Adaptable Leadership in a Multigenerational Workforce

Is your leadership style skewed towards the preferences of a particular generation? Does your approach to communication, engagement, and development resonate with everyone in your team, from early-career Generation Zs to retirement-age Boomers?   

Boards and C-Suites need to urgently rethink their approach to leadership development to adjust to the reality of a modern workforce that spans five generations. Addressing multigenerational leadership is no longer optional, but a strategic imperative that drives organizational resilience and competitiveness. Companies excelling in this area are seeing marked improvements in employee engagement, retention, innovation, and succession outcomes. 

The goal today is to prioritize leadership team succession planning, age-related diversity and inclusion, and adapt to evolving skill requirements. We can do a lot more to promote intergenerational collaboration and knowledge-sharing and address the ever-present risk of generational biases and stereotypes that contribute to misunderstandings and limit opportunities for growth and development across age groups.   

Importantly, the varying work values, communication styles, and career expectations across generations require proactive efforts to bridge generational gaps and foster understanding. Failing to address these challenges risks stagnation, ineffective leadership, and employee disengagement. 

A “multigenerational leader” is someone with the ability to lead a multigenerational team, building bridges and adapting their leadership style to differing modes of working. They work to strike a balance by finding ways to successfully cater to generational preferences. It is also important to acknowledge that leaders themselves—at every level of the organization—are becoming multigenerational as part of the wider trend towards leadership diversity.  

By looking beyond the stereotypes and reviewing available research, we can observe an increasingly clear picture emerging around differences in preferences between generations. Different generations have varied preferences around modes of working, communication styles, and what they find rewarding and motivating.