CHAPTER  3

Managing Boomers

Two reasons to hire Boomers: They don’t expect to be complimented for breathing and they’re unlikely to take the week off because someone broke their heart.

—Cindy Cooke, Director of Boomerz¹

Pushing Back Retirement

As they prepare to retire, many Baby Boomers are looking forward to either starting new careers or engaging in active retirements. Unfortunately, because their stock investments and retirement accounts took such a drastic hit during the economic meltdown of 2008, many Baby Boomers will have to wait to do either. In an AARP survey published in May 2008, 27 percent of workers ages 45 and up said the economic slowdown had prompted them to postpone plans to retire.² The good news for employers is that they will continue to be in the workforce for some time to come. The bad news for Gen X and Gen Y is that Baby Boomers will continue to be in the workforce for some time to come, potentially blocking their path to advancement.

Most Baby Boomers have much to offer. They have the experience to successfully get their jobs done while avoiding the pitfalls that come with gaining that experience. Unfortunately, some may be on “cruise control,” just waiting to exit. Worse, some may have already retired without actually leaving the building. Whatever the case, the challenge for any manager is to maximize the contributions they make before they leave while minimizing the damage some may cause by staying.

Take Bill, for example. He’s a Baby Boomer account executive for a heavy equipment supply company. He knows the likes and dislikes of all the buyers to whom he sells. He sees many of them at church and the Rotary Club. He sends their kids birthday cards and congratulatory texts when they hit a Little League home run or have a piano recital. He knows never to call on one certain customer in the mornings because the fellow is usually hungover. He never calls on another in the afternoon because her mood tends to worsen as the day progresses.

Bill always exceeds his quota and makes his bonuses. Bill manages his internal relationships as carefully as his external relationships with his customers. He has friends in packing, production, and shipping. These carefully built connections allow Bill to expedite orders for his customers and excel as a salesperson.

No one is irreplaceable, nor should they be, but replacing Bill when he finally retires will be costly. The longer you can keep the Bills of the world around, the greater the benefit to the organization and your team.

Not that Bill is perfect. Despite the great value he adds to the organization, he sometimes stands in the way of progress because he’s slow to adapt to new technology. Long after his company was using electronic ordering, he was still doing his orders on paper and having someone else enter them on the computer. He often voices his opinions loudly when he thinks things are going in the wrong direction, which can be positive when he’s right but distracting and time wasting when he’s wrong.

Anyone managing Bill would need to have some strategic goals in mind:

Keep him motivated and excited about the job he’s doing so he continues to contribute and make sales.

Ensure that he trains and mentors a replacement so his hard-earned “tricks of the trade” aren’t lost when he leaves.

Help him overcome his resistance to change so he doesn’t stand in the way of progress.

Tips for Managing Boomers

1. Don’t Ignore Them

Since these folks have been around for a while, they probably have the ability to get along on their own without much interference. It’s tempting to leave them alone and direct your attention to the more demanding Generation Xers and Generation Yers. That can be a mistake.

This is the generation that craved teamwork. They practically invented it. They often have more to contribute than anyone else. Leaving them alone risks losing their insights into the team process, organizational politics, and operational intricacies.

That doesn’t mean looking over their shoulders. Given their experience on the job, Baby Boomers are particularly sensitive to feeling micro-managed. Engage them when you need their help but avoid holding their hands.

2. Make Them Mentors

Assigning a sempai (mentor) to a kohai (mentee) is a common practice among Japanese companies. A promising young manager, the kohai, is assigned to an older, more experienced manager, the sempai. The sempai is usually outside the kohai’s chain of command and functions much like a “godfather” to him or her. In addition to his normal managerial duties, the sempai helps the kohai succeed in all areas of work from technical know-how to operational issues to organizational politics.

There’s a wonderful scene in the movie Tampopo in which a group of Japanese businessmen go to lunch at a fancy French restaurant. As is the custom in Japanese culture, everyone waits for the CEO to order and then they all order the same thing. When the waiter gets to the youngest member of the group, however, he grills the waiter about all the options on the menu, asking which wines go with which entrées, and finally orders a meal three times more expensive than that of the CEO. As he does this, his sempai is kicking him under the table, trying to keep him from killing his career.

