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Leadership Lounge: Generation Collaboration: How Leaders Can Harness the Power of Multi-Generational Teams
00:18:20
Today, leaders are working side-by-side with up to five different generations. This creates both significant challenges and unique opportunities for building cohesive, high-performing teams. In this episode of Leadership Lounge, we talk to three o...
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- [00:00]
Michelle Meeon
Foreign.
- [00:08]
Emma Coombe
Welcome to the Leadership Lounge, a place to kick back and listen as our experts dissect some of the biggest questions leaders face today. I'm Emma Coombe, Leadership Advisor in our London office. Today's workforce is unique. Leaders are working side by side with up to five different generations. This, this creates both challenges and opportunities for those seeking to build cohesive high performing teams. So as a leader, how can you successfully lead across generations? In this episode we'll tackle how you can break down generational silos and enhance knowledge sharing while ensuring that emerging leaders don't become over reliant on AI. But before we dive in, remember to share any burning questions you want our experts to answer by emailing redefinersusslerynolds.com and if you enjoy listening to our episodes, leave us a five star review on Apple or Spotify. So let's dive in. First up, we'd like to welcome Kat Armstrong, Leadership advisor in Russell Reynolds Associates Boston office into the conversation. Kat, welcome to the Leadership Lounge.
- [01:12]
Kat Armstrong
Thank you Emma. I'm delighted to be here.
- [01:14]
Emma Coombe
Kat. When it comes to leading across generations, the behaviors leaders model can make all the difference. What specific leadership behaviours have you seen successfully foster truly inclusive multigenerational teen cultures?
- [01:27]
Kat Armstrong
Thank you Emma. That's such a great question and I would say from the clients that I've worked with, one of the kind of first and most important points that we often hear come up is the importance of really cultivating open dialogue by really encouraging idea sharing. And I think there's a couple different kind of pieces to that. One is how leaders can create a culture where feedback is really encouraged and shared openly and really in the moment. And as I think we've seen probably in all sorts of different organizational environments that goes both up and down and really thinking through how leaders can promote active listening and kind of model the way that they demonstrate empathy to understand and kind of welcome different perspectives. I think as we look at different competencies for leadership, curiosity is one of the competencies here which often kind of rises to the fore. Something that can spike as a particular strength in terms of kind of this dynamic around encouraging collaboration across generations and the ways that that can enhance productivity.
- [02:25]
Emma Coombe
Being curious is so important. In fact, our recent research identified that curiosity is one of four critical skills leaders need to succeed and realize their potential in today's fast changing and volatile world. When working across generations, it's also important to not be afraid of having your ideas challenged. High performing leaders are the ones who will light up when their assumptions are tested. Rather than feeling like they need to defend their positions, we'd now like to bring our second guest into the conversation. Paco Ruiz Mazar, leadership advisor at Russell Reynolds Associates, Mexico City office. Paco, welcome to the leadership lounge.
- [03:03]
Paco Ruiz Mazar
Well, thank you, Emma. Thanks for having me. I'm delighted to be here.
- [03:06]
Emma Coombe
So, Paco, I just touched on the importance of curiosity when working across generations. But having productive conflict is also key. How can leaders effectively manage conflicts that arise from generational differences?
- [03:19]
Paco Ruiz Mazar
I think you put it very well. It's managing conflict, not avoiding conflict. I think an adequately managed conflict dispute or conversation can be highly productive, can be enlightening to both sides in the argument or the conversation. If we shift our focus to conflict resolution versus conflict avoidance, I think the richness of the conversation will inevitably arise. For that to happen, you gotta have two things you've gotta park formal hierarchies and seniorities. So it's not a top down conversation that does not come naturally, particularly in family enterprises. And the second is you got to have the channels. You got to assure that the channels are there, they're open, they're strong and they're fluid and work effectively.
- [04:05]
Emma Coombe
It's such an important distinction, Paco. Productive conflict is important, although I know for me personally I can find those situations really quite difficult sometimes. What I find fascinating is how this requires leaders to fundamentally shift their mindset from seeing disagreement as a threat to viewing it as an opportunity for innovation. And I think also the relationship between different generations can differ depending on cultures. In some cultures, as we all know, age is heavily linked to wisdom and the older generation is seen as having an authoritative voice and challenging. That really is not acceptable in terms of society, societal norms. In other cultures, leaders are more open to listening to the younger generation. I'd now like to turn back to you, Kat. It's critical that organizations look for approaches that build bridges between generations. But many fall short. What does effective cross generational knowledge sharing look like in practice? And how can leaders foster these exchanges?
