Leading with Intention: Managing Across Generational Divides in the Workplace

What's expected by employees in the workplace—from Baby Boomers to Gen Zers—is radically different from one generation to the next. In the war for talent, how do companies acquire, retain and manage employees' differing expectations, work and communication styles, and feedback requirements. The intentionality of leadership could unlock greater innovation, productivity and performance across the enterprise.

Transcription:
Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio for the authoritative record.

Mary Ellen Egan (00:08):
Hello everyone. Good afternoon. It's me, your favorite moderator in case you forgot. I'm here. We have a really interesting topic of conversation and we had a really great prep call. So I'm joined by Kristin Lesher, who's the chief wholesale banking officer at Truist, Hope Dmuchowski, who's the senior EVP and CFO at First Horizon, Hope's on the end, and Solita Marcelli, who's the global head of investment management, UBS Global Wealth Management. So we're talking about leading with attention, managing across generational divides. And I think one of the things we had discussed is that this is probably the largest age range that's been in business because the boomers like me aren't leaving and the younger people are like, "Leave." There's a whole different range, but how do you first get your head around that? You're dealing with very different, not just ages, but skillsets and generational and cultural differences.

(01:10):
Kristin, you want to start?

Kristin Lesher (01:11):
Sure. No one's telling you to leave, by the way. I'm not going. I would say that one of the things I really think about is not to get sucked into the stereotypes or typing people because in all honesty, everybody wants the same thing. They want to learn, they want to have someone who's going to mentor and coach them. They want to do interesting work. They want to have opportunities to get promoted. And so for me, it's a lot less about thinking about the generations and more about really focusing in on the individuals on the team and what is it that motivates you, how can we coach you to your highest potential, and how can we put groups of people together intentionally to get them to become the highest performing team?

Solita Marcelli (01:59):
So you're right. It's not unusual today to see three, four, even maybe five generations working side by side. And let's be honest, it is different. The newer generations, I would say maybe more digital native, they're quicker to adopt. They more readily challenge the status quo. They really are focusing on roles that have purpose and meaning. And so that is true, but I would say great leadership has always been about managing diverse teams. What people want from their leader has not really changed. They want trust, they want transparency, and they want a vision. What has changed in this landscape where we have several generations working together is how to deliver that when now there are more varied styles that you have to connect with or more varied expectations. I think if you get that right, this generational gap is not necessarily a problem to solve, but it's really an opportunity to unlock the best of everyone.

(03:18):
So how do we do that? I think you can do that by combining openness with structure, embracing two-way learning, and leading with clarity. I think if you're able to put these together on a regular basis, you can tap into the best across the generations.

Hope Dmuchowski (03:45):
In addition to everything they said, I think we always have multiple generations, but this new generation is just so different from all of us. They're digital native, they think differently. The schools are teaching differently. I've been amazed. We've hired a couple of new analysts on the finance team the last two years and the training we used to pay some third parties for to come in and teach us how to use the tools—they're already trained on that. They're certified in that. So they've been doing a lot of reverse training even for people 10 years older than them. And so as you think through generational differences, it's just how different they grew up than the generations before them. It's how they're coming out of college trained so differently than even I was 20 years ago. But also, the personal part is understanding the nature of each one of those.

(04:30):
As you have the baby boomers and the generation below that, they're almost coming back to their 30s where they have parents they have to take care of. When you're in your 30s, you had these children you had to get from daycare or take to doctors. I have a lot of my employees that say, "I've got to take a mother or a father to a doctor appointment." Understanding that phase of life also has an impact on what they need for work-life balance and support.

Mary Ellen Egan (04:55):
Because you had talked about—I think one of the things we talked about too is one of the biggest differences is skill sets. The younger generations are training the more senior people because they have skills that... I grew up pre-internet, so AI is still a little bit like, "Oh, I don't know what's going on here." But I think it's so smart because it also helps... I think the reverse is that there's certain institutional knowledge that the older generation has, and also a different social skill set. Are you seeing that there's this trade-off where they teach each other?

