Revitalizing Remote Teams Across Generations – By Amanda Powers
Disclaimer: Good Day, Readers. WealthBuildingPowers blog is a financial literacy/competency blog and does not provide specific investment recommendations.
STYRON’S INTRODUCTION
Navigating the intricacies of managing people can often feel as exhilarating and challenging as attempting to feed sharks while swimming. (Disclaimer: Please do not attempt this IQ Test!) However, effective people management is one path to career advancement and a boost in INCOME/SAVINGS! It was my chosen path to achieve financial freedom; some days were fulfilling, and others were like an express elevator to a hotter place than my new home, Florida.
In this blog post, the author dives into the complexities of managing diverse generations within the context of hybrid work environments, where employees split their time between the office and remote locations. Just today, I heard Amazon’s CEO essentially say, “I have nicely asked, now get your asses back to the office three days a week! For today’s managers, this is your reality!
If you supervise people, mastering this skill is mandatory to achieve financial freedom.
Our guest blogger today is Amanda Powers, my daughter, who will share insights and expertise on this critical subject. And for the few of you who have read most of my blogs {THANK YOU!}, you have heard me mention my favorite person, Amanda, many times!
Thank you for today’s contribution, Amanda!
Revitalizing Remote Teams Across Generations
Written by Amanda Powers
Over the past couple of years, the skill of engaging remote teams composed of different generations has become critical for companies and teams to avoid the “Great Resignation” that has led to decreased team engagement. This article introduces various methods to highlight the similarities and minimize the differences across the generations.
Today’s workforce is composed of four different generations, and consequently managers are tasked with motivating teams despite the contrasting wants and needs throughout the age groups. Remote work offers many perks that people love, however one noticeable drawback is the lack of team culture which can easily lead to staff feeling isolated and disconnected. Company culture is imperative to overall job satisfaction and when company culture is poor, companies are quick to see employees quit. So, the question is, how does management equally motivate baby boomers who tend to prefer face to face communication and formal communications, while simultaneously satisfying Gen X employees who tend to prefer email and less formal communication styles?
For reference of the generations:
Baby Boomers: (1946-1964)
Generation X: (1965 – 1980)
Millennials: (1981 -1996)
Generation Z: (1997 – 2012)
Any successful leader or project manager needs to understand, implement, and compromise to appeal to the team’s communications preferences and recognition styles. This can be done by highlighting the similarities and minimizing the differences. However, this tends to force management to get a bit more creative when figuring out how to engage their teams in the remote space.
Highlight The Similarities:
- People Crave Connection: A lot of the workforce can agree that moving to remote can feel more transactional. A study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) called Lonely at Work, highlighted that eight out of ten employees feel lonely in the workplace. A few tactics to improve this would be hosting healthy lifestyle challenges, virtual happy hours, online trivia, personality tests, etc.
- Create a Mentor Program: The perfect opportunity to get the different generations working together is creating a mentorship program. According to the Cigna 360 Global Well Being Survey 2022, young employees of Generation Z are the most likely to be worried about the lack of job opportunities available to them. Mentorship programs are mutually beneficial as they provide the ability for employees to engage and develop close relationships with people in a different age group. The also provide the opportunity for mentees to learn more about different positions throughout the company and aid in boosting confidence in the workplace.
- Provide Transparency on Organizational Structure: Nobody wants to be lost on where they stand within a team and/or company. For instance, baby boomers are known for preferring hierarchy, while millennials are associated with valuing clear opportunities for growth all while Generation X is associated with craving transparency. These shared values can be satisfied by posting and maintaining the organizational chart on a shared internal platform. To take this further, it is conducive for all parties when leadership provides clear written guidance on requirements to be promoted to the next level.
Minimize The Differences:
- Awareness of Team Preferences: Know how your team likes to be communicated and implement ways that meet each need. This can best be achieved by having the team complete surveys on tools such as Microsoft Forms or SurveyMonkey. Due to employees potentially being reluctant to share their true communication preferences with leadership, it is best to have the surveys set up with providing their name as optional vs. required when completing the survey.
- Foster a Culture of Flexibility: Focus on what you have the power to make more flexible. Once employees have proven trustworthy and capable, there are benefits in letting employees pick projects, create their own project plans, etc. Encouraging employees to have the autonomy and creativity to know when and what is required tends to boost employee confidence and buy-in on the overarching team and company values.
