Leading an Intergenerational Workforce

By Kenneth Matos, PH.D.

Report Summary

Traditionally, leadership across the generations has been envisioned as a linear progression. At one end is young developing talent: just starting on their leadership journey. At the other end are senior leaders: older, more experienced, and hopefully wiser than their future successors. Authority walked hand in hand with experience. That traditional image, while still a common expectation, no longer holds true.

Now that age is no longer synonymous with authority, generational research takes on a different focus. Previously, the key research question was how Boomer leaders could best manage Millennial employees. Now we ask, how do Millennials lead Boomers? What are the challenges that Gen X and Millennial leaders will have collaborating? What does Gen Z make of the new non-linear leadership journeys?

15Be is investigating these trends by studying how employees of different generations view leadership. Our study finds that:

• By itself, a leader’s generation is not predictive of how employees rate their leadership competencies.

• Employees were more likely to give high ratings to leaders of their same generation.

• Employees were more likely to see leaders of the same generation as role models for their personal lives, careers, and work-life.

• Employee generation influences which leadership competencies they most value. Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X tend to focus on competencies associated with growth, while Boomers are more concerned with predictability.

This report describes those findings and provides suggestions for disarming intergenerational conflicts in the workplace.

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15Be​ is a leadership wellbeing consultancy dedicated to eradicating burnout and building healthy individuals, teams and companies. Visit www.15Be.com or contact kcavanaugh@15be.com to set up a discussion about how we can help you create sustainable cultures of collective success.