Kristin Lesher (05:38):
Yeah. I would say that what I really see is that everybody wants to participate in leadership. And so one thing that I think is fundamentally different, and I think frankly in a great way, is knocking down the walls of the hierarchy and moving to a different way of working together. We have to be open to the fact that everybody has to leave something behind when you do that. I have to leave behind, as an example, the idea that people are going to learn how to spread comps by turning physical pages of a 10K and hand spreading it. They're never going to learn that way. I can't expect that, but what I can expect is, "Wow, teach me how you do this faster, better, and simpler than I ever did." If you put that all together without the hierarchy, you have this ability to bring very diverse skillsets and ways of thinking together and unlock them.

Solita Marcelli (06:43):
In terms of the skillset gap between the two, here's how I think about it. As Hope said, emerging talent often comes in pretty fluent in technology and generative AI. They might even call themselves masters of productivity, but then there's a flip side to that. I'm sure all of us have received some generative AI output from people on our teams where it has missed the mark because it didn't quite catch the context or the nuance. True judgment—knowing what really matters and what works in practice—really requires experience. You might have all the best AI tools at your fingertips, but without the subject matter expertise, you're never going to be the master of your craft. That's where seasoned employees become really invaluable because they bring that deep knowledge, they provide the guardrails, and hopefully help us avoid costly mistakes.

(07:53):
So in my mind, it's not so much of a skill gap; it's more about blending or complementing different strengths. Embracing two-way mentorship is key. We still have the traditional mentorship where senior people mentor younger people, but also we have things like AI ambassadors led by rising talent. It's not so much about having one group of subject matter experts and another group of productivity masters. I think the whole workforce needs to strive to double major in both.

Hope Dmuchowski (08:48):
Yeah. To add to what Kristin said, these young people are not learning the same way we did, but they still need to learn. I see more collaboration between my under-five-year employees and my employees five years toward retirement because there's something valuable they can teach them. We're not handing them a playbook and saying, "This is how you spread financials, sit at your desk all day and do it." They're doing the analysis. It's like, "How do I think about this? Is this the right output?" As one of the banks that's back to the office five days a week—I think most are going that way—it's amazing when you walk the floors to see two or three people sitting in a conference room from multiple layers of management, bringing technology and data analysts into business meetings to help understand things.

(09:34):
The collaboration piece is just amazing between the generations now.

Mary Ellen Egan (09:38):
I think the one big difference is communication styles. I didn't grow up as a digital native, so I'm like the world's slowest texter. If you ever want to text me, be prepared to wait for a while. But also, I've found because I've led reporter pools before, their style of communicating was very different than mine. They're a lot more direct, which isn't a bad thing, but it's different. If you can touch on the differences you've seen and then how you try and bridge that—because I think sometimes you can get at a crossroads because they're not talking to each other in a way that they understand.

Solita Marcelli (10:24):
Can we switch up the order?

Mary Ellen Egan (10:26):
Yeah.

Solita Marcelli (10:28):
Maybe I'll touch on one aspect of communication, which is the feedback part. Feedback is no longer a twice-a-year ordeal. It has to be constant throughout the year, and it's a two-way conversation. As we have more generations working together, we have to move towards a more ongoing dialogue, even in our formal talent process. Now, of course, communication is happening in multiple channels—emails, instant chatting, video calls—but there's something that is timeless, and that's face-to-face interaction. I often find that a quick lunch or a face-to-face meeting can help bridge that generational gap, clear misunderstandings, and build the trust that no technology is going to help you build. In my own experience, a casual coffee conversation often leads to more honest and insightful feedback than an official review process.

(11:49):
It's those personal connections that help people grow. And by the way, there are also some language differences. My daughter is 13, so she's not in the workforce yet, but you almost need a dictionary sometimes. Nobody at work yet has told me "skibidi" or "fire" or whatever that means, so I don't have to worry about that yet. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Mary Ellen Egan (12:24):
Hope, what about you?

Hope Dmuchowski (12:26):
I've always created communication norms with my teams. Last year, I had my top 50 leaders together and we spent an hour on this. One of my quietest leaders who never rocks the boat said, "Let's do a myth busters on communication." We went around the room and said, "What's your biggest complaint about how we communicate?" We had to cut the session off because everybody was like, "I hate when somebody says 'plus' somebody and sends me emails in my inbox." Or, "I hate when somebody copies and pastes this in and I can't see it." What was supposed to be an hour session ended with my leadership team forming a committee to decide how we want to communicate as a team.