You may wonder why you wouldn’t just have the young person’s manager be the sempai. Isn’t it the manager’s job to mentor her people? To a degree, that’s true, but the manager must often make decisions that adversely affect the kohai. She may have to pass him over for a promotion or place him on an assignment that is necessary but won’t contribute to his growth. Her first responsibility is not to the kohai but to the work unit.

On the other hand, because the sempai has no responsibility for the success of the kohai’s work unit, but is only accountable for the success of the kohai, he or she can focus on helping the kohai do well. It’s a matter of incentive. The manager is rewarded when the group is successful. The sempai is rewarded when the kohai is successful. If the manager has to fire the kohai, it becomes a black mark on the sempai’s career.

Consequently, the subordinate is rewarded because he can be more open with someone who is not part of the chain of command. The sempai can get at the real reasons an employee is flailing, not just the politically correct, pat answers one might give to the boss. Together, they can address the real issues. Wouldn’t you have loved to have had a mentor with that level of interest in your success early in your career?

Our suggestion is to create a system that assigns Baby Boomers to serve as sempais for promising Gen Xers and Gen Yers. Include it as an assigned duty on the contract that is the basis for the Baby Boomers’ performance reviews. Be sure to involve each Baby Boomer sempai in the process of selecting the kohai, identifying the kohai’s goals, establishing the criteria for her success, and clarifying personal preferences so the Boomer doesn’t feel like he didn’t have a say in whom he was assigned or what he was supposed to accomplish.

When a Gen X kohai achieves success by mastering a skill, completing a project, or getting promoted, be sure to invite her Baby Boomer sempai to the recognition party and applaud him for his part in the success.

3. Ask for Continuing Contributions

Art, a heavy equipment mechanic for a city government, was a Baby Boomer four years away from retirement. According to his Gen Xer boss, Jan, Art had been on cruise control for some time. His production numbers were down, although they weren’t below acceptable levels. He came to work, did his job, and went home. If he talked about anything, it was about how anxious he was to retire or how crappy the equipment was at work.

Take the system for removing engines. The organization only had cherry-picker-type removal devices. They were fine for pulling engines on cars and pickup trucks, but to pull an engine on something big, like a fire engine, the mechanics had to jerry rig a cherry picker to make it work. It was awkward, time-consuming, and not safe.

Tired of listening to him gripe, Jan asked Art to head a committee of mechanics to develop a better solution. Reluctantly, Art agreed. He and the group decided the shop needed an overhead crane system, but the budget deficit—it was early 2009, California was going broke, and all governmental agencies were screaming poverty—made it unlikely that such a high-cost item would ever be approved. Jan told Art that if his committee could figure how to justify the investment, he would be leaving a legacy that would benefit his fellow mechanics and the city for years to come.

With that, Art was hooked. He dove into the project, working on it during his lunch hours, after work, and on weekends. He and his team ran time-in-motion studies and gathered statistics comparing cherry pickers to overhead cranes. They contacted other equipment management centers to get their input on the best, most cost-efficient equipment, and they created blueprints for the installation.

When the team was ready, it presented its proposal to the City Council, which was, at the time, the only body that could approve such a large expenditure. After a brilliant presentation, in which Art and his team showed the short- and long-term return on investment for the project, the council approved it. Art and his team worked with the city contracting office, the architect, and the contractor to ensure the finished product met their specifications.

Since that project, Art has led two other special projects that have been successful—in addition to fixing cars, trucks, and fire engines on his regular job. Best of all, he doesn’t just show up for work every day. According to Jan, he now seems to dive into every day with gusto. He still gripes about the equipment, but now he offers solutions—and he rarely talks about retirement.

Asking Baby Boomers to recommit themselves to their jobs in new and creative ways will often recapture their hearts and stimulate them to contribute until the day they leave.

