Where do you hear the sounds of fountain pens scratching on paper while smartphones buzz with incoming text messages?
In the typical workplace.
Fountain Pen
There are four generations at work today:
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• Traditionalists (born before 1946) value loyalty and discipline and respect hierarchy and authority
• Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), being goal-driven, competing and work-centric, now occupy positions of power in the corporate world
• Generation X (born 1965-1980) is 55 million strong in North America and is a skeptical, pragmatic and proud cohort that values independence, respects diversity and desires work-life balance
• Generation Y (born 1981-1999) numbers 80 million in North America and is filled with digitally-fluent optimists who embrace collective responsibility, celebrate individuality and difference, rework the rules and thrive on collaboration and kinship
According to a 2009 study by the Pew study Center, this can be a combustible generational mix. Practically eight in 10 habitancy polled perceived a major divide between the point of view of younger habitancy and older habitancy today. The Pew Center's study echoes Randstad Usa's 2008 World of Work seek finding that the four generations rarely interact with one another.
Given this pronounced generational split, facilitating sufficient workplace communication can be a big challenge for managers and team leaders. On one end of the communication spectrum, Traditionalists ordinarily prefer to engage face-to-face and through formal typed or hand-written letters. On the other, Gen Y employees opt to characterize via text, instant messages and email. The question, then, is how to bridge workplace communication gaps that can chill collaboration, diminish productivity and impair the firm lowest line.
Experts agree that an leading first step is to identify that, unlike their older coworkers, denizens of Gen Y shun authoritarian communication. Raised on a steady diet of sure feedback and recognition, they also need quarterly input from their bosses. Consequently, to best join together with Gen Y workers, managers and leaders should consider:
• Adopting a communication style that is less curt, callous and confrontational and more respectful, conciliatory and indirect
• Making requests that identify tangible firm goals instead of issuing blanket orders
• Supplementing yearly carrying out reviews with more frequent enlarge reports and informal updates
Another key step is to encourage and empower all employees to use a full range of communication tools. through workplace learning opportunities, even workers with technophobia can engage with others through e-mail, blogging, text messaging, instant messaging and collective networks like Facebook and Twitter. Similarly, simulated interactions and role-playing can help workers who find it hard to converse face-to-face or in a written communication of more than 140 characters.
Productive cross-generational communication also flows when managers and team leaders take steps to bring the generations onto tasteless ground. If blended into functional work teams, for example, older and younger workers can share knowledge and collaborate on devising firm strategies, developing new products and handling service issues. This kind of close collaboration cultivates understanding, trust and respect.
As over 90% of Fortune 500 associates have discovered, tasteless bonds also forge through workplace affinity groups. Also known as networking or resource groups, affinity groups bring employees together colse to tasteless denominators like race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. They also form colse to shared interests in books, sports, trip and music. Regardless of their focus, affinity groups hold great possible for fostering the kind of bonds that force meaningful communication and relationship between employees of all ages.
There is little doubt that major communication obstacles arise when four very distinct generations occupy one workplace. Managers and team leaders can overcome these obstacles by taking practical steps to create and preserve meaningful connections across the generational divides. When they empower employees to embrace new communication tools and seek shared interests, associates forge a strong communication foundation that will preserve them well into the future.
Communicating over Workplace Generation Gaps
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