Mentorship doesn’t always have to come from the more experienced generation to younger team members. There is room for us all to learn from each other.
I’ve been reading a lot lately about intergenerational prejudice, or the likelihood of being stereotyped by the generation in which you were born. I am a Baby Boomer, who many think are resistant to change. My children are Millennials, who have a reputation for being tech savvy and maybe a bit entitled. The list of preconceived opinions goes on with Gen X and Gen Z, since members of all four generations are currently represented in the workplace.
Around here, we’ve been trying to use these different world views as an advantage rather than a challenge. We’ve put some of our younger team members on technology tasks, and asking them to share their knowledge, while we pass down what I like to call “the wisdom of gray hair” that we’ve earned from decades in this business. This makes our Millennial and Gen Z team members more invested in the company, learning from each other and being more successful along the way on different platforms. It makes us all sharper, and equally important, it creates an atmosphere of trust and respect both ways.