4. Don’t Give Up on Them

According to a survey of more than 2,200 employees ages 17 to 81 and representing 9 organizations in different industries, “older Baby Boomers (ages 53 to 61) reported significantly less support from their supervisors to acquire additional training to further their careers than did workers ages 27 to 52” (Generation Xers and younger Boomers). They also reported less access to flexible work options than did Gen Xers and Gen Yers. In addition, “those with the least amount of job tenure (0–3 years) felt more supported by their supervisors, and that they had greater access to learning and development opportunities than those with more than three years on the job.”³

Neglecting the growth needs of Baby Boomers is understandable. They seem to be successful doing what they are doing, so why would they need the attention? After all, they’ll be leaving soon, so why waste money training them when it can be better spent on someone younger?

That can be a mistake. With many Boomers planning to extend their careers because they can’t afford to retire or simply like working, they may be around longer than you think. Since most Gen Xers and Gen Yers view their jobs as temporary assignments, paying to train older employees may be the safer bet. Even if the Boomer retires before you get a return on your investment, you may be able to recover that investment with some creative planning.

We know a Baby Boomer telecommunications engineer who oversaw the installation of large phone systems for big corporate customers. Six months before her retirement, her company significantly upgraded these systems, which required extensive new training for installers and the completion of a certification process. Her boss made a deal with her: He would send her to the training so she could be certified if she would agree to be on call for one year after retiring at her regular salary, prorated to a daily fee. It was a win/win. The company got the benefit of her certification for the last year she was there, plus a full year of being an on-call contractor. She got the benefit of being able to charge other consulting clients more after she retired because she had this certification.

Whether or not you can work such a sweet deal with your Baby Boomers, it would serve you well to think twice before automatically writing them off for training, no matter how close they are to leaving.

5. Deal with Resistance

The good news about Baby Boomers is that they have a wealth of experience and a long organizational memory. They know what has worked and what has failed. They know how to use the system to get things done.

The bad news is they may be convinced that what worked in the past needs to continue, regardless of whether it’s still the best way to do business. They can drag their feet when it comes to change. Overcoming that resistance is important. For example, they may not take advantage of the training necessary to advance to the next level or to master new systems. They may figure, “Why bother? I’ll be out of here in six months anyway.”

If you simply let them resist, figuring they will retire soon, you risk eroding your credibility with the Gen Xers and Gen Yers who are watching. Down the road, you may want them to make a change they don’t want, and they’ll remember how you handled change with your Boomers. Your failure to insist that the Boomers “get with the program” may come back to bite you. More important, by allowing a Baby Boomer to opt out of a change effort, the organization and the team are cheated out of any increases in productivity the reluctant Boomer would have delivered with the new system or approach.

A Boomer’s Perspective on Overcoming Resistance to Change

Show Them Paree

We have a client who applied the “Show Them Paree” principle to a car dealership he owns. In an effort to make the culture more customer oriented, he contracted to send his employees through the Ritz-Carlton new employee orientation, so they could learn how to live the Ritz-Carlton mission: “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” The owner reported that the biggest changes came from some of the most hard-bitten, Baby Boomer salesmen. They returned to work with a new attitude about serving customers and a willingness to try new approaches that the owner had never seen before.

If your Baby Boomers are resisting changes, forcing them should be your last option, especially if they’re close to retirement. They can simply wait you out. If you can help them see, and actually experience, the benefits they will get from embracing the change, the odds increase that they’ll jump on board, even if retirement is just around the corner.

6. Confront Negative Behavior

Occasionally, a Baby Boomer may adopt a less-than-positive attitude as she approaches retirement. It may be based on unhappiness with the company or her circumstances or on mixed feelings about leaving. Or, it may simply be a product of “Short-Timer Syndrome,” in which her mind and spirit have moved on to the next step in the road. Whatever the cause, if it’s creating a problem that is affecting the quality or quantity of output, profitability, customer satisfaction, or team morale, the manager must deal with it.

