage from these different generations. And maybe Carol, I'll
38:44
start with you first, but just kind of like, as you've seen these
38:46
different generations and experience them, what do you would you say? And if
38:50
you want to pick one or you can, I'll leave it to you.
38:52
But what would you say is like, hey, here's something you should consider.
38:54
Don't just throw this out. Like you mentioned earlier, like Gen x's
38:58
are really hard workers, So how can we leverage that? You know?
39:00
Yeah, no, I think that's a great it's a great point. So
39:05
I would say, you know, definitely going in and really looking at the
39:12
strengths of each of the generations, and you know, with with like say,
39:15
let's say baby boomers, the really vast amount of experience, right,
39:21
the technical expertise, just the years and years of just excellent experience, making
39:30
sure to leverage that that generation in terms of what they know, and also
39:37
putting them in positions where they're able to effectively mentor and teach other generations so
39:44
that the knowledge that they have is being passed down to other people. I
39:50
think in terms of some of the other generations, you know, with gen
39:52
X, you have is a pretty flexible workforce in terms of very independent,
39:58
really kind of able to work in lot of different ways. Uh, Millennials
40:02
really looking for you know, really looking for values natural connectors, right,
40:12
much more comfortable with more more communication, right, so more constant communication,
40:19
So really making sure to to plug in millennials as uh connectors, I guess
40:24
potentially, and gen Z. So there's a there's a lot of different things
40:28
I think that you can do to to really leverage people's strengths, right,
40:34
So you know, having a younger generation be uh buddy to someone who's an
40:38
older general in an older generation that's perhaps struggling with technology, but then having
40:44
the reverse where that person you know, leverages their you know, expertise and
40:50
skill set and is mentoring that that younger, younger person. So those are
40:57
just some of the things that I've I've thought of there. I appreciate.
41:00
Yeah, that's some great ideas. As you were saying that I'm getting the
41:06
older generation now, but I'm like a tech techie early adopter. So it's
41:09
kind of funny, Kara, you can't do stereotypes too, because sometimes oftentimes
41:14
I'm helping the twenty somethings like, oh, how do you do that?
41:16
Where that again? Where that is that again? Because again it's this older
41:20
generation. If you've been using you know, Microsoft Office, that's been around
41:22
for decades, So we know these things and they're coming into the workforce learning
41:28
that particular tool or resource. So the thing is important, like you said,
41:31
don't just stereotype, but recognize that. You know, there's where we
41:37
have interest in our experiences a lie, you know, finding what what what
41:43
that is for each individual as well as the generation. Bill, I want
41:46
to throw it to you here, just some thoughts on how do we leverage
41:50
this diverse workforce. Well, I think I think Kara kind of hit the
41:55
hit the nail on all the heads. But but yeah, it goes both
42:02
directions because, uh, you know, obviously you do want to leverage the
42:07
the experience, the the know how of the older generations, but there's also
42:13
the excitement for the new and the digital fluency if you will, of of
42:19
the younger generations, and that that can be very valuable. You know,
42:23
the excitement to learn new things, the openness to uh learning, the new
42:29
is definitely something to be leveraged from the younger generations and mentor teams can go
42:35
both ways as far as uh as far as the learning and really should.
42:39
If it's not going then both ways and you've probably miss mismatched the pair.
42:45
But but yeah, yeah, there's there's so many ways to to leverage that
42:52
because everybody brings something unique to the situation. You know, the that flex
43:00
ability is something that the new that the younger generations I have adapted quickly to
43:06
and and the older generations I think need to need to learn from that.
