22 Apr TSLH #016: 5 Ways To Be A Young Leader of Older People
Read time: 4 minutes
Early on, as I was a young manager, I was systematically faced with the same challenge: Managing people who were 15, 20 or 25 years older than me.
With time, obviously, that age gap has decreased and even reversed. Nowadays, more often than not, my managers are younger than me and they then face the challenge of managing me, who is 15 or 20 years older than they are in some cases.
So how do you go about that? Because as you have probably already guessed, there is just no chance that the way of thinking or working of a 30-year old manager is the same as that of a 50 or 60-year member of the team.
And I have seen countless examples of managers failing to engage their team and failing to lead them to high performance because they discounted the age gap and used a “one size fits all” approach as far as the management of the different age groups on the team was concerned.
I have experimented with a lot of things, learned others from other leaders and at this point in my career, I can safely say that I see 5 critical ways to establish your authority and leadership as a young leader of older people.
Start with being humble. As obvious as it may sound, the difference between humility and hubris may be what separates you from success and failure. When you are appointed as a manager, especially when young, it is a success to be proud of. You have worked hard at school and at work to get there. There are ample reasons why you would want to boast off.
Now take a step back. You start on a team you know nothing about. You don’t know what the cement of the team is (shared values and behaviors), you don’t know the people on the team, and most likely, you don’t even know in details what their work is about.
This means that as you start as the leader of that team, despite all the pride you may feel, you should realize that you have an immense of amount of things to learn about the team. And you should be humbled by that really.
My advice: As you get introduced to your team, make sure that humility transpires in what you tell them. For instance, in my introduction speech to a team about 7 years ago, I told them this “I am joining your team now, and I must say that I feel like a pioneer here. For sure, I know the company, and what we do. But I know nothing of this team, what work you do. You are the experts in what you do, and I will definitely leverage your knowledge to learn a lot about that and the team. I’ll need your help.”
Understand how people communicate. When you are a young manager leading older employees, who are sometimes 30 years older than you, you can expect a clash of generations as far as communication is concerned.
A young leader today is likely someone very adept with social medias, who communicates quickly through these tools or emails. Although these relationships are not necessarily superficial, this is more often than not how they get developed.
Older generations typically rely more on face-to-face conversations, phone calls. Of course, they will use the tools put at disposal by a company, and will be very adept at using modern types of communication, but I’ll bet you that many of your older employees in the team will still prefer the modes of communication they’re used to.
My advice: As you meet the people on your team, and have 1-1’s with them (for your direct reports for instance) or you meet them in other formal and informal meetings, learn from them what their preferred communication style is and adapt your communication to these different styles. This will make the work and the collaboration on the team much more efficient.
Use the experienced people as co-leaders. One thing many young leaders don’t understand rapidly is that their team is also here for them. For instance, when they don’t know something or they need help, a good leader will be honest and say it. When the team is engaged, help will come.
One key characteristic of teams to consider, especially as it relates to the older and most experienced people on the team, is that many of these people, although they are not necessarily managers, will be considered leaders by their co-workers. This is because they have more experience, they can mentor and train other people, they have the historical view of the team and the company, etc.
Your job as a young leader is therefore to identify the experienced, older people on the team who you could leverage as co-leaders, relays, and ambassadors for you. When you do that, the team’s engagement will improve because your leadership message will be conveyed by people on the team everyone trusts – possibly more than you, since you’re starting.
My advice: Approach these people with humility, and be transparent about what you need from them. In a case where you want to convey a message about being accountable for instance, you could say “I understand that people trust you a lot on the team. I need your help to make sure my message about accountability is well understood by everyone. What would be the right way to communicate this to the team?”
Be clear and transparent about your leadership style. You’ve seen me saying this time and again. Communicating about one’s leadership style is critical to engaging the team. Even more so when you are the young leader of a team with older people to manage.
What makes this even more important?
This is your best opportunity to share how you want to work and check that the people on your team – and especially the older ones – view your style in light of their own motivations. This is critical to understand that people will have very different expectations from the workplace depending on their age. When most people on your team are older than you, and sometimes with large age differences, you cannot assume that everybody will be motivated by the same things, or will stay engaged because of the leadership style you have.
Therefore, making sure your style is understood and you have a chance to understand what motivates people and how your style may need to be adjusted at times is a critical marker of your success as the leader of the team.
My advice: Take the time – for instance in 1-1’s – to understand people’s motivations. Identify commonalities, where your leadership style and vision align with what matters to these people on your team. Discussion, asking questions, listening are key skills to use here.
Be open to learn from your older co-workers. Like I said at the beginning of this newsletter, being humble is largely what will differentiate between success and failure as you lead a team of people older than you – and that risk to fail will be higher when the age gap is large.
When you start as a young leader in a team of older people, you should be on the lookout for anything that you can learn from them. Here’s a list you can start with but it is by no means complete:
- Processes, how the team works, what the team delivers
- Pain points and challenges
- Who has influence in the team with other people and/or with other teams
- History of the team: What are the values and behaviors that have consistently been lived by
- Who plays what role on the team: Who is a mentor, who is a learner, who is a doer, etc.
- Interactions with key people in the company and how best to communicate with them; who has the decision power
My advice: Go in with a beginner’s mind. Ask a lot of questions and listen. Don’t draw any conclusion until you are sure you have really considered all perspectives and understood people’s opinions. Finally, get to know the people, like you would do for any other team member. Don’t be intimidated by age.
When managing older employees, keep in mind that you are their manager for a reason: Someone in the company has decided that you were the right person to be in charge. It’s critical that you understand that and don’t let an impostor syndrome set in: You must not be afraid of taking charge and stepping up. Age and experience should not intimidate you; instead they should be factors you leverage to your benefit and that of your team.
I wish you a great read. I’ll see you next Saturday!
TL; DR (Too Long, Did not Read)
5 ways to be a young leader of older people
- Start with being humble.
- Understand how people communicate.
- Use the experienced people as co-leaders.
- Be clear and transparent about your leadership style.
- Be open to learn from your older co-workers.
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