Talking with her is the first step. In a private conversation, we recommend using the Six-Step Conversation:

1. Describe the problem. “Jan, I’ve noticed that in the last few months your reports have been late and, on two occasions, they had to be completely revised because they were inaccurate. I’ve also received complaints from three different clients that you’re not returning their phone calls or emails. You don’t seem to be attentive during staff meetings. Yesterday, Tim asked you about delivery status on an order, and it was like you didn’t hear him.”

2. Explain your concern. “I’m concerned. It’s affecting our productivity and, with other people noticing, it’s having a negative impact on team morale. Most of all, I’m concerned about you. You’ve always done a terrific job, and this change in behavior is really puzzling. I understand that retirement is not far off for you. Does that have anything to do with this or is there something else going on?”

3. Listen to and acknowledge the person’s issues. The key here is to listen without passing judgment or saying anything except to repeat back what she says and how you think she feels. This can be an interactive discussion, but you should do most of the listening. It may require flexibility on your part to accommodate her specific situation. For example, she may have a spouse who is sick and her concerns about him have dominated her thoughts. If so, you may want to adjust her schedule or alter her workload to help her if it’s appropriate. It is important, however, that you keep the conversation focused on the issues at hand and not allow this unacceptable behavior to be excused or to continue.

4. Ask for an agreement to change. “Jan, I really need your head in the game while you’re still here. What can I do to help you?”

5. Clarify what’s been agreed on. “Okay, so you’re going to make sure your reports are timely and accurate and you’ll return calls and texts to customers within an hour. I will see that you’re put on a flextime schedule so you can be with your husband more. Do we have an agreement?”

6. Express confidence and confidently expect change. “Jan, I appreciate your help here. Like I said, you’ve always been a great contributor, and I truly appreciate your turning this around.”

From this point, observe Jan to see if the changes occur. If they do, express your appreciation in a quiet and unobtrusive manner, preferably in private. You don’t want to embarrass your wayward Boomer by congratulating her for getting her act together in front of others. If, on the other hand, the behavior continues or worsens, don’t hesitate to discuss the issue again, this time outlining the consequences of her noncompliance. It may be a good time to consider arranging early retirement for her or pursuing disciplinary procedures that are endorsed by your Human Resources department.

7. Offer Opportunities to Volunteer

Many Baby Boomers have reached a point where they want to give back to society, perhaps to fulfill unrealized desires to change the world that have been dormant since the 1960s or because they feel it’s time to balance the scales of karma. In 2005, nearly one-third of all Baby Boomers volunteered with formal organizations, which the Corporation for National and Community Service called the highest volunteer rate of any American group.⁵

According to the U.S. Committee on Education and Labor Web site, the recently passed Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act will triple the number of volunteers nationwide to 250,000.⁶

You can tap into this desire to serve and enhance your company’s image at the same time. Start by involving your Baby Boomers and other employees in identifying the organizations they want to support. Put Boomers in charge of communicating with these organizations to find out what they need and sharing that information within your company. Work with your leaders to develop guidelines for how your company will support these volunteer efforts.

Baby Boomers want to serve. Helping them fulfill this desire will reenergize them, not only for the volunteering they are doing but for the company that supports them.

Tips for Younger Managers Working with Boomers

Nearly all managers must oversee people older than they are. If you are a Gen Xer or Gen Yer with Baby Boomers to manage, your success, to a large degree, is tied to how well they perform. You can help them do their best by understanding the key signposts that shaped their generation, as described in Chapter 2, and what they need from a manager at this stage of their careers.

1. Respect Their Experience

Acknowledge their experience by asking for advice. All of us like to think we have value. To a Boomer, much of that value comes from having decades of experience. Be careful, however, not to come across as pandering. Most people can tell when a manager is saying something he doesn’t really mean. Focus on the work, and ask legitimate questions that acknowledge the older person’s experience.

We know a Gen X sales manager who makes it a point to ask his Baby Boomer sales reps how they have handled specific customers. For example, he will say, “Hey, Jane, the buyer over at Dickenson’s is giving our new sales rep a hard time. He won’t give her the time of day and when he does, he tries to flirt with her. I understand you’ve had success dealing with him. What would you suggest?”