(13:05):
For me, don't send me an email that has more than one paragraph. I'm just not going to read a three-page summary of something unless I can drop it in our generative AI. But we've created those norms. We just actually created a rule at our company: if you're going to do a presentation, you get one page per three to five minutes of a meeting. Regardless of the generations, you've got to create those communication norms. It was amazing to me that asking people what annoys them the most was one of the most cathartic things I've ever seen.

Kristin Lesher (13:47):
I think there's really something to that. You have to ask people and understand how they like to be communicated with. I shared an example where in our technology business, I will say, "I'm trying to solve this kind of a problem. Can you help me?" Sometimes what I get back is a white paper that was definitely done by AI, and I have to say, "Okay, I get that's how you like it. Can you just come and talk to me and tell me what the solution is because that's how I like to have communication?" Every person is slightly different. The other thing about communication that is awesome about this generational span is the desire for more context.

(14:42):
It's not just, "I would like you to go do X, Y, and Z," and someone says, "Okay, when do you need it?" It's more, "All right, help me understand why you're looking for this. What is this going to do to drive our company forward?" I find that to be so great because you want to be pushed to explain, "Here's why I'm asking this," because you're going to get better outcomes when you do it that way.

Mary Ellen Egan (15:15):
Yeah, that's one of the things we talked about on our prep call—that the younger generation will say, "Why are you asking me to do this?" Before, my generation was like, "Oh, okay. You told me to do this. I secretly think it's stupid, but you're my boss, so I'm going to do it anyway." I love that they will ask why. Are you seeing that as well?

Hope Dmuchowski (15:41):
Absolutely. I think that comes back to how they're being taught in colleges today—to think and to understand what they're being asked. They don't have a process document or a manual or three people who did the job the exact same way. Jobs are evolving so much. Even with my own children, they're being taught to ask that. They want to understand what you're asking so they can give you the best of what you're asking for.

Solita Marcelli (16:13):
My answer would be yes too, because as we mentioned earlier, emerging talent is really focused on the purpose and the meaning of their role. They care about the why and the how, not just the what. It's quite normal because we are living in an era of transparency on steroids. All information is out in the open. You can click, post, rate, and comment. We have information overload. You go to a restaurant and the calories are right there.

Mary Ellen Egan (16:58):
That's always...

Solita Marcelli (17:00):
And the journey matters as much as the outcome. You order food from Uber Eats and you can track the delivery guy turn by turn. If they make a wrong turn, you're frustrated. When we're living in this era, people do get frustrated at work when the real action happens behind closed doors. That's why you can no longer just hand over a stack of paper and say, "Get this done."

Kristin Lesher (17:39):
By the way, I'm much nicer than that, for the record.

Solita Marcelli (17:41):
Yeah. People need context, and that context really empowers them. As a result, we have to evolve our leadership around it. In my relatively new role, I was thinking about whether I would do exactly what I did before or change my style. Even being in the role for only a couple of months, I had town halls where I walked through my thinking process and how my focus areas are evolving, even if I don't have all the answers. People appreciate that you don't just give the final outcome; they want to come along the journey.

Mary Ellen Egan (18:41):
One of the things we notice is that sometimes the younger generation is more eager or impatient about getting promoted. Then we've got boomers where people wonder when they're leaving, but they want to work still because life has changed and you live longer. How do you keep the talent that's chomping at the bit while not pushing people out?

Kristin Lesher (19:10):
There couldn't be a more exciting time to be thinking about future career moves because the nature of all leadership positions is changing. Recently we went through an exercise where I needed to write down the description of the skills needed to be the chief wholesale banking officer for the next 10 years versus what it was the last 10 years. That's evolving all the time. For us as leaders, getting promoted is about putting the right skill sets together to deliver outcomes. That means you may have to use certain people differently. You may have to move people up, sideways, or diagonally. To me, it feels very different than just looking at the steps it takes to get to the next level. I think the world is wide open now.

