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This Padlet will explore the Generational Leadership style!

As the world grows, it brings younger generations into the workforce. The organizations and businesses may still have the same wants and needs from the employees, but the individual employee's wants and needs may differ between each generation. The role of a generational leader will be to successfully accommodate individual's from different generations. This leadership uses a fluid and dynamic style to increase awareness to the changing generational expectations and shifting role of today's leaders (Andert, et al., 2019). This style can be used to help create a hard-working team that can collaborate on a goal to achieve.

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Generational leadership refers to the ability to lead and manage a team of individuals from different age groups. Each generation has its unique characteristics, attitudes toward work, and expectations (One Conscious Project, 2023). Generational leaders will work and save for future generations. Building for the future requires a focus on the big-picture needs and principles rather than on the detailed process. The "how" will change from one generation to the next, but a generational leader will build a foundation on a clear, strong "why", with values that can be sustained (Chacko, 2016). Currently, there are 4 generations of leaders. These include Generation Z, Generation X, Millenials, Baby boomers. With generational leadership, each generation builds on the last, where they proactively invest vision and values into their groups and organizations.

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Leadership - a process that involves a significant degree of complexity through interactive and relational operations in order to meet the goals of individuals and groups (Dunbar-Smalley & Winston, 2022).

Generation - a group of people born in a fixed time span that develops a peer personality (Andert, et al., 2019).

Gen Z - born between 1997 to 2012, grew up in the computer revolution, "always on" generation (Dimock, 2019).

Millennials - born between 1981 to 1996, came of age during the internet explosion, started in the workforce at the height of the recession (Dimock, 2019).

Gen X - born between 1965 to 1980, grew up with TV and radio (Dimock, 2019).

Baby Boomers - born between 1946 to 1964, result of economy stabilizing after WWII, currently in the transition from workforce to retired (Dimock, 2019).

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Aspects of a person's diversity can provide important clues as to how a person prefers to be led. These generational characteristics have become more relevant to leaders as the 5 generational cohorts (Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and now Gen Z) interact. To apply generational leadership, a leader must understand the characteristics and beliefs of each generational cohort, as it may form the foundation for their behavior in the workplace. In order to successfully navigate the barriers that might result from generational differences, a leader must develop generational competence. In other words, a leader must have increased consideration of a person's generational characteristics such as variations in values, beliefs, attitudes, communication preferences, and social behavior (Dunbar-Smalley & Winston, 2022). Generational competence begins with awareness of the characteristics of each generation.

Generational differences in the work setting challenge the occupational therapy manager to incorporate innovative motivational strategies to leadership and supervision. As generations work together, conflict may arise because they may approach their work from different perspectives (Braveman, 2016). The occupational therapy manager is challenged to blend these perspectives into a leadership approach that motivates the team toward a shared vision and sets the foundation for future generations to build off of.

As part of the health care team, occupational therapists routinely consider the individual of the person, meaningful occupations, and environments of clients who are receiving occupational therapy. Likewise, there are many ways generational diversity can be considered. In the therapy setting, the therapist could determine the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for a client derived from generational beliefs, which could lead to improved intervention efficacy (Dunbar-Smalley & Winston, 2022). To summarize, the occupational therapy profession is multigenerational and is continuing to change and evolve, where there are 4 current generations within this profession. Having generational diversity within occupational therapy can allow individuals to bring a variety of skill sets and strengths to the profession, that can be learned and built upon by future generations.

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By using these 5 skills in the workplace and as an occupational therapist working with clients, a leader can bridge together diverse generations to work towards a common goal.

Acknowledge

Address

Appreciate

Activate

Actualize

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Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, serves as a great example of a generational leader by leaving a lasting mark on the music industry and pop culture. With his mesmerizing performances, groundbreaking music videos, and unparalleled talent, Michael Jackson revolutionized the world of music and inspired countless artists of future generations (Yellowbrick, 2023). Michael Jackson set the foundation for not only pop music, but also music of other genres such as hip-hop and R&B. Artists like Usher, Justin Bieber, and Bruno Mars have followed in Michael Jackson's footsteps where his influence shines through their music and performances. Through his unmatched talent, innovative music videos, and groundbreaking performances, Michael Jackson created a strong foundation for future generations to learn from and build off of, and he forever changed the landscape of popular music (Yellowbrick, 2023).

Generational leaders will proactively invest vision and values into others, and, subsequently, their impact will continue long after they are gone (Chacko, 2016). Michael Jackson's impact on the music industry is still continuing today, where individuals still look up to him and build off of what he created. Michael Jackson showed leadership and influenced so many people through his passion for music and inspirations, and provided a pathway for artists of future generations.

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Dr. Gladys Lynn Jones is an African-Canadian woman who lives in Novia-Scotia and has shown generational leadership qualities throughout the years. Dr. Jones went to Cobequid Educational Centre (CEC) in 1971 and ran for student council. She was hesitant at first, but realized the all of the power and support she could give to others with this role. She became the first African-Canadian female student council president of the school (Walters, 2020).

