At Kenneth Smit, we regularly write about the diverse generations within your company and how to deal with them. Whether it is the settled fifty-something or the millennial, they all have their own social norms, wishes, ambitions, and limitations.
In addition, however, something that receives very little attention is the fact that generations within your company can also learn a tremendous amount from each other and help each other advance.
Moreover, in this blog we focus on what the young can learn from the old, and what the old can learn from the young. It is your task as a manager to create a situation in which there is room to learn from each other.
What can 'young' learn from 'old'
Loyalty
Furthermore, older generations are accustomed to working for the same employer for years, if not decades. In good times and bad.
Moreover, younger generations decide to switch between companies and jobs much more quickly, not always with the desired consequences. Loyalty is not by definition boring or does not always mean stagnation.
Relativize
Therefore, older generations have a lot of experience and have already been through many situations. They are well able to put things in perspective and maintain calm. The younger generations, originally quite restless, can learn a lot from that ability to put things in perspective.
I'm sorry
As a result, career and personal choices do not always turn out well. Older generations, in particular, can teach young people a great deal about the feeling of regret when you make a choice that turns out not to be smart in hindsight. You learn an enormous amount from that. It is an experience that young people often do not yet know.
Organizations
Furthermore, within companies, older generations are often pure networkers. They invest in relationships and networking within the company and are very driven in doing so.
They are also social animals through and through. Younger generations are often more focused on their careers and personal goals, sometimes overlooking the fact that they actually see their colleagues more often than their friends, family, and boyfriend or girlfriend.
Responsibility
When you have a mortgage, perhaps children, or parents to support, you have a different sense of responsibility than when you have just left school. Older generations can teach young people a good sense of responsibility in life.
What can 'old' learn from 'young'
Technology
In short, perhaps a no-brainer, but no less important for that. Younger generations have grown up with new technology and can be of great help to the older generations, who are sometimes a bit clumsy, with this.
For example, bring young and old together to get started with technology, and wonderfully fun and educational conversations can arise.
Skimp
After all, as crazy as it sounds, many of the older generations in the Netherlands have experienced almost nothing but economic growth. Houses that have increased in value, the transition from the guilder to the euro, high savings rates.
Moreover, the younger generations have sometimes stayed at home for long periods because there was no work, struggle to buy a house, and had to weather the credit crisis at the beginning of their careers.
Incidentally, it could very well be that the younger generation has more experience with frugal saving than the older generations.
Take a risk
Just as older generations can teach young people a lot about loyalty, regretting wrong choices, and cherishing everything you have, young people can naturally counter that with a healthy dose of risk. Don't stick around for years in a job you really don't like.
Dare to switch. Dare to be a job hopper.
Balance & health
Ultimately, younger generations are more focused on sports, health, and balance than in the past. Those entering the workforce, in particular, often attach less importance to career and more importance to a healthy work-life balance.
Consequently, more and more young people are deciding to work part-time, for example. Older generations, especially the group that grew up during the rise of materialism, can learn a great deal from this.