How to lead when you’re not the expert: Part 2 â Team doubts
Diagnose team doubts and turn uncertainty into trust. A practical guide for new leaders to identify causes and win buy-in with calm, strategic steps....
Brain Circuits
Are you tapping into the talent of older workers?
Use the questions below to check whether the way you allocate resources for talent spotting, development, and progression suffers from generational bias.
Beware the bias: a checklist
Many organizations hitch their wagon to younger generations â digital natives with open minds, fresh perspectives, and all the other indicators we typically associate with potential. At the same time, we tend to default to outmoded assumptions about more mature employees: they no longer have what it takes to disrupt, innovate, or make the waves the organization needs to sustain competitive advantage.
Check whether these biases are baked into the organization by asking these questions:
- Is the language of our job adverts littered with terms such as âvibrantâ and âexciting,â which tends to turn off older workers?
- Are older workers underrepresented in our apprenticeships and other new-joiner programs?
- Are our teams homogenized according to age?
- Are we proactively developing generational diversity in teams?
- Are older workers being encouraged to mentor younger colleagues to fill the development gap caused by the rapid adoption of AI?
- What opportunities are we creating for multi-generational teams to work on our business challenges?
The key to making this work is to abandon a top-down assignment approach and enable creative solutions.
How to harness the talent of older employees
Mix it up
Give the same business problem to one team in their 20s and another in their 50s. Give each team one day to identify the root cause of the problem, explore the variables, devise a solution, and present their findings. These interventions should be fun. More importantly, theyâll generate different perspectives that broaden the range of possible solutions.
Seek the counsel of your âeldersâ
Provide regular think-tank opportunities for older workers to consider a challenge the business is facing. Let seasoned employees bring their experience to bear on the problem and see what insights emerge. The key to making this work is to abandon a top-down assignment approach and enable creative solutions for what the organization might do differently.
Build complex capabilities in younger generations
AI is driving efficiencies and delivering faster wins across functions, including learning and development and HR. While this may improve productivity, it also removes opportunities for younger workers to develop the complex mental models and interpersonal skills that come with practice and experience. Older workers can engage in mentoring, shadowing, coaching, and action learning with younger colleagues to fill this gap.
Key takeaway
Businesses that challenge outdated assumptions and standardized approaches to talent identification and development will be best placed to attract and develop high-potential teams in the disruptive age of AI.
Authors
Related
Are you a corporate shock absorber?
Middle managers shield teams from brutal leadership. Learn to stop buffering, translate conflict, and steer strategy with clear trade-offs....
So, you think youâve built an ecosystem…
Many organizations think they have created an ecosystem, but fall well short. Answer the questions below to check whether your âecosystemâ is sustainable in the long term....
Why are bad habits hard to break, and what can I do about it?
Habits form in the basal ganglia and can resist effort - discover substitution strategies that replace old routines with productive ones at work....
Audio available
Learn Brain Circuits
Join us for daily exercises focusing on issues from team building to developing an actionable sustainability plan to personal development. Go on - they only take five minutes.
Â
Explore Leadership
What makes a great leader? Do you need charisma? How do you inspire your team? Our experts offer actionable insights through first-person narratives, behind-the-scenes interviews and The Help Desk.
Â
Join Membership
Log in here to join in the conversation with the I by IMD community. Your subscription grants you access to the quarterly magazine plus daily articles, videos, podcasts and learning exercises.
Â