Leading and Managing a Younger Staff Is Not Crazy Hard

Let’s break it down to 4 keys that will help you become a superstar leader!

1.Understand It’s Their First Time

Most of us forget what it is like to walk in as just a kid into our first real job. There are a lot of emotions that we all feel, and new experiences happening every day. You must remember this every time you communicate with a younger generation. Especially when coaching and counseling them you have done it many times, and it’s a breeze for you, but for a new employee, it’s probably the first time they have ever been in this situation and there will be nerves.

Remember the first time you had a mess up or were late on completing a project? This is a time you can look back on past encounters and change the expectations on how it is handled.

2.Don’t Tell, Just Listen

One thing young people all have in common is their entire life so far has been told to them! From parents to teachers everything has always been told to them. This means when you come out of the gate with how it’s going to be, the guard goes up right away. The best way to lower this pressure is to listen and learn from their past and your past experiences. Just by taking the time to listen, this will bring a sense of importance to someone that has spent most of their life always being told.

3.Don’t Be Afraid To Watch Them Grow

What I hear all too often is ‘I don’t want to invest in my younger employees because this will just be a stepping stone job. Once someone else comes knocking they will move on, look around it happens everywhere.’ This could not be farther from the truth. We should be helping and encouraging our staff to grow and develop into the career they are passionate about.

Will everyone stay and be lifelong employees? Maybe not, but you have a better chance of people sticking around when they are encouraged to grow, and better yet you have a great opportunity for them to come back, because we know the grass is never greener on the other side. Those employees will become the biggest supporters of your company.

4.Be Yourself

You’re not 18 or 23 anymore, so don’t try to act like you are, or change things around to try and relate to staff. Everyone sees right through this, and it will lead to an unhappy staff that will be looking elsewhere. Embrace who you are, and be that person you might not be able to always relate to personally, but the honesty and authenticity that comes from being yourself bridge the gap. No one wants to feel like the whole conversation is fake or staged. You can avoid this by just being yourself. But first, make sure you know who you are.

At the end of the day, we are all people and have the same desire to be successful no matter what age we are. Don’t forget this and lean on your past experiences and emotions you have felt in your career to guide you.