She used this position to celebrate African history by organizing CEC's Soul Day to share history and culture. From this position, she continued to create social change throughout her career. She was one of the earliest leaders in Canada's labor movement to face racism, the first African- Canadian national vice-president of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union, and the first African-Canadian general vice president of the Canadian Labor Congress. With her help as a social justice advocate, she helped Canada fight for human rights and racial equity locally and internationally for the future generations (Walters, 2020).

Click on this link to learn more about Dr. Jones: https://www.blackportraitures.info/?person=lynn-jones

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Urick (2022) finds that leaders should gain a holistic approach to exploring generations in the workplace by moving beyond the stereotypes and biases that they are exposed to in popular media, but by seeking insights from academically supported data-driven research. To overcome challenges that may potentially arise, leaders should try to know others as unique individuals with their own motivators, fears, and attributes rather than view them as prototypical members of their particular generation.

Tulgan (2011) looked at how Millennials are taking over many leadership roles in today's workplace to reshape the agenda. This generation is using divergent leadership skills to blend the diverse generational workforce together as they leave college and enter their new careers (Tulgan, 2011). Some ways that this generation has incorporated support to their employees include: giving others responsibility, creating new standards that management should focus on, introduce new leaders, daily check ins with new leaders, reinforce their authority to the team, and paying close attention to their projects and teams (Tulgan, 2011).

Molek, et al., (2023) looked into the generational differences of leadership styles in south-eastern Slovenia. They used an online multi-factor leadership questionnaire with 208 employees. They found that the Baby Boomer generation had a higher preference to the leadership style that focused on errors and mistakes. While Gen Z preferred the style that emphasized collaboration, trust, and individual consideration. With this knowledge, generation leaders can find the best approach to best fit both generations needs in order to thrive in their environment.

Putra, et al. (2024) found that intergenerational learning is an interactive process between the different generations and creates a development of new information, skills, and values. This type of learning is considered a bi-directional process in the workplace can benefit all generations. Each generation brings its own unique experiences and knowledge to the workplace. The intergenerational learning style uses 8 variables to indicate intentions to share knowledge that include generational stereotypes, self-efficacy knowledge, voluntariness, institutional support, task complexity, goal clarity, opportunity to apply knowledge, leadership support, and peer support (Putra, et al., 2024). With generational leadership roles utilizing intergenerational learning, it can improve organization performance and individual performance.

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Andert, D., Alexakis, G., & Preziosi, R. C. (2019). The millennial effect: A multi-generational leadership model. International Leadership Journal, 11(2), 32-63. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=bsu&AN=137906022&site=eds-live&scope=site

Black Portraitures. (n.d.). Lynn Jones. https://www.blackportraitures.info/?person=lynn=jones

Braveman, B. (2016). Leading and managing occupational therapy services: An evidence-based approach (2nd Ed., pp. 270-271). Philadelphia PA: F.A. Davis Company.

Center for Creative Leadership. (n.d.). Tactics for leading across generations. https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/the-secret-to-leading-across-generations/

Chacko, J. (n.d.). 5 principles to become a generational leader. Global Leadership Network. https://globalleadership.org/articles/leading-others/5-principles-to-become-a-generational-leader/

Dimock, M. (2019). Defining generations: Where millennials end and generation z begins. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/

Dunbar, S.B., & Winston, K. (2022). An occupational perspective on leadership: Theoretical and practical dimensions (3rd Ed., pp. 104-118). Thorofare, NJ: SLACK, Inc.

Molek, N., Markic, M., Janezic, D., Luzar, M., & Brcar, F. (2023). Leadership styles and generational differences in manufacturing and service organizations. Organizacija, 56(3), 221–232. https://doi.org/10.2478/orga-2023-0015

Tulgan, B. (2011). Generation Y: All grown up and now emerging as new leaders. Journal of Leadership Studies, 5(3), 77–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.20237

Putra, Y. S., Dwiatmadja, C., Suharti, L., & Sasongko, G. (2024). Individual agility and intergenerational learning on innovative work behavior: The role of age diversity climate and intergenerational leadership. Quality - Access to Success, 25(198), 192-200. https://doi.org/10.47750/QAS/25.198.21

Urick, M. (2022). Leadership in Multigenerational Organizations : Strategies to Successfully Manage an Age Diverse Workforce: Vol. First edition. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Walters, R. (2020). Against amnesia: African Nova Scotia women's generational leadership in civil rights organizing, 1950-79. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 32(2), 383-409. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.32.2.06

Yellowbrick. (2013). The unforgettable impact of Michael Jackson. https://www.yellowbrick.co/blog/music/the-unforgettable-impact-of-michael-jackson