Thriving in the Multi-Generational Workplace

By: Janice Holly Booth   Published June 26, 2017

One of the most confounding challenges I faced as a CEO was adapting to the different generational wants and needs of my staff. With 21-year-old program managers and a 66-year-old director

of finance, even the simplest teambuilding outing required deep thought and careful planning. It wasn't about age: it was about work ethic, philosophy and culture. And it was hard to

navigate.

Workplace culture is shifting, and building productive relationships with all generations is essential to success. Because learning from younger employees doesn't fit the traditional

mentor/mentee framework, the landscape can seem foreign. Life Reimagined asked marketing gurus Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, authors of, GRIT to Great: How Perseverance, Passion and

Pluck Take You From Ordinary to Extraordinary, for tips on connecting well in the new world of work.

As the first post 9/11 generation, Gen Z didn't grow up with rose-colored glasses and the everybody-gets-a-trophy mentality. This generation understands you have to have GRIT to succeed:

guts, resilience, initiative and tenacity. They admire what coworkers have accomplished and know that they can learn as much from you as you can from them. While Gen Z shares our natural

inclination to be gritty, Millennials are figuring out how to develop their grit as they enter their thirties. In many ways, they are going through the same soul-searching as Boomers.

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