7 Strategies For Managing Staff Who Are Older Than You
Almost right out of college I stepped into a management position and became responsible for managing staff. For the first 10 years of my career, every one of my staff was older and much more experienced than I was.
It’s even more likely now that the owner of a business or a manager in a corporation is likely to be younger than many of their staff. New graduates from the Generation Y or Millennial generation continue to enter the workforce at management levels or start new businesses from scratch.
If you are an owner or manager with mostly older staff working for you, it’s important to consider the gap as you adjust your management and leadership style to get respect and get results from the staff you are now responsible for guiding and leading.
The traditional way was to build experience in the area they are responsible for, work with more experienced staff and report to managers who they could learn from before being elevated to management levels and become responsible for managing staff.
Like my situation, however, many new graduates enter the workforce into roles with staff reporting to them and often they aren’t adequately prepared for it.
With the modern workforce, the younger manager simply needs to do things differently when managing staff older than them. If you are younger and less experienced than the staff working for you, here are 7 techniques you can use:
1. Learn how to manage staff
Often, new managers don’t have management training. They are often highly trained at the function or technical requirements, but haven’t had sufficient training in management and leadership. The first step is to get it, either inside your organization or from a local educational institute. It isn’t necessarily something that comes naturally and it’s best to avoid learning hit-and-miss while on the job with others reporting to you.
2. Find a Mentor
Whether it’s your boss, a colleague or someone else in the organization with more experience, a mentor will provide you with a sounding board when necessary to help you understand how your older workers react to issues, management approaches and styles.
3. Put your staff at ease
Your older staff will likely be wary of you, wondering what changes you will make and how it will impact them. Some may even be resentful. Meet with them and ask about them and listen to their issues and interests. Ask them for their advice. Be honest with them, respect their contribution and continue to communicate with them as you work towards changes you might want to make.
4. Sell your benefits
It's important for your older staff to understand the value of having a younger manager as their boss. You bring with you a fresh way of looking at things, new ideas, different experiences and certainly a different level of training and knowledge provided as part of your education in areas the older workers may not know about. It can actually be a joint learning experience if done properly.
5. Recognize their value
Your staff has a great deal of knowledge and experience you should tap into. They’ll know the business, the issues, customers, other departments and even the politics in your organization better than you. When managing staff, you will be more successful when you incorporate their knowledge and experience with what you know whenever you make decisions. Talk to them to get their input. If you don’t agree, never dismiss their experience; simply challenge them to apply their experience differently.
6. Don’t assume you need to know everything.
As a Manager, you aren’t expected to know everything or have all the answers. You simply need to know enough about the activity and work with your staff to enable them and support them so they are successful and productive. Ask them when you aren’t sure. They can provide you with background, information, details and even risks or issues you may not have considered and will help you develop your ideas better.
7. Don’t make sudden changes
While you should try to apply your new ideas and new ways of thinking based on your education and fresh outlook on the job, you still need to take into account the current situation and your staff. Listen, learn, probe and discuss issues first before considering changes and then work to get your staff’s buy-in and understanding rather than forcing what may look like arbitrary changes. Adapt your approach to changes when necessary and make your changes carefully.