- [05:03]
Kat Armstrong
I love that question, Emma. And I think we are seeing this emphasis on mentoring really rise to the fore in recent years. I think one of the ways that we find effective kind of cross generational mentoring or knowledge sharing really play out is how mentors can support and create a culture of continuous learning, can be, as I mentioned, really structured and tailored programs. I think we're seeing more and more of those with our clients. It can also just be through more informal mechanisms of storytelling and sharing, sessions, forums and workshops, and creating opportunities in a really proactive way where Team members can solve problems and innovate together. I can give you an example of a recent client that we've been working with who actually was an experienced CEO looking for a mentor from a very different industry who could help kind of push his thinking and challenge him in new directions. He'd been in role for six years and had worked with an executive coach, but was looking more for someone who had been in that role as CEO to really be able to kind of challenge his thinking and do and new in different areas from a completely different industry. And the feedback that we've gotten from both his executive mentor and from him as a mentee has been the amount that they've been able to learn from each other through that kind of continuous sharing. Coming from completely different sectors has really been eye opening and frankly pretty transformational for both of them. And I think that that's mentoring at its best.
- [06:22]
Emma Coombe
That's a powerful example of mentoring working both ways, Kat, where both parties come away from it having learned something. And this really highlights the value add that seasoned executives with lived experiences can bring to high potential leaders. In our highly popular executive mentoring program at Russell Reynolds, we see mentees benefit from wisdom in areas such as delicate stakeholder management, how to manage underperforming team members, and how to get the messaging right. But the mentors, who've often got way more experience under their belts, always come away feeling that they've also learned new perspectives, been exposed perhaps to new sectors. As you say, Kat, and so it's really additive for both sides. We'd now like to introduce our third guest, Michelle Meeon, leadership advisor in Russell Reynolds Associates Milan office, into the conversation. Michelle, welcome to the leadership lounge.
- [07:13]
Michelle Meeon
Thank you, Emma. It's a pleasure being here, Michelle.
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Emma Coombe
Building on Kat's earlier point about the importance of knowledge sharing across generations, what other approaches besides mentoring have you seen organizations implement to bridge generational divides?
- [07:27]
Michelle Meeon
I think nowadays it's important the leaders declare the fact that they don't have all the answers for all the problems. I mean, there are so many issues right now that people at the top cannot have all the answers. So it's fundamental that the entire organization feels authorized to share their views and perspectives because that's the only way to succeed. And one interesting way that some companies have found is to create these shadow boards. So yes, there is a board with the regular senior leaders, but there's also a parallel board that is composed of the younger generation, maybe young representatives of different company functions, and they act as an advisor to the more senior board. So it's interesting because this is a great way and tool to include different perspectives of the younger generations who may see things from a different perspective. So in this way you give visibility to the younger generation, you offer their perspective to their more senior leaders and you ensure that there is this covering the, let's say, the cross generational gap and you probably will come up with a more effective solution.
- [08:33]
Emma Coombe
I think shadow boards are a really interesting idea, Michelle. I've heard that in practice it is quite complex to try and replicate the activity of a board with a shadow board. But there are other forums, whether it's advisory forums, employee engagement forums that can pick up this kind of feedback that's so important. The other thing I recently learned was about Skip meetings where CEOs effectively skip one or two levels so they don't just talk to their direct reports or the level below that they actually skip into an organization to really get more of a view from a frontline workforce. Turning now to technology, our Global Leadership Monitor research found that 86% of leaders today have taken steps towards AI implementation. But there's a stark difference in where leaders are at. Some are only at the investigation stage, whereas others have advanced to the piloting stage. As AI's impact looms large, how can executives ensure that new emerging leaders don't become too reliant on the technology and neglect developing other core leadership skills?
- [09:33]
Michelle Meeon
First of all, it's important to state that expertise and judgment are still crucial, critical thinking is still crucial. And therefore when we think about AI, AI is not replacing our critical thinking. And therefore when engaging the new generation, we're preparing the new generation, we still have to make sure that there is a sort of mix and match, like still do the simpler task, the basic projects, the ones that set the foundations of every job and then enhance maybe the output with the AI. But AI is not replacing again our judgment and our expertise. When we think about the AI output, AI is giving us a result, but we need to challenge the result. Understanding what were the resources, the sources that were actually used, the assumptions behind AI, and only by challenging that we can make sure that the output is actually interesting and invaluable.
- [10:31]
Emma Coombe
I think that's exactly right, Michelle. And whilst of course automating a whole range of tasks drives efficiency, we have to make sure that for individuals going into roles requiring critical thinking, they put the building blocks in place so that they know how to question, analyse and synthesize what is presented to them. We must ensure that emerging leaders develop foundational critical thinking skills before they become too Dependent on AI generated insights. Let's not forget that when used correctly and for the right reasons, AI can be a huge competitive advantage. There are so many potential use cases for improvements across everything from strategy, operations, workflows to decision making. However, the issue at the moment is that so often the data sets aren't quite clean enough and so the next generation being really wary and mindful of that is is so important. And Michelle, different generations of leaders often have varying priorities and motivations that drive their commitment to an organization. What retention strategies have you found most effective for keeping high potential leaders engaged at different career stages?