Solita Marcelli (20:28):
I think it's less about replacement and more about evolving a career journey. Some of the more experienced employees might take on roles that are more about being strategic advisors or coaching, while you want to give a pathway to the younger generation to get more client and operational experience. Both can live side by side. Of course, you have to take into consideration the cost challenges of the firm, but you can come to an arrangement where someone who has been at the firm for a long time appreciates the ability to still engage rather than just chasing big paychecks. I think it's an open dialogue—being honest and truthful and structuring these different pathways. We benefit a lot from those people who can take the time to share their leadership experiences.

Hope Dmuchowski (22:13):
I talk about leadership and influence over management. I don't ever have a management meeting; I have a leadership meeting. I have a leadership committee that we reset every year with some of our top talent. I talk about how the world has changed. If you would've told me 20 years ago I was going to be a CFO, I would've told you there is zero chance—that job is boring, I'm not going to do it. I remember the day the CFO and CEO called me in. I remember looking at the ugly green carpet and saying, "Daryl, I'm not that type of person. I'm not going to be a CFO." And he said to me, "The CFOs that are coming look more like you and less like me. They're not coming out of accounting or treasury; they're coming out of lines of business and operations." I tell everyone that story: get as much exposure as you can because the seat you want may look different in 10 years.

Mary Ellen Egan (23:18):
I also think leadership has changed so much because I always had the white male boss who was just like, "You do this and you don't question that." That is not useful because you don't empower your employees to weigh in. How have you seen that change, and how has that impacted how you lead?

Kristin Lesher (23:46):
I lead in a really team-oriented fashion. It might be because I went to Kellogg for business school, but that's the way I was taught. When you come in to lead a new team, everyone looks at you and expects you to tell them what to do. I'm like, "No, we're just going to talk. What do you think?" You have to get people to disagree with you and push back. I do that intentionally because I believe everyone's ideas need to get in the room, and the thing you might not think about might be the reason you make a bad decision.

Solita Marcelli (24:35):
I'm in agreement because I'm experiencing the same thing. I took over for someone who had been in the role for decades. It was a different generation and a different leadership style, though still great. A lot of people are surprised and perceive it as, "Maybe she's not into details," or "Is she going to tell us what to do?" I'm not here to tell you exactly what to do. You are all senior leaders; I'm sure you have the answer. Just bring me two or three options and I'll tell you which one I'm leaning toward, but you have to come to that conclusion yourself. Compared to when I started my career, two main things are different. One is you can no longer lead through fear. Especially the newer generation—if they haven't gone through the dotcom bubble or the great financial crisis, they're not walking on eggshells. If they lose their jobs, it's normalized; they can just do a few gigs and find another job.

(26:33):
In that environment, your retention strategy has to be culture and purpose. That doesn't mean authority completely disappears, but it's about striking the right balance between personal connection and meaning on one hand, and structure and accountability on the other. The second thing is that hierarchical structures are proving to have real limits in a digital world. It slows down information and stifles innovation. We now give a lot more independence to teams. If we think about culture, respect, and openness rather than "you do this because I told you so," we are in the right direction.

Hope Dmuchowski (27:53):
It's funny when you ask that because I never experienced that. Starting my career with Deutsche Bank, then BB&T, Truist, and First Horizon, I never experienced that hierarchical "you must do this" environment. I've always worked in growing, innovative companies that encouraged diversity of thought and rotation. We sit down once a year with my leadership team and pick our top talent. If they've sat in their role for more than three years, we rotate them. I have some great peers here who have taken their top talent and suggested rotations in the CFO role. Tammy Locascio, our chief operating officer, took her chief transformation and digital leader—he owned our platforms and developed our AI—and we thought he'd be great in finance. So he came to run investor relations for me. It's amazing when you have peers who want to grow people and give them opportunities to be well-rounded. I guess I'm lucky to work at the companies I've worked at.

Mary Ellen Egan (29:15):
I'm glad you've been spared that. It's not a pleasant experience. I'm sorry we're out of time. I'm sure these ladies will be able to answer some questions afterward. Thank you, Kristin, Solita, and Hope for such a great conversation. Thank you.