2. Give Them Room Without Abandoning Them

Most Baby Boomers should be at a point in their careers where they don’t need much direct supervision. Too much, and they may accuse you of micromanaging. It’s a matter of personal perception. You may think you are keeping your distance and not following your Boomer’s progress on a project closely enough. He, on the other hand, may think you’re always in his hair.

We suggest you have a frank conversation about boundaries and communication requirements early in your relationship. Make sure he knows you won’t stand in the way of getting his job done. Rather, that you are there to support him and get him what he needs to achieve his goals. On the other hand, be clear about how often you want to hear from him, how quickly you want to be notified of any problems, and what kind of support you expect.

For example, how often do you expect him to inform you about day-to-day events? How do you want him to do so? Phone? Email? Twitter? At what point do you expect him to involve you in a problem? Immediately, so you can be involved in the solution, or only after he’s tried to fix it and notifies you that he needs your help? How serious should the problem be before he calls?

These kinds of issues should be discussed early in every manager/subordinate relationship to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts down the road. For the young manager/older employee relationship, however, it’s even more important, because the potential for misunderstanding and hurt feelings is so much greater than when the age difference is reversed.

3. Prove Yourself Through Performance

You are younger than the Boomers and that won’t change. For a while, you will be perceived as “just a kid.” Accept it and have a sense of humor about it. You will gain respect by your performance.

For example, a brilliant young software engineer we know was promoted to lead a team of senior scientists because they were working with advanced systems in which he had expertise. When a disagreement would arise about how to handle a problem with the system, he made it a practice to ask for their opinions first. If their solutions seemed right to him, he’d say something like, “Great, that makes sense to me.” If he disagreed, he would often make a comment like, “I’m the one with the least experience, but I have an idea. What do you think about… ? In your experience do you think that would work?” and then present his case. As the Boomers got to know him and trust that he really understood what he was talking about, he was able to drop the humorous disqualifiers and engage with them as equals. He said it took about a year to get to that point.

4. Practice “Radar O’Reilly Management”

If you ever saw the television series M*A*S*H, you probably remember Radar O’Reilly, played by Gary Burghoff, a cute, naive young man who slept with a teddy bear and drank Nehi sodas. His title was Company Clerk and Bugler. His real job, however, was to get the surgeons and nurses what they needed to do their jobs well. If they needed scalpels, he tracked them down and delivered them. If they needed a generator but none was available, he’d wheel and deal with clerks from other companies to score one. If they needed strings pulled with some top general so they could get some R&R in Tokyo, he’d persuade Colonel Potter to do it even if it was against the colonel’s best judgment. One way or another, Radar got the job done and earned the respect of the others in camp, despite the fact he was only a corporal and looked 12 years old.

As a manager of people older than yourself, you want their perception to be that you are doing a great job for them. This is especially true when they observe how you deal with those above you. All your direct reports are looking to you to see how you deal with the “suits” upstairs. If you do this well and get them what they need to do their jobs well, their respect for you will climb.

5. Capture the Wisdom Boomers Offer—Before It’s Too Late

When a Texas Instruments technician making control boards on a radar equipment assembly line accepted early retirement, she took with her the only knowledge about correct assembly procedures in her area—the errors in the printed documentation were all in her head. The problem was easily fixed once the faulty documentation was recognized, but the temporary loss of this knowledge cost the company $200,000 and lots of customer goodwill.⁷

This story comes from Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce by David DeLong. In an interview, DeLong stated that most companies across the United States and around the world have Baby Boomers with deep knowledge of complex business processes, technical systems, advanced scientific processes, and complicated global management practices that are critical to the futures of their respective businesses. Their departure will likely have a major impact on the ability of these organizations to sustain high levels of performance.

Between 1969 and 1972, NASA completed six missions to the moon, DeLong points out. We could not repeat the same feat today because the people who made it happen have either died or retired and, unfortunately, the knowledge they acquired was never passed on. He suggests five key steps companies should take to minimize the costs of the looming brain drain caused by Baby Boomer retirements:

1. Recognize that not all retiring Baby Boomers are equal in terms of critical knowledge. Identify those whose departure will have the greatest impact on the organization.

