Conference Presentation, Panel
Leadership in a Multigenerational Workforce: Bridging the Gap to Drive Impact
Milken InstitutePatsy Doerr, Amy Friedrich, Julie Sweet, Eric Termuende, Aniela Unguresan, Ahu Yildirmaz, Patsy Shudo-Doer, Ariella Ungerson, Scott Heathman, Angela Shi, Jasmine
- Diversity is positioned as a core value adding to employee engagement, productivity, innovation, and long-term profitability, with expectations that organizations integrate CSR and sustainability to attract talent and customers.
- Career trajectories are predicted to shift from vertical ladders to "lattice" models emphasizing varied experiences for learning agility, with organizations expected to develop young leaders in their 30s and facilitate lateral moves to maintain development when promotions diminish.
- By 2025, 70% of financial decisions are projected to be made by women and millennials, necessitating changes in marketing and engagement strategies, while the "ideal worker" profile is expected to evolve toward "wisdom workers" who mentor and possess deep expertise.
- Participation in higher-income managerial roles is expected to grow for women, particularly among millennials who show better trends than older generations, though a widening gender gap in leadership aspirations is anticipated between millennial men (67%) and women (56%).
- Wage growth for millennial women is expected to remain stagnant between 2008 and 2015 compared to growth for Generation X and baby boomer men, while digital fluency parity is seen as a key accelerant for closing the gender gap.
- Organizations are expected to implement structural interruptions like central salary switches or "salary is negotiable" statements to mitigate bias, alongside a move toward rating-free performance management systems to foster continuous learning.
- Over 200 Fortune 100 companies are expected to seek rating-free systems to address generational differences and continuous learning, while human-centric stability is defined differently across age groups regarding job security versus personal brand stability.
- Conflict management is expected to be a challenge in diverse teams where abilities to manage through disagreement are described as under-trained and under-rewarded, requiring meaningful conversation training to achieve desired outcomes.
- The concept of generations is expected to be re-evaluated as a "false construct" in favor of individual culture fit, as the time span of generational influence regarding technology is predicted to shrink inversely to exponential information growth.
- Success is expected to be redefined as unique to each individual, akin to a "snowflake," and businesses are anticipated to shift toward purpose-driven models prioritizing relational and leadership skills over domain expertise.
- Evidence-based approaches are required rather than waiting for natural diversity changes, with leaders needing to facilitate hundreds of daily interactions to translate evolving expectations across generations.
- Companies are expected to face risks where unconscious bias training provides a "moral license" or absolves responsibility, and where framing diversity solely as a bottom-line perspective may perpetuate rifts between diversity and inclusion.
- A sustainable, multifaceted strategy involving storytelling, role modeling, and accountability is expected to be necessary to prevent diversity initiatives from losing momentum, alongside a "war for talent" focused on delighting employees like consumers.
- Organizations are expected to require "real courage" to disrupt assumptions of incremental 1% growth and set independent leadership selection goals, while moving away from generational stereotypes toward listening and understanding employees as individuals.