- Keep Customer as the Priority: When the customer is the priority there is less time for the team to have internal debates and more time for the team to focus on the mutual goal of a satisfied customer.
- Communicate in Multiple Channels: People’s attention span and preferred communication methods differ; so to appeal to the variances, it is valuable to share the same messages through several mediums such as emails, meetings, articles, etc. For instance, employee A may have a hard time focusing in virtual meetings, while employee B tends to skim longer emails. This method may be harder for the project manager but is mutually beneficial by ensuring the team receives messages in the way that most resonates with them and leaves no excuses for missed information within the team.
Remote and hybrid teams are here to stay, so it is important for today’s managers and leadership to create ways to revitalize their multi-generational teams. One method managers and company leadership can build cohesive multigenerational teams is by highlighting the similarities and minimizing the differences. Similarities can be highlighted by providing opportunities for connection, creating mentor programs, and providing organizational transparency.
Differences can be minimized by boosting communication, incorporating flexibility, and keeping the customer as priority. The best interconnected teams have the awareness and structure set in place to play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so when these four generations create bonds, it can lead to today’s teams being stronger than ever.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My name is Amanda Powers, and I am currently a senior program analyst with Calibre Systems. I have eight years of experience consulting across federal agencies in IT Service Delivery, Strategic Planning, Project management, and Workforce management. I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Strategic Communications and a minor in Business Administration from Temple University in 2014.
CLICK BELOW TO READ THIS ARTICLE
REFERENCES:
EXHAUSTED BY WORK – THE EMPLOYER OPPORTUNITY. (N.D.).
GURCHIEK, K. (2016, MAY 9). WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR WORKERS? IT DEPENDS ON THEIR GENERATION. SHRM. HTTPS://WWW.SHRM.ORG/RESOURCESANDTOOLS/HR-TOPICS/BEHAVIORAL-COMPETENCIES/GLOBAL-AND-CULTURAL-EFFECTIVENESS/PAGES/WHAT-MOTIVATES-YOUR-WORKERS-IT-DEPENDS-ON-THEIR-GENERATION.ASPX#:~:TEXT=BABY%20BOOMERS%2C%20LIKE%20TRADITIONALISTS%2C%20PREFER
GURCHIEK, S. M. AND K. (2023, FEBRUARY 25). LONELY AT WORK. SHRM. HTTPS://WWW.SHRM.ORG/HR-TODAY/NEWS/ALL-THINGS-WORK/PAGES/LONELY-AT-WORK.ASPX
KAPLAN, J. (N.D.). WELCOME TO GENERATION QUIT. BUSINESS INSIDER. HTTPS://WWW.BUSINESSINSIDER.COM/GEN-Z-JOBS-GENERATION-QUIET-QUITTING-GREAT-RESIGNATION-RECESSION-ECONOMY-2023-2?R=US&IR=T
WHAT SUBJECTS DO YOU WANT TO READ NEXT? WHAT QUESTIONS CAN WE ANSWER? UNTIL NEXT TIME!
LET’S MAKE SOME MONEY! – CRYPTOCURRENCY, ANYONE?
YOUR GREATNESS IS NOT WHAT YOU HAVE; IT’S WHAT YOU GIVE! – CHARITIES I SUPPORT
BECAUSE I CARE!
St Jude Hospital: The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures and means of prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion, or a family’s ability to pay.https://www.stjude.org/
Wounded Warrior Project: An American charity and veterans service organization that offers a variety of programs, services, and events for wounded veterans of the military https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org
Folds of Honor: Providing life-changing scholarships to the spouses and children of America’s fallen or disabled military. And now, our mission expands to the families of America’s first responders. On our watch, those who protect our freedoms and our families will know they are not forgotten. https://foldsofhonor.org
Wilson’s No-Kill Animal Shelter: A N0-Kill shelter that is a top-rated non-profit. They compassionately care for all their animals. https://wcnkas.org
Tunnel To Towers: Since 9/11, we have been helping America’s heroes by providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and by building specially-adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. We are also committed to eradicating veteran homelessness and helping America to Never Forget September 11, 2001. https://dogood.t2t.org/give/320847/#!/donation/checkout
TRUST ME – YOU WILL LIKE THE BELOW BLOGS!
