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In our market report Understanding the 50+ Worker, we highlighted some of the conversations from our Los Angeles Meetup, where we talked with Millenials and Boomers about their experience with mentoring. There’s a real need for knowledge share and a real opportunity for learning, for both younger and older workers.
“We don’t know where to look for mentors,” said one younger participant. “Our generation realizes that our network is still very small and the people that we do know are not the people that are going to get us to the places that will bring us to better careers. We’re all kind of stuck.”
Next Play, Inc. CEO Charu Sharma is helping to match mentors and mentees with the app Ellen.ai. “We fundamentally believe that mentoring employees will become the way to engage them,” she told us. “Companies are losing 30 billion dollars a year on employee churn. And the number one reason employees are leaving is because they don’t get career support, and they aren’t growing.”
In some workplaces, successful knowledge sharing needs to start with the basics: the company’s expectations of how different generations should treat each other. Donna Fuscaldo offers some ideas for putting that into practice:
Read the full article: How To Get Boomers & Millennials Working Together
As roles shift in the workplace, Boomer workers as well as their GenX and Millenial counterparts benefit from effective knowledge sharing. Author and Talent Risk expert Steve Trautman writes:
Structured knowledge transfer (KT) is the very best way to safeguard and share critical technical expertise, especially in diverse and dynamic work environments like the one we’re in right now.”
Trautman shares tips for keeping the lines of communication open between generations of employees. The same rules apply whether it’s an older worker mentoring a younger one, or a younger worker training an older colleague in the latest techniques and practices.
Read the full article: Millennials vs. Boomers: 5 ways to end bickering and ensure knowledge transfer
GenX managers bring a unique set of skills to the table that help to bridge the gap between their older and younger counterparts in the workplace. GenX were among the first of the “latch-key kids”, coming home to an empty house while they’re parents were at work. Writing in Fast Company, Gwen Moran notes that this made them independent and self-motivated when it came to homework then, and makes them autonomous and entrepreneurial managers now.
They’re managing others like they would like to be managed—get the work done, avoid the distractions, and go home…. At the same time, they do place a high value on mentoring and helping others develop…. They understand the boomer mentality and often excel in management and leadership roles because of their remarkable communication skills.”
Baby Boomers’ inclination to put off retirement has made it difficult for some GenXers to advance into management roles.
This has made them somewhat cynical about leadership, but also more eager to seek development opportunities outside the workplace.”
Smart company leaders will recognize this as an opportunity to encourage these self-motivated workers to channel some of that energy into mentoring their fellow coworkers– both younger and older.
Read the full article: Why You Need To Pay Attention To Gen X Leaders
Photo credit: Tech Jobs Tour on Flickr
To properly plan a career change, a jump into entrepreneurship, or to make a post-retirement plan, you need to do a bit of research. But those of us who are juggling family, multiple work projects, and other responsibilities may find it challenging to find the time (and quiet) to research and read. We recommend these seven podcasts to help give you some perspective and inspiration for planning your next act, to listen to while you’re in the car, cooking dinner, or even at the gym.
(And don’t forget, you can hear the podcast of our weekly newsletter on Apple Podcasts, on Android, on Google Podcasts, and on Stitchr.)
1. Gracefully
Gracefully was founded by journalist Lisa Napoli, whose story might sound familiar to some. She told us in an interview, “I started a podcast on aging for one main reason: I couldn’t find a job. I’m 54—and have been a journalist for 34 years. After my second book came out, the part-time radio job I loved had dried up. I noticed a lot of friends around my age had similar stresses: some were managing care while working full-time, others were moving back in with parents out of economic need, lots of people in their fifties who could not find gainful work.”
She sat down with Next for Me co-founder Jeff Tidwell to talk about ageism in the workplace, and what we’re doing to fight entrenched biases and find new ways to learn and collaborate.
2. Masters of Scale
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has conversations with some of the most successful leaders in technology and media, and asks the question, what does it take to grow a small success into a huge one? One of the series most popular interviews was with TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot, who talks about keeping humans in the equation in the gig economy. As we reported, almost half of freelance/gig workers are over 50 years old, so this episode will be of particular interest to our audience.
“TaskRabbit’s mission around revolutionizing everyday work really grabbed me, and it brought me back home to Detroit,” Brown-Philpot told Hoffman. “It brought me back to the people who were good, hard-working people who lost their jobs because of the failure of an entire industry, who couldn’t find work but had strong work ethics, and here’s this great little app that is doing that.”
