#015 Mind the Intergenerational Gap with Henry Rose Lee

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

In this episode…

Have you ever found yourself struggling to understand, or get along, with people who are older or younger than you?

Perhaps a clash in communications style, working preferences, belief systems, values or motivational needs?

Many of the business leaders that we talk to in our work at KAMGuru tell us how difficult they find driving higher levels of motivation and engagement from younger sales teams.

They say that age is just a number… except it isn’t, is it?

GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES ARE REAL

The nuances of dealing with people across the generations can prove to be challenging, whether consciously or unconsciously, and the solution, as we’ve talked about so many times on KAMCast, is in the ability to raise your awareness, understand yourself, understand others and then choose if and how to adapt your behaviours to get the best out of your relationship interactions, whether it be with your teams or Key Customer contacts.

Whether you are working closely with the external customer base or whether you recognise your internal customers, on your team and colleagues across the business, you are likely to come up against the ‘generation gap’, highlighted by the notable differences across the different age groups.

In this episode of KAMCast, I talk to Henry Rose Lee - one of the few inter-generational diversity experts in the world.

Henry works with all generations in the workforce and particularly with Millennials and Gen Z - to help them become more productive and effective. As an author of three books on maximising today’s young talent, (consisting of Generation Z and the Millennial generation), Henry busts myths and provides business leaders with practical tactics for attracting, recruiting, engaging and retaining your youngest employees.

I hope you enjoy it – let me know what you think!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE:

When I was preparing for this conversation, I was conscious that for many, this is a burning topic and I was keen to get a deeper understanding of:

• What the differences across generations really are
• How those differences play out in the workplace, particularly in a virtual working environment
• How communication styles, techniques and strategies will vary across the ages and where ‘clashes’ are likely to happen
• How, as leaders, we can drive higher levels of engagement and motivation from our younger teams

Ultimately understanding how we can MIND THE GAP in generational diversity across our key accounts and sales teams.

I wasn’t disappointed!

When you listen to this episode – you’ll gain some really pragmatic and practical advice from Henry Rose Lee who helps us look through the intergenerational lens from a position of understanding.

ENGAGE THE MOTIVATIONAL NEEDS OF YOUNGER TALENT

I particularly liked Henry’s thoughts on engaging the motivational needs of younger talent on our teams.

With three quarters of Gen Z yearning to start their own business - I wonder if you have a team of entrepreneurial salespeople? And how you harness their enthusiasm and creativity within the remits of your organisational structure?

• Do you build a COMMUNITY that your talent can feel part of?
• What are the CAUSES that you, you teams and your business care about?
• And what CAREER progression opportunities are available to your team to grow and develop in their role and bring higher levels of commitment, enthusiasm and contribution to your business?

CHECK "IN" RATHER THAN CHECK "UP"

I’m often amazed at the lack of trust between sales leaders and their teams. Henry gives us some great advice on how to build trust and I love the notion of checking IN, not checking UP.

She shares that you can do this by coaching your team with open questions like:

• What have you experienced in the last week that’s good and bad?
• Of those good and bad things, what do you think you’ve learned from that?
• How are you going to use what you’ve learned going forward?
• What do you need from me?

MONEY MATTERS

When it comes to young talent, I found it so important to recognise that money DOES matter – the youngest generations have the least money and the least savings. We need to find a way to pay them right and take the worry of financial pressures off the table.

Perhaps this will earn their focus, loyalty and commitment. For me, money really is a hygiene factor and too many sales organisations use it as a motivational tool, designed to encourage salespeople to ‘try harder’.

In my experience, money neither motivates the best people, or the best in people.

WHILE YOU LISTEN, ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:

How do you feel about the way you are currently managing the generation gaps on your teams and with your most important clients?

Do you know which generation you fall in to?

Do the theories we talk about in this episode resonate with you? How do you feel about it?

What have you learned about yourself, and your teams?

Let me know how you will look at things differently after hearing Henry’s insights. What action will you take, which behaviours will you alter and how will you bring more understanding into the workplace? Drop me an email, DM me on Twitter, or connect with me on LinkedIn. If you have a great example of applying this learning – who knows, maybe I’ll get you on the podcast to share it with us!

FIND OUR MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: HENRY ROSE LEE

Henry Rose Lee is a speaker, author and consultant specialising in Intergenerational Diversity, an emerging science and management skill of maximising the engagement, collaboration and productivity within and across the five distinct generations in today’s workplace.

She is one of only a few sought-after intergenerational diversity experts in the world - helping organisations to improve the contribution and profitable performance of the youngest talent in the workplace today.

Henry worked for 15 years in business development and sales positions for brands like Filofax and Salter, where performance and results were essential. Since 2004 Henry has worked as a CIPD qualified HR consultant and Master ICF qualified Coach and specialised in researching and developing diagnostic tools on human motivation, and generational attitudes and behaviours at work.

She is passionate about busting the many myths people have about Millennials and Gen Z, and has written three books on maximising today’s young talent. She focusses her attention on providing business leaders with practical tactics for attracting, recruiting, engaging and retaining their youngest employees.

You can find out more about her on her website, connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter. You can find out about her theory on intergenerational workplaces.