4 tips for managing older and more experienced workers
From LinkedIn Q&A:
How do you lead and manage people older and more experienced than you?
- Treat every single colleague with respect.
- Never, ever, roll your eyes when someone makes a cultural reference to something that happened before you were born.
- Focus on the work and on using everyone’s skills, talents, and experience to get it done.
- Consult with the most experienced workers when making changes to processes and procedures that they have worked with for years because:
- They have historic perspective and contacts;
- They may know that something has been tried before and failed spectacularly;
- They may understand how processes are interrelated. Sometimes making a tiny change without this very specific knowledge can bring an enterprise down like a house of cards. Responsibility would flow right to you, because you are the manager.
When you create a real team and respect and consult your colleagues who are specialists, they are reasonably likely to step in to stop you from making bone-headed errors.
No team? No support for you.
From LinkedIn Answers (Organizational Development) (a Susan Gainen answer)
