You’re facilitating a company leadership training session open to anyone who cares to join. The virtual session started at 9:00 AM sharp. By 9:15, half of the Gen Z attendees have their cameras off, the Millennials are not-so-subtly multitasking, and you, Gen X facilitator, are left wondering where it all went wrong.
Substitute any context for this training session (town halls, project readouts, team meetings) and we suspect the same observations hold true. If you’ve noticed patterns like this or others, let us reassure you: you’re not alone. Some organizations currently have four generations working together, all bringing their own unique motivators, preferences, and expectations around accepted ways of working. Navigating these differences can certainly be a challenge, and only 10% of organizations feel truly prepared to address it.
You could dig in and keep delivering development experiences the way you always have. Or you could rebuild everything from scratch to meet the hyper-specific needs of each generation. The good news is you don’t need to become an expert in generational psychology or completely overhaul your approach overnight. However, you do need to expand your toolkit. Below are principles that, while not revolutionary, we’ve seen make a real difference.
Common pitfall: Defaulting to the same format you’ve always used
That twice-a-year, weeklong offsite? It’s powerful for some and falls flat for others. Clients we work with have seen declining participation rates in their traditional development programs. People learn in different ways, especially across generational cohorts, and that’s ok. There’s no such thing as the ‘average learner’ and designing for one means you’re likely reaching no one particularly well.
Consider instead: Creating multiple paths to build the same skills
Rather than a one-size-fits-all learning approach, think about offering a menu of development experiences. This might include self-paced online modules that can be deployed at scale along with live workshops for especially complex topics. Some of our clients at the forefront of development are employing a mixture of scalable formats (e.g., podcasts and digital tools) paired with personalized forums (e.g., coaching, mentorship).
Common pitfall: Assuming mentorship only happens top down
When mentorship only flows downward, it sends an unintentional message: seniority equals having all the answers. This is especially disengaging for Gen Z leaders who are more willing and more comfortable challenging established structures and processes.
Consider instead: Making mentorship a two-way exchange
A two-way mentorship model is a strategic move. It builds cross-functional, cross-level, and cross-generational empathy. It also fosters a culture of continuous improvement at every level. The magic happens when the tenured executive gains insights into gaps they didn’t know they had, and the emerging leader gets exposure and confidence with executive audiences.
Common pitfall: Treating inclusion-related as separate entities
We hear it often: you want leaders to foster psychological safety, so your business sees more creativity, risk-taking, and engagement. So, you train specifically for inclusive and equitable practices. However, treating these topics as separate domains signals that they are “nice to have” skills rather than core leadership expectations. Ultimately, those DEI practices fail to show up in everyday leadership.
Consider instead: Weaving inclusion into every development experience
Your organization’s philosophy should be at the core of all learning experiences. In this way, you position behaviors as driven by values. Picture this: leaders at your company are not good at delivering feedback, so you want to offer workshops to train this skill. Rather than teaching one feedback framework, help people practice adapting feedback to their audience. Offer toolkits that help leaders think through the impact of power dynamics, social norms, and communication differences. Inclusion becomes a lens, not a lesson.
Common pitfall: Focusing exclusively on short-term development (or long-term development)
When building leadership programs, organizations often swing hard in one direction or the other: either they want quick results (“we want leaders to put this skill into practice immediately”) or they see this work as an investment in their pipeline (“we want to prepare Directors to be our VPs in 5-7 years”). Focus only on the long term, and high potentials leave before you promote them. Focus only on quick wins, and your C-suite will wonder where their real ROI went.
Consider instead: Great development experiences deliver both
Design developmental experiences with both the short and long term in mind. Bucket your skills into ‘quick wins’ and ‘long game’ categories, then design experiences that support both. For example, delegating and managing larger teams is a quick win; perhaps participants could lead a cross-functional project as part of their program. Strategic thinking and resilience are skills that require long-term practice; these are ripe for mentorship and coaching support.
The best advice research provides is to treat generational stereotypes as hypotheses worth exploring, not foregone conclusions. Patterns exist, and it’s helpful to understand how economic, political, and technological shifts have shaped each cohort. The key? Don’t assume, ask. Make space in your development programs for people to share what motivates them and what kind of support they need. You might discover a 25-year-old craving traditional mentorship and a 55-year-old who’s hungry for cutting-edge tech training. Our Leadership Development Programs are designed with this flexibility in mind, offering pathways that adapt to diverse motivators and learning needs across generations.
As organizations navigate the realities of four generations working side-by-side, leadership development must evolve to keep pace. Approaches that honor diverse motivations, use multiple learning pathways, and embed inclusion throughout are far more likely to deliver lasting impact. Our Leadership Development Programs reflect this philosophy, helping organizations develop leaders who can thrive amid a workforce defined by complexity and change.