Whether in business, or in a hobby or pastime or as part of a spiritual system there is nothing that can replace the benefits derived by personal experience. This may seem like something of a sweeping statement, and I have often heard it argued particularly by business owners in a sales environment that employees with experience tend to lack the drive and ambition shown by younger, less “Jaded” employees. In my own experience I have found this to be a fallacy based on mis-conception and misunderstanding of the sales cycle and process. Certainly it can be argued that employee in a sales role is less likely to take a gung ho, bull by the horns attitude, but it could also be suggested that this is precisely because they have less need to, having developed a more complete range of complementary strategies that allow for a more balanced and sometimes more effective approach.
Having a consultative role means that I have the privilege of working with a wide range of different businesses and business owners and also with a wide range of employees. I get to work with and mentor and train groups from 16-18 year old apprentices through early to mid twenties graduates right the way through to fifty plus re-trainees looking to return to the workplace after a prolonged absence, as well as people who have been in their careers for many years. I find in the main that the age and experience of an individual is far less relevant to their drive, passion and ambition than is the way in which they are motivated. I have found that motivating older employees requires a totally different mindset to that required to motivate a school leaver. In the same way, motivating someone with a career is completely different to motivating someone who has been long term unemployed. However once these differences are understood and allowed for, anyone can be motivated to give or take the same degree.
The big difference that I have found is that when working with older people is that having found the right motivational keys the additional life experience can allow that person to thrive more fully because they are able to parley that experience into a better communicative conversation with clients, both internal and external, and consequently are better able to effectively utilise new skills and abilities to drive a business forward. They are also, in the main, having become motivated, better able to maintain that motivation and therefore become easier to manage. The downside of greater experience is that greater care must be taken in that management, and a more refined management style is required. The motivational cues of a junior staff member are rather different to those of more mature employees.
This situation is seen particularly in conversation with a wider range of employee types. The older and more experienced staff members tend to be better able to converse across a broader subject range than the less experienced and it is the job of a good manager to be able to draw on this resource effectively and to maximise the benefit derived. Particularly in these difficult economic times, the benefit of that extra breadth can be invaluable as with it tends to come greater credibility. Business owners and managers ignore the benefits to be derived from working with older people at their peril....
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