2. Clarify how much time you have before specific individuals leave. This will determine your options and tactics for transferring essential knowledge.

3. Recognize the double-edged sword created by the recession of 2008. On the one hand, it makes it easier to retain Baby Boomers. Their 401ks have been decimated, so they need the money. On the other hand, it makes them reluctant to share their know-how because, as long as the knowledge is locked up in their heads, it’s more likely they will keep their jobs. Your challenge is to reassure them that transferring what they know to younger employees will not raise the odds they’ll become redundant.

4. Identify specific types of knowledge at risk. DeLong says there are three types of knowledge to consider when planning a knowledge transfer program for your company:

Explicit knowledge—includes facts, figures, procedures, and sequences. It’s all the things that can be easily transferred by reading, watching videos, and attending lectures.

Implicit knowledge—easily articulated if you ask the right questions. For example, since we deliver close to 200 speeches and seminars every year, we are often asked how to give a good talk. Much of it we don’t really think about, but if you asked us specifically how we handle a tough question from an audience member, we could probably tell you a story about how we handled one, and then clarify how we did it.

Tacit knowledge—information you know in your gut, which is best transferred through mentoring and learning by doing. What a project manager does every day to keep her projects on time, on target, and on budget is a good example.

5. Continually connect knowledge transfer efforts to important business outcomes. Whose departure will impact you most, based on your desired strategic outcomes? For example, if your company is driven by innovation, the product developers in R&D may be where you want to concentrate your efforts. On the other hand, if your company is more focused on growth, maybe you should focus on the retiring salespeople who are most successful.

The important thing is that you take the looming exodus of Baby Boomers seriously. We recommend DeLong’s book for all organizational executives, whether in business, health care, government, or not for profit. The future is coming, and the Baby Boomers won’t be around to help you deal with it, so now is the time to prepare.

6. Motivate Them on Their Terms

The owners of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership wanted to reward their lead mechanic, a Baby Boomer who had been with them for 20 years, for his loyalty and dedication. They decided to give the mechanic and his wife an all-expenses-paid vacation to Hawaii. At a special luncheon, they described the mechanic’s stellar performance over the years and then awarded him the trip.

From the look on his face, they could tell he was not thrilled about the award. Later, they asked him what he thought of the trip. He replied that he didn’t mean to be ungrateful, but his wife had recently left him for another man, and he didn’t particularly want to go to Hawaii with her or anyone else. The flabbergasted owners asked him what he would prefer instead, and he said he really liked the fancy toolbox the Snap-on sales representative had tried to sell him recently. The owners offered the toolbox instead of the Hawaii trip, and the mechanic felt better—not great—but better. It would have been better to have checked with him before the public ceremony.

What motivates people is highly individualistic, especially for Baby Boomers who have lived long enough to have a wealth of experiences. In choosing special awards or incentives for them, increased contributions to a 401k, flexible schedules so they can start developing postretirement interests, and opportunities to be recognized and applauded for their achievements make sense for most, but that doesn’t mean all Boomers will want those things.

The obvious step is to ask the Boomer what reward would best recognize his contribution and then listen. For example, a Generation X manager wants to reward a Baby Boomer employee for good work, so she offers him some time off to spend with his family. He declines, noting that he has a big project he’s trying to complete and taking time off would just add to his stress. The smart manager would ask, “How can I reward you for your terrific work?”

7. Leverage Strength in New Ways

Baby Boomers have had long careers to hone skills that can very often be put to use in new and innovative ways. Give them the opportunity to do so; it will help them restart their motors and renew their commitment to the organization.

The Medical Records department at Health Central in Ocoee, Florida, had poor turnaround time that impacted Accounts Receivable days and unbilled discharges. Patient and physician satisfaction was poor because the department was not timely in releasing medical records for continuity of care. Employee morale and satisfaction were extremely low and turnover was high. Internal customer satisfaction was also very low. To make things worse, the department had recently implemented an electronic medical record system, and users had not been trained to use it. The department director had resigned and the hospital was looking for a replacement.

