How Boomers can Mentor Other Generations in the Workplace

It’s easy, when someone from another generation is driving you crazy, to overlook the unique contributions she can make.  In the next 3 blogs, I’m going to spell out how each generation can mentor another generation, helping you create a cohesive team.

So how can Boomers mentor Gen X and Millennials? Baby Boomers are extremely skilled at in-person relationships and office politics. They learned how to navigate the huge numbers of personalities in school, on teams and in work. They understand how the game is played and what to do to succeed at it.  They also know one critical skill that Gen Y in particular is missing:  when and how to pick up the phone.  Yes, the phone.  I’ve seen Gen Y spend 30 minutes looking for contact information online. In that same time, a Boomer would have called the company, spoken live with the receptionist, found out (because they’d made a personal connection) when is the best time to reach that person, if the person prefers being contacted by phone or email, if the person uses their full name or a nickname AND how to pronounce their name.

Boomers are the masters of this type of networking; Gen X and Millennials can learn a lot from them in this arena. So let the Boomers mentor you on office politics and old-school interpersonal relationships.  These are things that are crucial for your ultimate career growth.

In my next blog, I’ll discuss how Gen X can mentor Baby Boomers and Millennials.