NEW SERIES – CRITICAL THINKING – BY: DR. JAMES LEEMANN
USING CRITICAL THINKING IN PURSUIT OF POST-HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION – CRITICAL THINKING SERIES – PART 2
CRITICAL THINKING – TOP TEN IN-DEMAND SKILLS FOR MANY EMPLOYERS! – CRITICAL THINKING PART 3: WHAT ARE THE UNIVERSAL STANDARDS OF THINKING?
CRITICAL THINKING – WHAT LEVEL OF THINKING ARE YOU? CRITICAL THINKING PART 4
THINKING IS DRIVEN BY QUESTIONS, NOT ANSWERS – PART 5 CRITICAL THINKING SERIES: WHAT QUESTIONS DO THE BEST CRITICAL THINKERS ASK?
WHAT {DO YOU, AS A} CRITICAL THINKER, DO TO LEARN? – PART 6A – CRITICAL THINKING SERIES
WHAT DO YOU AS A CRITICAL THINKER DO TO LEARN – PART 6B – CRITICAL THINKING SERIES
WHAT HABITS DO CRITICAL THINKERS USE WHEN READING AND WRITING? PART 7A – CRITICAL THINKING SERIES
PART 7B: SUBSTANTIVE WRITING: WHAT HABITS DO CRITICAL THINKERS USE WHEN READING AND WRITING? – CRITICAL THINKING SERIES
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A FAIR-MINDED CRITICAL THINKER? – CRITICAL THINKING SERIES – PART 8
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO DEAL WITH YOUR IRRATIONAL MIND? – CRITICAL THINKING SERIES – PART NINE (9)
WHAT STAGE ARE YOU IN CRITICAL THINKING DEVELOPMENT? – FINAL CRITICAL THINKING SERIES – PART 10
TO CHANGE THE WORLD, BILL GATES SAYS TO READ A LOT! – A RAINBOW OF ROLE MODELS {WEDNESDAY SERIES}
Self-Made Billionaires Train Themselves to be Smarter – BY -THOMAS OPPONG
MY FAVORITE ANNUAL LETTER – BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. 2021 SHAREHOLDER’S LETTER
Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO JP Morgan Chase and Company, 2021 Letter to Shareholders
BUILDING FINANCIAL FREEDOM/LEGACY TEN DOLLARS AT A TIME!
BUILDING FINANCIAL FREEDOM/LEGACY TEN DOLLARS AT A TIME!
FINANCIAL LITERACY IS JUST NOT THAT COMPLICATED – TRUST ME!
https://wealthbuildingpowers.com/2019/04/01/financial-literacy-is-just-not-that-complicated-trust-me/
COMPOUND INTEREST IS THE EASIEST WAY TO DOUBLE OR TRIPLE YOUR MONEY
COMPOUND INTEREST IS THE EASIEST WAY TO DOUBLE OR TRIPLE YOUR MONEY
To Join Wealth Building Powers BLOG:
PLEASE SIGN UP TO FOLLOW ME BY PROVIDING YOUR E-MAIL IN THE WORDPRESS BLOG PAGE SUBSCRIBE BOX!
Thank you to my followers and readers for your likes and comments. All comments, recommendations, and feedback are welcomed and utilized to improve this blog.
ABOUT ME
I am a proud nerd (as my beautiful wife and daughter have told me) investment and finance blogger with an N.C. State, Chemical Engineering, University Rutgers, MBA and Harvard University, Advanced Management education.
I left a corporate career because I desired to make a difference as a speaker and writer. I was blessed to be coached and mentored by strong women and men in my family and professional life. It is my time to serve and give back.
DISCLAIMER
I started my first business at ~13 years of age (a small but brilliantly created plant nursery). I am a successful investor in stocks, options, real estate and am happy to share my finance and investment lessons. I am NOT a licensed financial advisor. Please do not construe my suggestions on this blog as recommendations for your situation. As an investor, you must establish your risk/loss tolerance. Investment in any asset involves risk, including complete loss.
Please seek your licensed CPA or fiduciary financial advisors for individual financial advice.
I write this weekly blog to make an impact by reaching an audience and demonstrating the need for Financial Literacy. I will help you get there.
To follow my daily posts on Instagram, CLICK BELOW:
http://instagram.com/wealth_building_powers
