Effective Multigenerational Strategies for Executive Leaders

Welcome to the Quick Take podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Suzy Tominczuk.

And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today.

Hey, welcome. This is Quick Take. I'm one of your hosts, Suzy Tominczuk, along with my good friend James Capps.

James Capps, how are you? There was a pregnant pause there. I thought you might have forgotten who I was.

No, I was trying to think of something else to say about you and it just didn't come, so I just sent it right to your name. So there you go.

Straight to the name, that's Yep, your dear friend and dance partner, james Capps.

Yeah, even though we've never danced before, but we can go with that. We can go with that.

It works, it works.

We're going to talk a little bit about multi-generational today and I was as I always do. It's almost like the meeting before the meeting. I had a meeting with somebody that is a very senior leader and a senior role and actually his boss. His name is Mylin Mylin that's not his real name.

That's a weird name. Well, that's actually my granddaughter's name. That's a good name.

So that's I'm going to start using her name as the.

You're not supposed to tell your secret right, Right up, but I just am.

So Mylin, he is a senior executive and running sales very successful, always getting his numbers but his boss had told him to work with me around communication and I know him, I've seen him in many meetings, I have a lot of exposure to him and what I would say about him he's very positive. He's one of those guys that's almost too positive, oh yeah.

Some of his filler words are like but it's really good, which is nice.

but there's a time and place for that, and he goes on and on. When we're in a topic with all of his peers, he tends to take a lot more time than everybody else, and you kind of oh sure, sure, sure, you have to listen along to figure out his point three minutes in and then start tracking with him, so he's not great about making his communication flow.

So we were just talking and I thought this is a great Part of it is he's older, he's kind of set his ways and he's successful, so he thinks it's working well and so I do think there's a miss between what he believes is his strong suit and how that feels to his team, because he's a big team that is responsible for a lot of the business.

Yeah, I think that's a real challenge for a lot of us leaders, Because we and we can talk about age, but I think it's really time and seat and comfort and ultimately there's a challenge for all of us to maintain our self-awareness right when we have a perspective that ensures that we are both aware of what we're doing but also understanding that we still have stuff to learn. I always say that if I'm the smartest man in the room, I'm in the wrong room because ultimately, I only know what I know and I'd like to learn more. So I think, as we talk about leadership with people who have different levels of experience, different generations, different cultures, I think all of those apply when we are how we manage those groups of people as leaders.

I completely agree. I will tell you, I'm working with probably four VP level teams right now and I think there's a little bit of a fear around. I'm here now. I better know how to lead, yeah that's so true, and it's like no, this is an evolution that you always need to kind of zoom out and evaluate to figure out what you need to do next, because you're evolving along with your people and you have to be open to that.

Yeah, I think companies do a poor job of doing leadership training, as you well know, yeah, keeps me in play, and so a lot of times, yeah, it does keep you employed, unfortunately not enough, because there's a tremendous amount of companies and leaders who, to your point, you're promoted. Therefore you should know, and I think that the leaders who are seasoned and have experience get to a place where they're like you know and they realize I don't know and I still have stuff to learn, yeah.

And when we talk about specifically the multi-generational concept, you know we can talk about diverse cultures and we can talk about global leadership maybe on another time but I think the multi-generational element is really a common topic and common struggle for, I think, a lot of seasoned leaders. You know if I had a buck for every leader who said you know kids these days, or gen insert letter, here they just don't get it.

You know, my knee-jerk reaction is well, maybe you don't get it. And I really want people to do that self-examination because ultimately, that's not going to change. There's going to be another generation behind them and that evolves and that evolution is going to continue and as leaders, we need to explore that and be successful, and I think we could talk about some ways to be successful.

All right, you're right, there's a lot of topics under this title or this, you know, a lot of subtopics. Why don't we talk about the communication aspect of it? And what are the best practices at that level, the executive level I'll just say VP and above and what are those things that people need to be thinking of?

Well, I think that the most important thing is first, you need to be comfortable reexamining your communication style Right, and I think that, to the example of Mylan there, that individual had a style that has probably worked for X number of years or, more importantly maybe, in a particular industry or a particular subset. You know, messaging to developers is very different than messaging to salespeople, which is very different to messaging to finance folks, and so you have to have that awareness about how you are messaging and how you're communicating. There's a lot of interesting ways to do that. I know we were talking earlier about one of the suggestions you made in that conversation. Why don't you mention that?

I thought that was really hard About the questions. Yeah, yeah, there's such a big impact in terms of asking questions because when you ask questions, that forces the other person to think, so it gives this impression that you have great ideas because they have to think. And so actually I'm glad you asked me, because I told him you have to change your mindset in order for you to show up differently and so what I told him was instead of thinking about what you're going to say next, think about what you're going to ask next.

Oh gosh, so powerful His a-ha was.

He's really good at that in front of the customer, but he wasn't practicing that in front of his boss, or maybe even his employees. Yes, and so even thinking about what really works and changing, like you said, assess how are you coming across, how are you communicating and what can I change, and even asking yourself what, in this time and place, is going to work best for the people that are listening to me.

Yeah, I think that's critical. I love that that's so cratic method, that question question. You know the five Ys, one of the classic books about leadership. I think that's a great example of as a leader, you know if you're more comfortable or historically have done lecturing, have done the memo style communication, pivoting to asking questions. I think that's a really great example of that. First piece of advice I'd like to give there is you know, check your communication style and maybe adjust Yep and is it working for the here and now?

