At Kenneth Smit we regularly write about the various generations within your company and how you can deal with them. The settled fifties, or the millennial, all have their own norms, wishes, ambitions and limitations. However, little attention is paid to the fact that generations within your company can also learn a lot from each other and help each other further. In this blog we pay attention to what young can learn from old, and what old can learn from young. It is your job as a manager to create a situation in which there is room to learn from each other.
What can 'young' learn from 'old'
Loyalty
Older generations are used to working for the same employer for years, if not decades. In good and bad times. The younger generations decide to switch between companies and jobs much faster, not always with the desired consequences. Loyalty is not necessarily boring or always means stagnation.
Relativize
Older generations have a lot of experience and have been through many situations. They are able to put things into perspective and maintain peace. The originally quite restless younger generations can learn a lot from this ability to put things into perspective.
I'm sorry
Career choices and choices in the private sphere do not always work out well. Older generations in particular can teach young people a lot about the feeling of regret when you make a choice that turns out to be unwise. You learn a lot from that. An experience that young people often do not yet know.
Organizations
Within companies, older generations are often pure networkers. They invest in relationships and networks within the company and are very passionate about this. They are social animals through and through. Young generations are often more focused on careers and their personal goals, sometimes overlooking the fact that they actually see their colleagues more often than their friends, family and boyfriend or girlfriend.
Responsibility
When you have a mortgage, perhaps children, or parents to support, you have a different sense of responsibility than when you have just left school. Older generations can teach young people a good sense of responsibility in life.
What can 'old' learn from 'young'
Technology
A no-brainer perhaps, but no less important. Young generations have grown up with new technology and can provide great help to the sometimes clumsy older generations. Bring young and older people together to get started with technology, and great fun and educational conversations can arise.
Skimp
As strange as it sounds, many of the older generations in the Netherlands have experienced almost nothing but economic growth. Houses that have risen in value, the transition from the guilder to the euro, high savings interest rates. The young generations have sometimes stayed at home for a long time because there was no work, have difficulty buying a house and have had to face the credit crisis at the start of their career. It could therefore be that the young generation has more experience with cutting corners than the older generations.
Take a risk
While older generations can teach young people a lot about loyalty, having regrets after wrong choices and cherishing everything you have in your hands, young people can of course take a healthy dose of risk in return. Don't stay stuck for years in a job you really don't like. Dare to switch. Dare to be a job hopper.
Balance & health
Younger generations are more concerned with sports, health and balance than in the past. New entrants to the workplace in particular often attach less importance to career and more importance to a healthy balance between work and private life. For example, more and more young people are deciding to work part-time. Older generations, especially the group that grew up during the booming materialism, can learn a lot from this.
