By: Ian Kaminsky, Max Berg, Jacob Dahukey, Ben Weaver, Jack Ventura
In 2017, Sean McVay, head coach of the Los Angeles Rams football team, started his coaching career. After a disappointing loss in the wild card round of the 2018 playoffs, Sean managed to come back the following year and win the NFC Championship. At the age of 30, the youngest coach in NFL history, McVay transformed the team by introducing new plays and concepts that older players and coaches had not thought about. When asked about how he felt about McVay, the Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff stated, “People joke about him being a millennial, and he is in a lot of ways … But he is also an old soul in a lot of ways,” (Gonzalez). McVay, younger than most in the front office of the Ram’s organization, was given one of the most powerful positions. For young professionals working in organizations at different levels of power or where power structures are not clearly defined, it can be hard to find half as much success gaining the trust of those around who are in an older generation.
You have just been hired into a managerial position. Young and fresh out of college, you notice that some of the employees that you are now responsible for are much older than you. They might have been working with the company for years, accumulating experience and knowledge that you might not have. The company is trusting you to push the company in a positive direction, while being able to manage your older peers. This is a high pressure role, with many consequences if not performed well. How do you as a young manager, bridge the age gap when predetermined agest beliefs on are working against you?
Claudia Buengeler discusses the many challenges that a young manager must go through if they can hope to be as successful as their older counterparts in her article, “The Challenge of Being a Young Manager: The Effects of Contingent Reward and Participative Leadership on Team-Level Turnover Depend on Leader Age.” These challenges stem from a lack of respect for the younger leaders from their team members. Buengeler operated case study where they polled the perspectives of team members who were supervised by a team leader in a customer communication organization. They took photos of leaders and changed their appearance to look older or younger to see how the team members would perceive their authority. The results only partially supported their hypothesis. From a sample of 212, almost 34 percent of team members see young managers as non prototypical leaders. In other words, they feel that just based on age, a leader is going to be less successful, easily scrutinized, and lead to more turnover in his department. These are important issues a leader must overcome if they can hope to run an efficient team. If 34 percent of a team does not believe in their leader, this can lead to poisoning the well, and deadweight loss if a team is not operating to maximum potential. The study supports the idea that being older can eliminate these predispositions almost immediately, but we cannot age overnight. So how do we get the other 34 percent on the side of the young leaders?
In Victor Gekara’s article “Are Older Workers ‘Crowding Out’ the Young?,” Gekara states the workforce replenishment issue is not older generations hanging on to positions, but instead, the problem is in recruiting practices that do not encourage youth success across industries. The major issue that is presented was brought up with studies of Australia’s Transportation market. Within the industry, they are expected to lose 30% of their workforce due to retirement which could have dire consequences if it is not addressed. In some sectors of the industry 50% of the workforce is over 50 years of age and 5% are of ages 25 or younger. This could lead to major issues of transfer of knowledge. When the older workforce retires their experiences and knowledge will leave with them. So what is causing such low employment rates for the younger generation? Many in the industry theorize youth do not have an opportunity to join due to a ‘lump of labor’ in which older generations are not retiring and thus workplaces are increasing in median age. However, Gekara debunks the “crowding out” theory, citing a number of articles and studies that show instead, the issue is in the recruiting practices. There is a disconnect between the generations leading to a lack of collaboration. Recruitment processes that encourage more youth involvement and connect them with the older generations to build up real world experiences and learn from their predecessors mistakes, have higher retention rates and transitions of power to the younger generations.
Overall, the problems young managers face purely based on age can be solved. For example, the knowledge gap between younger managers and older employees can be remedied with company provided breakout sessions or areas where the experienced employees can discuss concerns with them or the company. To support this idea the article, A Psychological Study on Gen Y to Reengineer HR Policy and Structure, by P. Chhabra, States that “25% of people in workplaces want to use formal meeting rooms while 41% are more attracted to dedicated team workspaces and 32% prefer to have access to breakout spaces” (Chhabra, 2013, p.376). The article also mentions how an older work environment would, on average, have less meeting areas and more desk space. So offering a variety of meeting spaces would be a fundamental improvement for youthful managers to encourage open, honest communications.
Another way to combat this is having young managers encourage emotional connection between all other managers and team members in the workplace. This can chip away the resentment older employees feel toward youthful bosses because they will understand what the younger leaders have done to deserve the position. Younger managers could also promote recognition of higher performance and effectiveness. By rewarding effort, performance and encouraging understanding in failure, a supervisor not only motivates their employees but also helps their workers view them as a leader who encourages growth.
All too often do management articles tell people to be aggressive, fight for what is theirs and follow along trending silicon valley workplace successes. Rarely, if ever, are the questions asked, “What is good for my people? What do they want? What do they need?” A study done comparing the leadership desires of South Korean and Brunenian youth indicates preference and choice of leadership are influenced significantly by culture (Amin). How managers develop the culture they are responsible for can connect individual cultural backgrounds to the larger culture of the business. Whatever it is, just talking to employees can give the manager policy direction. But a dialogue goes two ways. Young managers should remember there is a give and take when it comes to communication. Understanding who each other are on a personal level can lead to higher rates of workplace cooperation, experience sharing and trust.
References:
Buengeler, Claudia, et al. “The Challenge of Being a Young Manager: The Effects of Contingent
Reward and Participative Leadership on Team-Level Turnover Depend on Leader Age.” Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol. 37, no. 8, 2016, pp. 1224–1245., doi:10.1002/job.2101.
Chhabra, P. (2013). A Psychological Study on Gen Y to Reengineer HR Policy and Structure.
Journal of Commerce & Management Thought, 4(2), 356–383.
Gekara, V. (2014). Are Older Workers ‘crowding out’ the Young?: A Study of the Australian
Transport and Logistics Labour Market. Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and
Economic Relations of Work, 25(4), 321-336.
Gonzalez, A. (2017, October 27). How Sean McVay changed the Rams’ culture. Retrieved from https://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/36065/how-sean-mcvay-changed-the-rams-culture
Nor Amin, N. A., Wuen, C. H., & Ismail, A. (2017). Leadership style desired by youth in
Asia. Journal of Management Development, 36(10), 1206–1215.