That's exactly right, and I think that really the second one kind of pivots on that. So there's that, adjusting your communication style, but then also adjusting your leadership style. So you have to be comfortable with the fact that you know the quintessential GE hierarchy may not exist at your company any longer. You know you may not have multiple layers, you may be very flat, you may have a staff that's more comfortable speaking directly to you or you know, like in my case, a staff that is too comfortable coming directly to me and you need to embrace the hierarchy and empower your folks. And so I think that obviously, suggesting adjusting your communication style is key, but adjusting your leadership style, having that self-awareness, knowing that that might need to be adjusted, I think is equally important.

And so how would you do that? Would you look at the the meetings that you're having and kind of think through like, how do you evaluate that and zoom out and be able to see it from a different perspective?

You know, I like to ask folks how is this working for you? How are these meetings working for you? Are you getting value out of this? You know, the honest truth is it goes back to the previous example ask questions, but just simply saying are you getting value out of our staff meeting? Are you getting value out of our one-on-ones? What's missing from your, from your? What's it missing from you allowing you to be successful? I also am a big fan of skip levels. I love to probe the folks beneath, below, the people underneath me, just because you're gonna get a different point of view and that can inform different ways of doing it. I think the other one that I think you and I talked about a lot is also talking to folks at other companies.

You know, every, every group has its own culture and every company has got. You know it's dipped in in in history. But you talk to another company and suddenly it's. You know, just a bank, just like we are, but they're doing it radically different. That's an epiphany. So you know, reaching out, finding other ways and just exploring alternatives, I think, is huge.

Oh, I think that's so good. You know, I talked to so many people that when I talk about networking outside of their business, they're like, ah, what a missed opportunity.

That's insane, yes, crazy.

All right, so what's the third one?

You know, I think, really understanding that Within that, different generations, they have different perspectives, you know, and the different drivers and and it's really easy as leaders to try to put ourselves in your employee shoes, but just imagine a world, a world where you can't possibly do that, that what their perspective is is so orthogonal to what you think, but it's okay, right, yeah, and the fact that perhaps their endgame is not Whatever your endgame is, but it's more, it's very different and I think you know where we have like a really good example as we talk about there are folks who are more interested in the experience Side of of an economy versus buying things. Hey, I want to go somewhere versus buy something or get something.

And that that perspective is different. Imagine your employees are not really interested in saving up for retirement. They're more interested in going on a trip this year. Now that's, that's not unacceptable. That's just different than you, perhaps, and so accepting the fact that there are different perspectives, exploring and finding ways to understand them Really changes the way that that you will lead as a leader. You're gonna have to find different ways to motivate folks. You're gonna have to find different ways to communicate to folks, and and that's super important when you start to realize that they have a different point of view.

Oh, that's so good. And I would say don't assume you know, even if you believe you know, and I'll here's a. Here's a quick tip Tactic when you're done saying something or you wanting their input, practice silence. Before you jump in practice silence, because sometimes they don't know what's on their mind and so if you ask you know, kind of tell me a little bit more about what you enjoy or what. Let them finish and don't jump in right away. Let them silence, yes.

Such a tendency to save people when it's uncomfortable. I am horrible about that. I don't like putting people on the spot really. But there's a difference between I know it's hard to believe but I don't like I'd write there's a difference between putting people on the spot and giving them space. Yeah, and if you can understand and embrace that reality, it's actually creates a better yeah, I think that's really as leaders.

It's really interesting to think about shifting your mindset around asking those questions, making space. And just observing you know, as I mentioned before, John John. Mckee said People who are really wise Don't jump in to prove themselves. They spend the time just understanding and listening, and I think that's a that's profound.

No, I think he's absolutely right. I mean, john has said many profound things over the years, so, and that's one of them, but I think, yeah, if we, if we, you know, loop it back, you know the three ways that I think each one of us as leaders can really Effectively navigate the challenging space that does come with being a seasoned individual with a diverse and multi-generational Team. You know we've got to understand those, that that situation, and I think the three things we talked about is one, you know Understanding your communication style asking questions, don't lecture. You know see how other people are communicating. You know evaluate that. So, communication style, leadership style, changing the way that you empower folks, the way that you are being responsive, understand what was working for your people and what's not. And then the third one is really embracing a diverse thinking and know that what motivates folks and what motivates your teams is, and most likely, very different than what motivates you. And if you embrace that versus try to change it, you will get and have a much more effective.

Yeah, and it's a work in progress. I think it's really. You know, stamp it and it's done, put the chip in and you're good to go as a leader. So embrace that.

Yeah, I think that it's so true, and you know, I think about this a lot. I've been with my company, I've been with BlackRock for coming up on three and a half years, and I would argue every year has been a radically different year. Started in COVID Last year, not in COVID, sorta in COVID, not in COVID. Yes, in COVID, not in COVID. Third year, we're not in COVID, but we're not pretending we are what we don't know. Is it COVID? Yes, no, and now we're not in COVID. And so every year has required me to change my leadership style in a major way, and it's not just, and so I look back even on the way I was managing it a year ago, and it's different than what I'm doing today. So that's just the reality of the world we live in, and I think the folks and leaders that are open to change are the ones that will be successful.

There you go. The silver lining of the pandemic. There you go. Thank you for that.

Yeah, I'm hoping, I'm hoping, I'm hoping for you to flex muscles. You didn't know you had.

Right, this was good. I think this is really good. I sometimes, you know, I never know exactly what's going to come out, but I give you a two thumbs up in my evaluation, my rating system. So there you go.

And that's really the only evaluation system I care about.

Yeah, yeah, whatever. Well, we appreciate our quicksters, so thanks for joining us. Feel free, we'd love you to follow us on LinkedIn. We want to hear from you, ask us questions, dm us. We are open to it and we'd love to hear from you. So thank you for joining us. We appreciate you. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take, where we talk about the questions that are on the minds of executives everywhere. Connect with us and share what's on your mind.

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