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104

How do you lead/manage people who are much older than you? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So I'm getting a promotion soon (yay!), moving up from just a line cook to sous-chef and I've only been with this company for a few months. Thing is that I'm still quite young (mid twenties) and will be the direct supervisor of some people a fair bit older than I am. Think 10-20 years older. It might just still be a bit of imposter syndrome, but the idea of having to tell people who have been in the business for far longer than I what to do and such really weirds me out.

I feel I wouldn't like it if "some young brat" that just got hired almost immediately gets a promotion and becomes my supervisor eventhough I worked at the company for far longer. Though maybe not everyone feels like this.

Do other people who have experience with a situation like this have any advice on how to deal with this? It's kinda been keeping me up at night...

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This happens all the time in the military, where NCOs tend to be older and more experienced than the officers they report to, especially at lower levels of the organization. This sometimes causes issues, but when it works, it's because of two things:

These situations are completely normal for the organization, so everyone knows what to expect and how to maintain decorum.
The officer and NCO have different roles and acknowledge each others' strengths and weaknesses.

My practical advice, then, is this: don't worry so much at first. Your older coworkers may be completely fine with the situation - for example, they may be just fine being line cooks and have no ambitions to move up. If you start getting feelings of resentment from your coworkers, you should address them then.

You can also defer to their greater experience in situations where appropriate. Make sure they understand that while you are acting on their advice, the responsibility still lies with you. If the decision results in an unfavourable outcome, you are the one who will take the blame. However, if the decision results in a favourable outcome instead, be sure to give credit to the advice and experience of your team.