Multigenerational Communication Made Easy

Every great leader recognizes that effective communication is essential to organizational success.  The best of the best companies in our Employee Opinion Survey database score 11 percentage points higher than other organizations when employees are asked if they have the necessary information to do their job and respond to customer’s needs. Much has been said today about communicating with multigenerational workforces – so much so that it can become overwhelming. Yet, we’ve discovered a few tried and true communication guidelines that will enhance communication in your organization in light of and regardless of generational differences.  Follow these tips to ensure everyone in your organization has the information they need to be a successful contributor.

A quick review of current articles on the topic of cross-generational communication is full of detail about the differences between how we communicate in today’s multigenerational office. You’ve heard this before, but succinctly:

• Boomers: Born between 1946 and 1964: This generation at work is seen as hard working, committed, goal oriented, loyal and motivated by rank/title. They are a generation of communicators and relationship builders. They are also sticklers for using written and spoken English grammar correctly . . . as defined by their English teachers
• Generation X: Born between 1965 and 1980: This generation was the first to be raised in homes where both parents worked, or were raised by a single parent. As a generation, they are independent, resilient and adaptable. As communicators, they like to work autonomously. Conference calls, email, video, and Web conferencing are preferred over face-to-face meetings.
• Millennials or Generation Y: Born between 1981 and 1994: They are motivated by meaningful work, special causes and community service. They are the most tech savvy generation in the workplace, seeing the need to accomplish the work, but not necessarily on-site – for them, the more traditional view of the workplace – you’ve got to be here to be considered working doesn’t work for them. Since they have the technology to work from anywhere, they reason, “I don’t need to be in the office or waste time getting there?”

While there are generational differences, there’s certainly not a one-size fits all solution for each generation. Leaders would be shortchanging their ability to build solid relationships with employees by trying to communicate with them based on generational characteristics or stereotypes. So I’m going to stick with our long-standing premise: Great leaders treat people the way they want to be treated. What follows are some ideas about what to do to enhance communication throughout today’s workplace, regardless of generation.

Know your employees: Effective leadership is all about building relationships. You can’t build relationships without knowing your team members. Making time to get to know your employees personally – their families, likes, dislikes, and hobbies – is essential. Also critical to workplace communication is the use of instruments like the Strength Deployment Inventory, DiSC Profile or Myers-Briggs Personality Test to gain understanding about the best ways in which to communicate with any individual regardless of their age.

Keep your employees informed: It doesn’t matter which generation you’re in, we all want to be in the know. No one likes surprises. The more informed people feel, the more included they feel and the better they feel about their association with your team or organization. Sometimes face-to-face delivery will be best; other times email, text, teleconferencing, web meetings and newsletters will work just fine. To the best of your ability, try to meet each person’s communication needs; and if you use a variety of tools to disseminate information you should meet the communication needs of each generation.

Encourage employees to share information: Great leaders know that everyone should be involved in improving communication. If your employees rely solely on you to keep them informed, you’ll quickly become overwhelmed and employees won’t get all the information they need to do a quality job. Let your staff know that you expect them to share information on a regular basis. Schedule regular meetings and establish procedures to ensure information is communicated in an effective and timely manner within your team and across departments.

Be responsive: Not responding to emails squashes communication and reduces morale. The sender doesn’t know if you haven’t received their communication or if you just haven’t taken action yet. Whatever the reason for the non-response, the employee interprets your non-response negatively. A general rule of thumb is to get back to people within a maximum of 24 hours. A better rule of thumb for some would be to get back within four hours. (I’m finding today that people have a much shorter expectation for a return to their message – regardless of their generation.) Even if you cannot respond with a complete answer or solution right away, let them know you are working on it and when you will get back to them.

We live in interesting times. Each generation in the workplace brings a unique set of talents and communication preferences. At the end of the day, we all have to figure out how to communicate with one another in a way that brings out the best in each of us. Having an understanding about generational communication preferences and communicating with people the way they want to be communicated with, will help everyone improve overall efficiency and productivity and, better yet, creates a great place to work . . . a place where everyone feels respected, valued, recognized and included.