New management mindset gains ground

Imagine you've gathered your employees in a meeting room and are going through an important topic when one of your younger colleagues pulls out his cell phone to answer a message. How would you react?

This question regularly comes up for Susanne Sønderskov, who is responsible for customers in the public sector at the IT consultancy Epico.

A few years ago, she might wonder about her younger colleagues' meeting behaviour, but today she is fully aware that young people sometimes turn their attention to their phones at times that may be perceived as out of place by her and her generation.

The understanding has come as she has opened her eyes togenerational leadership. A management mindset that is based on a labour market with representatives from different generations who come with different cultures and values that must be taken into account.

"It's about being inclusive and getting the different generations to work together. That's where the magic happens," says Susanne Sønderskov, who is experiencing an increasing focus on generational leadership among Epico's customers in the IT industry.

Settling on different expectations

Today, the labour market is composed of employees from four generations: baby boomers, X's, Y's and Z's. Generations who have different expectations of a workplace, and this carries a risk of creating gaps. As a leader, there is a natural task here in showing curiosity and creating understanding.

This is the opinion of Karen Christina Spuur, who is an associate professor of management, organisation and communication at Cphbusiness, and who has been in charge of the business academy's research project "Leadership of young people". "As a leader, you have to be curious about the individual. Ask questions and remember to explain what lies between the lines," says Karen Christina Spuur.

Generations in the labour market

• Baby boomers: Born between 1946 and 1964

• Generation X: Born between 1965 and 1979

• Generation Y: Born between 1980 and 1995

• Generation Z: Born between 1996 and 2012

Generational leadership is understood as a management style that manages to accommodate and take into account the different cultures and values of employees from different generations.

She explains that curiosity must pave the way for a common language across generations. If we do not succeed in creating a common language, misunderstandings can arise because we as humans interpret the behavior of others based on the values, preferences and needs we have.

"If we meet with different expectations, things can go really wrong. This is typically seen in relation to how quickly you have to develop. The experienced employees have typically enjoyed having a job, and the opportunity to develop has come when you have asked if they want to take the next step. Young people are used to it being part of their DNA that they have to develop," Karen Christina Spuur.

This is expressed in relation to feedback, which young people typically seek to a large extent, because it is the culture in which they have been formed, she experiences. The experienced employees, on the other hand, typically do not have the same needs and may therefore have the experience that the young people are very feedback-heavy and directly inappropriate when they give feedback on the efforts of the experienced. "In this way, they get beaten by having different expectations," says Karen Christina Spuur.

She finds that generational leadership takes up a lot of space in the business world, but while some managers cultivate it proactively to create a good employee environment, there are other managers who have been forced to think generational leadership into the workplace as a consequence of an employee shortage. "These are the leaders who do it out of necessity, because they have become aware that they have led the company based on their own worldview," says Karen Christina Spuur.

Better unity and more efficiency

At Epico, Susanne Sønderskov finds that generational leadership is a "hot topic" among IT companies, and she expects it to become even more widespread in the long term. She has experienced that there is a lot to be gained if you as a manager manage to unite the different generations in the workplace.

"I myself have four generations in my department, and they come to work with different sets of values and interests. After I became aware of generational leadership, I have gained an understanding of the behavior of the different generations. When you understand each other, the magic happens. When both young and old feel included, it provides a better sense of community and thus more efficiency," says Susanne Sønderskov. Epico, which makes a living from providing IT consultants to the private and public sector, matches young IT specialists with positions with their customers, and the feedback the company receives from the parties, Susanne Sønderskov confirms the importance of generational leadership.

She points out that young people today have grown up in a reality where they are used to quick feedback, including on social media. Many therefore expect to come to a workplace with a high degree of feedback, sparring and an inclusive culture. So when these meet a workplace that does not take that need into account, it can lead to complications.

"We have experienced sending Generation Zers out to departments where the needs of the different generations were not taken into account. Therefore, the Z declined to continue with the customer," says Susanne Sønderskov. "Companies need to be aware of what young people bring and what values they have," she says.