Human beings love to categorise, don’t they? When we talk about generations, we are usually referring to our family, who fits where and how we can trace them back. Or we use it to complain about their music. When marketeers talk about generations, they mean people grouped together sharing birth years spanning 15-20 years who display certain common characteristics. Based on the work of Neil Howe and William Strauss, the Generations help us understand people’s attitude to life, leisure and society and have an interesting application to work.
What were your early career drivers? If you’re a leader whose first thoughts are ambition, climbing the ladder, becoming a manager, responsibility and recognition, then there’s a good chance you occupy a different generation to the people you are now managing and the teams you now lead. Perhaps you are a Baby Boomer managing Millennials or a Gen X leading a team of Gen Ys.
Since the start of this decade, we’ve been on a rollercoaster of change. Younger team members have their own set of drivers and include prioritising health and wellbeing over ambition. Older team members who took early retirement after the pandemic are returning in their droves, having discovered they can’t make the finances stack up for a longer later life, plus they miss the buzz of work.
All this means teams today can span four generations, each bringing unique strengths, perspectives, and challenges to the workplace. The key here is get inside the heads of the people you’re trying to recruit and retain and find ways to appeal to them. This involves thinking differently about what you can do to attract good people and keep them once you have them
Next month we’d love it if you would join us at the International Fundraising Congress where Helena Sharpstone and Jhumar Johnson will lead an interactive discussion to explore the realities of working in multi-generational teams. We’ll look at everything from differences in motivation, communication styles, and workplace expectations to the shared values that unite us all.
And we’ll definitely be talking about your generation.