- [11:39]
Michelle Meeon
First of all, retention strategy should probably be adapted according to the career stage at which people are. So for example, when you are at your earlier stage, leaders should think about existing, exposing the younger generation to senior stakeholders or settings where interesting decision making is done in order to expose them to this high level, let's say type of thinking and leaders. So expose them to stretch assignment, expose them to different company functions, ensure that they have a broad view of the organization. So this way you entreat them, you keep their interest up and they see what more they can learn inside an organization. To the experienced leaders, then it's a different phase. So they have experience, they have a good business judgment that they saw many things. It could actually be interesting to tailor some specific positions for them in order to honor their expertise. And maybe they could be perceived and conceived as advisors for the new generations because maybe they went some significant ups and downs in the industry or from an economic standpoint and they can give the proper advice to the new generation on on what should be done or what are the benefits or negatives about certain moves.
- [13:00]
Emma Coombe
That tailored approach is crucial. Michelle, I'd also like to explore how organizations can use flexible working in your view as a retention tool across generations. How do you see this playing out?
- [13:12]
Michelle Meeon
Flexible working is one of the benefits that still people ask for when they join a new company. Both younger leaders and let's say more seasoned expert leaders. After Covid, we saw everybody that was offering flexible working and smart working. Now with the economic uncertainties and situations that is getting pretty tough. Some of the leaders are going back to like four days per week in the office or five days per week because if they're not able to control outside, at least they want to control inside. But the truth is that when you have flexible working, it's important to ensure that you still deliver goals together in the most effective way. So how to use for example, the time that you spend in the office, if you come to the office, you have to offer an experience to the employees that it's valuable. That makes sense. For example, establish in person meetings in order to make sure that people exchange information in person and that at the same time they develop bonds and relationship that can help them be even more effective with their work outside of the office. Or you could think about having meetings where you have brainstorming sessions. It's difficult to generate new ideas or to come up with new solutions remotely, but once you're all together, ensuring that, for example, there are people from different functions, that would be the right moment and the right place to foster that type of exercise.
- [14:40]
Emma Coombe
Thank you, Michelle, for sharing those thoughts. And I have to say, personally, I feel really strongly about this, that actually, across a whole range of industries, being present in an office for by far the majority of a working week is absolutely critical. It's critical for apprenticeship, it's critical for collaboration, for efficiency, also for a sense of career progression, for learning from those around you. And Paco, I'd like to turn back to you for our final question in the lounge today. When working with leaders going through generational transitions, how do you help them navigate the tension between preserving their core legacy and embracing the innovation needed to evolve?
- [15:17]
Paco Ruiz Mazar
I think this is at the core of evolution within families and companies. How do you balance tradition, values, legacy? What has brought you to this day with change, innovation, disruption, forward thinking? They're not competing. On the contrary, if you do this effectively, you can get the best of both. Within family enterprises, this is crucial. The values, the legacy. It's what defines you, the culture, what sets you apart. It's at the core of the success of the family enterprise. But you've got to push yourself. You got to try to evolve, you got to innovate. I have a client of mine who's going through generational changes, and he was saying it's a lobster analogy. Lobsters need to shed their shell in order to grow. It's uncomfortable, yes, must be painful. But on the contrary, it does leave you vulnerable for a time while the new shell hardens. But it's fundamental. Otherwise you'll never grow, you'll never evolve.
- [16:20]
Emma Coombe
Totally agree. I love that lobster analogy, Paco. It perfectly captures the discomfort that's inherent in growth and change, but also how necessary it is. And right now we're at a fascinating moment in time. The world is moving faster and becoming more complex. And it's in these moments where we should appreciate the two ends of the generational spectrum more than ever. In my view, the younger generation can bring an insatiable amount of curiosity and tend to be much more adept at adopting new technology. But the older generation have more wisdom than any other. They have lived experience to know how to deal with a vast range of difficult stakeholders, different situations. And that's where I think, well, I hope that this episode seems been incredibly interesting for listeners. So our time in the lounge today has come to an end. In 30 seconds, this is what we've learned. Foster open dialogue and curiosity to build inclusive, multi generational cultures where feedback flows in all directions. Manage conflict constructively rather than avoiding it. Park hierarchies and create strong channels for productive generational exchanges. Implement innovative knowledge sharing systems like mentoring and skip meetings to bridge generational gaps. Ensure emerging leaders develop critical thinking skills alongside AI adoption, maintaining the human judgment that technology cannot replace if you have any topics or burning questions you'd like us to cover in future episodes of Leadership Lounge, then please get in touch. Email your questions to redefinersusslernolds.com and if you've enjoyed listening to this this episode, leave us a five star review on Apple or Spotify. You can find us on LinkedIn and follow us on X raonleadership. You can also find us on Instagram @Redefinerspodcast. And you can now subscribe to our YouTube channel. Until next time, goodbye.