The Guru Nation Blog

The challenge for most leaders in managing generational workforces is actually in comprehending the expectations of each of the four generations currently in the workforce. Tammy Erickson, when she wrote Workforce Crisis, did stunning research to identify not only the value system of each generation but also how those values play out in the workplace. Inside a Fortune 500 company, managing generational workforces means understanding and responding to Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y as distinct groups. Leadership and motivation around each group cannot look the same.

For the purposes on understanding how we manage generational workforces, let’s “dig down” into the values and expectations of one group as an example. Looking at the portrait of the mid-career worker, we see a segment of people born between 1951 and 1970, most of the Boomer generation and the older part of Gen X. These mid-career players see big picture, are sparked to do something meaningful in their lives, and will work to embrace the hope and vision of their organization. They are self-reliant, ambitious, competitive, expecting clear rules of performance measurement. On whole, this group breaks rules, experiments on many levels, demands participative management, and values horizontal vs. hierarchical organizations.

When it comes to managing generational workforces, the organization can be addressing the management challenge of this generational group by instituting fresh training and development, creating mentoring and knowledge sharing programs, advocating job-swaps inside the company, offering sabbaticals, and providing career-change options. The challenge for organizations is to recognize the talents of each generational co-hort and respond in a newly imagined way. Ms. Erickson can help.

Tamara Erickson -
“Generations Together - The Next Challenge”