Wander into most workplaces of any size—or Zoom meetings of any size—and you will see employees representative of four or five generations.

There are Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z—a collection of people whose birth dates span decades. On the surface, it would seem there’s plenty of opportunity for more experienced members of the promotional products community to mentor the ones who just recently had their college or high school diplomas framed. 

And while that’s true, the opposite can be true as well. When it comes to mentoring, age is irrelevant, because everyone has the potential to teach others and learn from others. You don’t have to be CEO, a manager or a team leader to mentor someone. I refer to this as leading without authority; that is, even if you aren’t the boss, you have something worthwhile to share with others. The industry is already reaching out to one another through groups like PromoKitchen, an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization with a focus on uplifting promotional products professionals through education, mentorship and inspiration.

If you are a Baby Boomer, someone from Gen Z can clue you in on how young people prefer to communicate, which can help you not only with co-workers, but also with potential clients or customers. If you are a Millennial, a Traditionalist can use their years of accumulated wisdom to help you navigate obstacles you’re almost certain to encounter because they have been there themselves.

Sadly, although people think it’s worthwhile to have a mentor, those relationships don’t always develop. In 2019, Olivet Nazarene University conducted a study on the subject. The university found that while 76% of people think mentors are important, only 37% currently have one.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the study also found that most people who have mentors—57%—are junior-level employees. Meanwhile, 35% are mid-level and just 8% are senior-level. In an intergenerational workforce it would be nice to see those percentages balance out more because those top-level people are missing out.

That’s because to be successful in this era requires generational intelligence, which means being aware of others’ experiences or worldviews, understanding their preferences, and using this information to adapt and better collaborate. Once you’re aware of others’ expectations and preferences, it’s easier to reset your own expectations when necessary. That will make you both a better mentor and a better mentee.

What are some ways to do that?

  • Be a good listener. This encompasses many skills including being a good active listener and being empathetic, which requires good emotional intelligence skills. Whether you are acting as the mentor or the mentee, listening skills are important.
  • Unblur the lines of communication. Recognize that different generations often have preferences about how they communicate and resist the temptation to dictate to others that they must do things your way. As just one example, older generations, particularly traditionalists (the youngest of whom were born in 1945) prefer phone calls over text messages. Contrast this with the younger generations, particularly millennials and Gen Z, who possess a higher comfort level with texting. For them, a phone call is often the last resort.
  • Don’t be hesitant to ask someone to be your mentor. Perhaps you’ve noticed someone within your organization whom you admire. Maybe it’s the way they handle sales calls. Maybe it’s their organizational skills. Approach them and let them know you are looking for a mentor, and ask whether they can occasionally spend some time with you. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen often enough. That Olivet Nazarene University study found that just 14% of mentor/mentee relationships came about from someone asking a person to mentor them. In 61% of the cases, the relationship developed naturally, and in 25% the person offered to be a mentor.
  • Check your ego at the door. Recognize that there is more than your way to achieve goals, and that co-workers both older and younger have valuable ideas. Who is the mentor and who is the mentee can be a flexible thing in a relationship, with both parties benefiting. So be open and encouraging to others’ ideas.
  • Confront and reject your biases. Regardless of which generation you fall into, you may have preconceived notions about those other generations. Maybe you are a young person who sees the older generations as unable or unwilling to adapt to change. How could you learn anything from them? Perhaps you are one of the older employees. To you, those from the younger generations may seem lazy or unmotivated. What could they possibly know, say or do that would have any merit? Accept for a moment that you may be wrong. Those other generations simply have had different experiences, having come of age at different times under different circumstances, and that has affected how they do things.

Awareness of the life experiences that shape individuals is one more way we can use generational intelligence to become better communicators, better colleagues and better teams.

This is critical because if you fail to accept that there is good in those other generations, you are much less likely to mentor or be mentored by them. The loss will be yours, theirs and the organization’s.

Carrie Root is the author of The Other Soft Skill: How to Solve Workplace Challenges with Generational Intelligence and the founder and CEO of Alpha UMi, an education consulting firm that develops professional-development curricula. Her company has provided workshops at conferences for major corporations and associations. Prior to founding Alpha UMi, Root had a successful engineering career working for large and small businesses, followed by more than two decades consulting as a high-level troubleshooter for the U.S. Navy.