3. New Retirement
Steve Chen founded the site NewRetirement after helping his mom plan her retirement and seeing the need for great free resources for retirees. In the NewRetirement podcast, Steve interviews experts about investing, finding one’s calling, and the future of work. He interviewed MOCA+ founder and former Dwell CEO (and Next for Me advisor) Michela O’Connor Abrams about her own journey to reinvention.
She told him, “I think that if you go into whatever it is, the next chapter or phase, taking a break, you can’t go into it wondering if your relevance is going to be tested because if you are not secure about your own relevance, then you need to work on that first and not look to whatever that next chapter is to make who you are and where you are in your life relevant.”
4. Planet Money
NPR’s Planet Money aims to explain the workings of the economy that mystify most laymen. Those who are among the 50% of workers over 50 who have less than $50,000 saved for retirement may appreciate the segment “When Retirement Advice Goes Viral”.
It all started with a Tweet that said, “By 35, you should have twice your salary saved, according to retirement experts.” This obviously alarmed many people over the age of 35 who had nowhere near that amount saved. The reporters spoke with experts, including the man who invented the 401(k), who advised that any savings is better than none, and it’s not too late to start.
5. Retirepreneur
Donna Kastner’s Retirepreneur is a resource for executives 50 and older who are striving for a smooth segue from full-time job to part-time gig, and looking for “a gradual downshift where they blend work and leisure pursuits.”
In Episode 4, Donna explored the growing Gig Economy. “Gigging for a living isn’t just for artsy folks,” she said. “It’s for anyone with knowledge, skills, and abilities that businesses crave, yet they’re having a tough time finding and keeping the talent they need… The Gig Economy is setting the stage for a whole new breed of entrepreneurs who prefer a more part-time path.”
6. Safe for Work
Liz Dolan, former head of marketing at Nike and journalist Rico Gagliano host this podcast which offers advice to make work more satisfying, with tips like how to avoid job burnout, how to negotiate a raise, and how to know when it’s time to move on. They interviewed Next for Me advisor Karen Wickre about her book “Taking the Work out of Networking: An Introvert’s Guide to Making Connections that Count”, and read her a question from a 56 year-old listener who was about to be laid off from her job. She said has never networked, and doesn’t know where to start, but definitely does not want to schmooze with people over drinks.
Karen offered tips on getting started with LinkedIn, and noted that the listener should not feel embarrassed about asking for help in finding a new job. “People like to help each other to the extent they can figure out how,” says Karen. “And the other thing is, we’re all going to be in that seat, one way or another, we’re all going to need that help. This happens to everyone.”
7. Startup
Former This American Life producer Alex Blumberg went meta with his first post-NPR venture. He created a podcast about quitting his job to start a podcast network. If you’re thinking about following your entrepreneurial dreams, Startup is an honest and fascinating insider look into the world of startups, from raising money to building a team to keeping your spouse on board when things get stressful.
“We’re interested in getting behind the scenes, seeing the anxieties, fears and mistakes that go along with the successes,” Blumberg told Forbes. “Because, of course, there are no straight successes. The anxieties, fears and mistakes are there at every company, no matter how successful. So, given that the anxieties and mistakes are a constant, what differentiates the successes from the failures? And a big part of it, of course, is how the founders deal with the anxiety and learn from the mistakes. That’s a big lesson I’ve learned.”
Start with the first episode, Alex’s disastrous pitch to billionaire investor Chris Sacca, which started him on the path to turning his mistakes into success.
Did we miss your favorite podcast? Share your recommendations in the comments.
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We’ve heard from our community that you want to learn more about the new technologies that are driving businesses today. One of these tools is Slack, an asynchronous collaboration tool that lets you manage existing projects, plan new initiatives, and share your work with other members of your team. Slack is used by teams at Oracle, Target, Airbnb, and NASA, among many other companies, in industries ranging from media to finance to non-profits.
The Next for Me team has been using Slack from the beginning, and we’ve found it an invaluable tool for communication. When we’re trying to remember a great newsletter topic we brainstormed last month we can use Slack’s search tool to recall it, along with reference links we shared and accompanying images we found. We track our conversations around website updates, event planning, and lots more.
We’d like to invite you to Next for Me’s Slack channel. There you can introduce yourself, talk with others in our community, and let our team know the topics that are most relevant to you. It’s a safe environment to learn a new tool that will help you in the modern workplace. We’ll also use your feedback in a future guide to using Slack.
(If you haven’t already, be sure to download our Over 50 Job Guide and our guide for Building Your Brand on Social Media.)
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