How to Lead People Older and More Experienced Than You

<p>&ldquo;Who does this kid think he is?&rdquo; His voice boomed through the closed office door with no effort made to hide his indignance &mdash; from anyone within a square mile. The frustrated 40-something employee was complaining about me, the new and bewildered 20-something &ldquo;boss.&rdquo;</p> <p>I&rsquo;d made the mistake of over-compensating for my lack of experience by becoming a bull-in-a-china-shop on the same day I was given a leadership role. I was going to lead that team my way, and now! I was making decisions left and right and implementing them without delay.</p> <p>Now, this isn&rsquo;t necessarily a bad approach. Decisiveness in a leader&nbsp;<em>is</em>&nbsp;a good thing, but only if there&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>some&nbsp;</em>wisdom behind it. And in my case, there wasn&rsquo;t.</p> <p>But that was 20 years ago. I&rsquo;m the 40-something now who&rsquo;s learned how to lead since then in various military, corporate, volunteer, and government settings.</p> <p>Today, 4 in 10 U.S. employees work for a younger boss&nbsp;<a href="https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/generational-differences-in-the-workplace" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">according to a Harris Interactive survey</a>, so 40% of the entire workforce has the potential to work for a less experienced (in everything) 20-something like I once was.</p> <p>Here are a few things you can keep in mind when leading older and more experienced employees.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/small-business-strong/how-to-lead-people-older-and-more-experienced-than-you-a16a564b11b2"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>
Tags: Experienced