How to Strengthen Generational Relationships at Work

Working with diverse backgrounds is essential for growth in any organization. We’re constantly learning from perspectives of other teammates. This doesn’t just mean working with people your own age. In fact, we can learn even more from teammates who vary in age. In honor of our Generational focus month at Ally, I’m sharing some tips on how we can continue to strengthen relationships when working with teammates outside your respective age group.

Most workplaces today include up to four generations –Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and the newest entrants to the work force—Gen Z—under one roof. Think about that! Embracing the generational diversity that lives within your own organization can improve creativity, innovation, and stability amongst your teams. Understanding that each generational group has its own unique characteristics, can deepen relationships by sharing different life experiences.

For example, based on generational traits, Baby Boomers are often built on competition and grinding your way to the top; they have deep experience may be motivated by recognition. Millennials can be highly collaborative and highly communicative. They may thrive on finding community, meaning, and purpose amongst their peer groups and have paved the way for a move toward true work-life balance. Can you recognize the immediate differences between these two groups? Where some might see big disagreements on how these two generations think about work, I see the white space where we’re constantly learning from each other and taking the best of both approaches.

More perspectives on a team lead to better decision making and challenge us to think critically when another perspective comes into play. While working across generations, I challenge you to take into consideration a few strategies to deepen the value of working with teammates from different backgrounds:

1.      Focus on what we all have in common

2.      Use differences to your advantage

3.      Understand there is more than one way to accomplish a goal or task

4.      Acknowledge our interdependency

5.      Try to teach and educate to help close the generational gap

I’m hopeful that you’ll be able to utilize some of these guidelines within your teams and move toward more effective collaboration across generations. It’s so important to appreciate and recognize differentiating characteristics and perspectives we all bring to the table.