The director of the hospital’s Quality Management Department, Kathy Deel, suggested that she could run Medical Records, as well as Quality Management. Kathy had successfully combined these two departments at another hospital.

The executive committee gave her the go-ahead. Kathy, who was 55 years of age at the time, told us that the challenge was like a shot of adrenaline for her. Under her leadership, the newly combined department was prospering within a year. Medical record turnaround time was reduced from 4 days to 24 hours, well below the industry benchmark. She focused the staff on eliminating waste and revamping processes, which improved efficiency so much that she did not fill the vacancies that occurred with attrition. She also let some nonperformers go and didn’t fill their positions. Today, the department operates with one-third fewer employees, patient and physician satisfaction is up, and the department is recognized as one of the best medical records units by its electronic medical record vendor. Most of all, says Kathy, the staff members who remained have an attitude of pride and team spirit that was missing before she took over.⁸

Managing Up the Age Ladder: The Dilemma of Xers and Yers Managing Boomers

1. Arrange for Recognition and Credit

Late, great Alabama football coach Bear Bryant was once asked to identify the secret to his success. He replied, “If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semigood, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games.”

Like any generation, Baby Boomers like to be recognized for their achievements. To the degree you can make that happen, you will reap the rewards of their loyalty. You must be careful, however, not to sound fawning. The chances of this happening are directly proportional to the difference in your ages. If you are more than 10 years younger than the Baby Boomer you are praising, see if you can enlist the help of another Boomer from whom the praise will carry more meaning.

For example, during a team meeting, Judy, the Gen Y team leader, commented that Jack, the Baby Boomer, had really gone the extra mile to resolve a customer problem. She said, “And it’s not the first time. Bill was telling me about what you did on the Anderson account, right Bill?” At that point, Bill made a comment supporting Jack’s abilities. It gave Jack a double dose of praise, and it built Judy’s credibility because she (1) did her homework and (2) proved she’s willing to give credit where credit was due.

2. Find Your Veteran Sergeants

We have a friend who survived three tours in Vietnam as a Marine officer. He went over as a second lieutenant and left as a major. He said the most important lesson he learned was to hook up with each platoon sergeant assigned to him and ask what he needed from him to be successful. He did this when he arrived in Vietnam, and the first veteran said, “Watch our backs and don’t get us killed.” Not knowing quite how to do that yet, our friend said, “Okay, if you’ll give me a straight answer when I ask you for help.” They shook hands on the deal.

The next night they went on their first patrol. Our friend took the veteran aside and said, “You know this country better than anyone, especially me. How do you think we ought to approach this patrol?” The veteran gave him the advice he sought, and the patrol went without incident. The next morning, he said to the veteran, “In the future, if you think I’m wrong or I’m making a mistake, I want you to take me aside and tell me. I can’t promise I’ll always do what you suggest, but I want to hear what you have to say.” It was the beginning of a three-tour partnership and a lifelong friendship.

All great leaders surround themselves with advisers who may have wisdom in areas they lack. Making an ally of a Baby Boomer who holds the respect of the team will do the same for you. It will enhance your credibility with the entire team and give you support when things get rough. Best of all, the Baby Boomer with whom you build this adviser/advisee relationship will tend to feel more vested in your success and in the success of the group.

The Bottom Line

Every generation adds value to an organization. Baby Boomers may be nearing retirement, but that doesn’t mean they should be shunted to the side and ignored. They have the experience that can provide historical perspective for the decisions you face. They have overcome many obstacles and that tenacity can help your organization meet new challenges. They are team players who can enhance any group in which they participate.

But they need to be engaged. They need to feel they are still valuable to the organization. They need the freedom to act on their accumulated knowledge and skills without being micromanaged—but they don’t want to be left totally adrift.

Successfully managing Baby Boomers means keeping them motivated and excited about their jobs, communicating—and listening—to ensure that they are aligned with the goals of your group and organization, and giving them the support they need to continue to perform at the highest levels.

And don’t forget to capture their knowledge so all is not lost when retirement calls.