43:12
Mm hmm. Yeah, I would say just to tag onto that. You
43:15
know. One of the great ways I find being able to leverage this or
43:21
is in in the industry I work with it, or this really could ply
43:24
anyone. But if you can find a workshops seminars that are industry specific,
43:31
so I was at the Desert Course Symposium a couple of weeks ago. There's
43:36
different ones where you get interest and bring those generations together and share ideas and
43:39
create a container and experience. I think that's the way you can definitely leverage
43:43
it, making it inviting to all generations and creating a space in a safe
43:50
space that you say, hey, let's hear from these different voices and understand
43:52
them, because you're gonna get a lot. You will create feedback, but
43:55
you have to be intentional about that. That's what I found you doesn't generally
43:59
just happen on own. It's creating a space and a container for it,
44:05
kind of like you said earlier about mentorship or creating some kind of forum or
44:10
a way that you can get that. Because if I feel like, if
44:15
it doesn't matter what generation is, but they feel heard and they feel like
44:17
they have the opportunity to share, then you have the opportunity actually for growth,
44:21
innovation, adapting. But if you're not creating that intentionally, then you're
44:28
missing out on diversifying and getting the leverage the diversity, workspace, workforce.
44:34
And in fact, I kind of talked a little bit about this and as
44:37
those of you that maybe you don't know, I have another podcast Intelligent Human
44:40
Leadership, and I just talked about this about kind of ego and growth and
44:45
sometimes how our ego gets in the way and we know it all or we
44:47
just kind of get risks, we don't want to mess with anything. And
44:50
so for me anyways, personally, it's like when I can get my ego
44:53
out of the way enough and like I don't have to know everything, I
44:58
don't have to have it all together. I can actually leverage this workforce and
45:01
allow them to speak into my life, speak into where they're at, what's
45:06
going on. And so as we kind of wrap it up, I just
45:08
want to give you guys an opportunity and I'll come back to you Care and
45:13
then Bill, but just just kind of thinking about you know, as we've
45:15
been we've all got to work in this in generally some workforce for us we've
45:20
been had probably a couple of decades at least, But just to encourage those
45:23
that are listening, you know, positive action that they can take of course
45:28
that you guys have, yep, that they can take in as a leader,
45:34
leading themselves and leading others, Just to take advantage of that and make
45:37
the most of this dynamic workforce in right now, Care, I'll just throw
45:42
it to you and then come back to Bill and we'll wrap up our podcast
45:45
for the night. Well, I think you know one thing that I think
45:49
would be really helpful with when working with teams, working with intergenerational teams,
45:55
is really doing some exercises where you create commonality, right, and maybe share
46:01
personal histories, really recognize that you know, people have the same experiences,
46:08
right, or or create opportunities where people learn about each other and form that
46:15
personal relationship and create trust. And I think that really helps us move beyond
46:22
biases and move beyond stereotypes that we might have about someone that's in a different
46:28
generation. So that I think is a real easy way to really incorporate those
46:31
icebreakers, those personal history exercises, working with those teams. That's so,
46:37
that's great hare And again that's in something intentional. So if you're not doing
46:40
that currently, I love that, Cara. You know it's worth the investment,
46:45
like you're saying, over time, it'll pay dividends. And sometimes why
46:49
I didn't need to do an icebreaker? Why didn't need a little more?
46:51
Right? It will help you And like you're saying, we're telling you firsthand
46:55
and if you're not sure which icebreaker, how to do it and then reach
46:58
out to care are my so Bill, we'd love to help you. So,
47:00
Bill, what final thoughts here as we're wrapping up, I'd say,
47:07
in addition to to what Kara suggested, I'd say, put more effort into
47:15
into learning about the different communications styles of the different generations. Find out how
47:21
they communicate so that you can communicate with them, you know, and always
47:25
remember the old saying, if it's going to be it's up to me,
47:29
And so if there's going to be communication between generations, it's it's up to
47:34
me to make that happen. Yeah, absolutely, so, yeah, it's
47:37
all up. Each one of us gets the opportunity to lead and starts with
47:42
ourselves, and I appreciate that. Bill, I'm grateful for each of you
47:45
sharing we docs. You had to hop off, so we were great to
47:49
have his conversation in contributions Tonight, we'll be coming back with more topics.
47:54
You heard us talk about acquisitions and mergers and all sorts of things regarding business
47:59
owners face. So if you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a like,
48:05
drop a comment in there. We appreciate it. We're on all the
48:07
podcasting platforms, also on YouTube, and we will look forward to having you
48:14
back next time. Thank you, Bill Karra. Until our next podcast,
48:17
have a great night. Thank to so much. Thanks