Young Managers vs. Older Managers: How Do Their Behaviors Impact Team Dynamics and Performance?

Hi All,

I am working on a project on understanding the young managers and their behavior. How do young managers differentiate from their older counterparts? Young managers are generally characterized by ambition, impatience, flexibility, independence, and technology-oriented. The boardrooms are getting younger representatives. How does their behavior affect the organizational performance? Are they good team players? Are they receptive to ideas of managers from the older generation and value their experience? What could be various HRD interventions that would help them contribute more to the organization?

Hope all the seniors and young friends on this forum who are working in different organizations can give me valuable input on this from their day-to-day experiences.

Thank You,
Mohit

Hi Mohit,

Well, being a young manager myself, I would like to appreciate the topic of your study. A mixed opinion of mine is that the attitude of the young manager plays the most important role. For example, accepting ideas from the old wise ones and, at the same time, mixing and adding a touch of newness would be a perfect fit for him. A negative attitude towards the older generation is the worst possible mistake that could be blooming in his mind. There's always an edge of experience, no matter whatever the qualifications or academic edge may be.

Thanks,
John Mathew
GM
The DML Group
Rajkot
Gujarat
India
9898187778
john.dml@gmail.com

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Mohit,

I feel it's a relevant topic as I am on the verge of writing an article on the same. While these parameters have been spelled out, and you may find some correlation with age/experience to be high, I still feel it's an individual call—my father, for example, is a lot tech-savvier, etc. There are other aspects—I have found a high amount of smugness and complacence, as well as an unproven self-belief in YM's, which can derail projects and assignments, but also teams. Another aspect is Attention to Detail/Punctiliousness, which most YMs would not have, preferring a broad picture to microscopic detail every time. While managers must have a perspective without getting their hands dirtied, results may not come.

Hi all,

Thanks for your inputs. I do agree with all of you.

I also felt they do have smugness and complacency, but that doesn't seem to be so high. I feel they crib a lot about the nature of work (they look for more strategic tasks instead of administrative jobs), its pressure, and the people around them.

From my experience, I can tell YMs are ready to leave the organization at any moment. Loyalty to the organization least exists (and vice versa?). A few of my friends who have joined their organization in the last two to three months (after their MBAs) are willing to switch jobs now, in fact, a few have already changed. The reasons vary from job profile, satisfaction to money.

But one area where there are mixed responses is being receptive to feedback from their seniors.

I was talking to one senior HR manager; he said that the YMs have a lot of info, analytical skills, achievement motivation, but one area where they lack is team skills/work. That may be due to smugness, more knowledge, as Shiva rightly points out.

I would like to have more views from all of you and your comments on the above.

Thank you, Shiva, John, and Eafil, for your valued inputs.

Mohit