VaynerMedia’s Claude Silver: We’re Generation ‘C’ (for collaborator)

When we talk about the generational workplace, we need to recognize that we really have four generations in front of us right now, which are the Baby Boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z. The differences between the generations are very important.

We’ve got boomers who came up in an anti-war mentality. This generation is the oldest in our workplaces — they’ve been working for 30 plus years. Today, they want to be mentors.

Gen X is looking for more balance. They have seen the globalization in a very different way than any other generations. Gen X certainly wants meaningful, flexible work. Gen X also expects clear feedback from their employers. Their feelings aren’t really at the forefront of the game, instead they want the feedback so they can improve and can be the next CEOs of the company.

Millennials grew up with social media – they were the first tech-savvy generation. Results, motivation, and progress are very important to them, so that’s how you should manage them.

If you give them a list of core competencies, then they’ll knock it out of the park. As much as achievement is huge for them, civic duty plays a large role as well. This generation really takes a stand and speaks up against things that they believe are important.

Then we have Gen Z, who are really going to change this entire world. Everything for them is digital and social. They are highly vocal about their health and wellbeing, and they are really seeking balance. Specifically, they are looking for a life balance, contrasting to Gen X and the boomers who were seeking work-life balance. Gen Z thrives on independence and autonomy.

Although these differences exist, we all have one commonality which is we want meaningful work; we want to enjoy what we’re doing. We want to be challenged and grow, even if this growth looks different for each generation. Mentorship is key to unite the generations amongst their differences.

In terms of mentorship, we can really utilize our boomers and Gen X’er as mentors to teach patience, humility, generosity, and different life skills that that they learned along the way.

There’s also reverse mentorship that happens too. The efficiency and ins and outs of technology and social media is something that the younger generations can certainly mentor the older generations on.

If we think about onboarding strategy, clarity is always going to be key. The younger generation, Gen Z, will always think they ‘get it’ within a short amount of time, whereas the older generation new-joiner knows that certain things take time. Gen Z desires autonomy and independence, and this can translate into them wanting change, promotion, salary increase etc. yesterday; which can make it seem that patience is enormously under-rated, by the younger generation.

A learning culture is the way to go today. It benefits everyone! Learning is an observable behavior that’s displayed by leaders and teams, and supported with time and investment. Learning happens all the time in the flow of work as we encounter new challenges and solve new problems. It can also happen in a more formal, deeper learning period, such as L&D courses, conferences, higher education classes.

Consider an employee’s onboarding experience, their first week on a new team or project, or the last week before a leave of absence. Effective learning experiences at these moments can go a long way to strengthening the employer-employee relationship.

Also remember that learning is something that is valued and important. While we learn to acquire new skills, learning itself is a skill. And as we learn to learn better (through neuroplasticity), we can become more curious and learn more.

Lastly, it is also important to bring into your onboarding strategy the understanding and awareness of how unconscious bias shows up with every generation. In order to do this successfully, we have to get over the stereotype of ageism and youth.

We have to be aware that we all have biases, and they can be tamed once you become aware of it.

A lot of what we do and how we learn at VaynerMedia is through osmosis. And in order to learn through osmosis, you have to be vocal – we have to be talking about things in transparent and clear ways. Collaboration, curiosity and communication are key.

Having the connective tissue that we have as a culture allows us to be open to the fact that ideas come from everywhere. It doesn’t mean that it’s a utopia, it just means that we need to be open to the fact that just because you are older or you have more life experience, doesn’t mean you’re right per se.

These are the things that I think we need to monitor so that we can ensure that there’s a feeling of equality and equity in the organization.