WOTC Leaders On Harnessing The Strength Of A Multigenerational Team

The ‘right’ age bias doesn't exist for women in the workplace. A panel of executives from three different generations shared how they are leveraging the various strengths of their multigenerational teams to create an inclusive, productive culture within their companies.

With a wide age range currently in the workforce, striking the right balance with a multigenerational team is key. A good leader must communicate effectively to build trust and understanding across generations and know how to leverage the collective strengths of the diverse people they have as teammates.

At Women of the Channel East 2024, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company, an inspiring panel of executives took to the stage to highlight the importance of mentorship, reverse mentoring and how leaders need to provide clear feedback, advocate for their teams and foster an open-door culture. The panel included one baby boomer, one millennial and two Gen Xers for a range of perspectives on creating a supportive and equitable atmosphere, navigating promotions alongside business constraints, and how to span different generations to work together as a cohesive team. The panel concluded with a call to action for mentors to support the next generation in order to create a better workplace.

Here's what vendor and solution provider leaders from three different generations had to share on the power of multigenerational teams at WOTC East.

The data shows that the workplace environment for women hasn’t necessarily improved. How can companies create a more supportive and equitable culture?

Specific departments within a company, such as sales, are trending in a more diverse direction, but there’s still plenty of work to be done. Specifically, at the leadership level, the panel agreed.

“We have a lot of frontline salespeople who are female, and we have some very candid conversations about [things like], ‘I’d like to have a family,’ or ‘I'm not relocatable.’ … You have to be around individuals that support you and are willing to share their experience,” said Rachael Nagrowski, senior director of channel sales for Verizon, the panel’s millennial.

“I’m an open book—this is what it looked like for me. These are the choices I made. This is how my husband and I work. Those are real conversations that I think people need to have [more than] these over-philosophical ideas that ‘You can make it work. You’ll be great at leadership.’ No, I need you to talk to me tactically about, ‘What did you do with childcare? What about when I wanted to move and my spouse wasn’t relocatable, or what about my family that I’ve always been anchored to in one place?’ You need to actually have the specifics and be OK with those answers and say at the end of the day, it really is your life and what you want it to be. And there is no wrong here.”

Have you or your team ever faced challenges, such as ageism? How did you handle it and what is your advice?

The “right” age bias doesn’t exist for women in the workplace, said Desiree Ortiz-Rodriguez, head of global and North America vertical channel for Logitech, who is a baby boomer. When women are younger, they are not experienced enough. When they are middle-aged, they have family responsibilities, and when they are older in their careers, they are often overlooked for promotions because they are assumed to be retiring soon, she said.

“I think that that’s really where we as leaders need to start empowering the women around us with the right toolsets of bringing them in and offering mentorship but also consider always having a sponsor because that’s how you elevate the conversation. Ageism is something that happens anywhere. … At the beginning in my younger career, I used to get very frustrated with that, and I would feel that I had to prove my credibility. The advice that I would give is take some humor out of this because if you don’t, you won’t survive—but speak up when you have to. There’s no wrong way to do the right thing.”

How do you make your teams feel like they can come to you if they’re dealing with a challenge?

Junior members should ask for one-on-ones with their leaders. On the other hand, not skipping meetings with junior members of the team is an important way for a leader to show up for her team, according to Danielle Post, global vice president, marketing and customer experience for Arrow, who is a Gen Xer.

“One way to really advocate for women in the organization—and this is something for women because so many of us are Type A and high achievers or overachievers—is that women will get assigned the non-promotable projects. We take them because we’re eager and excited. But advocate for yourself so you don’t get stuck with those projects. Don’t get dumped on. And if you’re a leader, make sure you’re advocating for the people on your team so that that’s not happening.”

What are some tools you use to span the generations to create an inclusive culture?

Reverse mentoring is the best way to connect older team members to younger team members from a different generation, according to Lindsay Jensen, senior strategic sales director for Impartner, a Gen Xer who connects her team members to each other.

“I first read about it in a book [where] GM said, ‘We had all these older people when the computers came out and the newer generations grew up with computers. Computers are going to revolutionize everything. Our older work team is so important. They have so much knowledge. We need to have them all learn from each other.’ The idea of having each team learn from each other is so powerful,” she said.

How do you navigate promotions, compensation and fairness alongside business constraints?

Working with mentees to help them understand that simply checking boxes and waiting for the next promotion isn’t the move. Instead, it’s more about mastering skills during the “wait time” to demonstrate readiness for the next opportunity, Verizon’s Nagrowski said.

“There’s this kind of trifecta that has to come together and, as mentors, we owe that to the younger generations to explain that some things are intangible. Us giving feedback that’s concrete and specific … such as, ‘Hey, have you done that stretch assignment?’ Or ‘Did you talk to that person?’ Now we take it to that next step, and you talk about the things that you’ve done to prepare and why you’re ready to step in Jan. 1 versus your competition. Those are types of gifts that we can give as people who have lived in the workforce a lot longer than those who may just don’t know how it works … and how can we expect them to know?”