Following on from an insightful First Friday discussion we had with our Connect members about nurturing and learning from the next generation of talent, we got talking about how different generations approach things like stakeholder relationships and flexible working. It proved to be an interesting debate! So, we interviewed 3 people, one gen X, one millennial and one gen Z to see how their answers to our questions differ, and we’d love to hear your thoughts too.

1. How has the way you develop relationships with stakeholders changed in the last 5/10 years?

Gen Z: Things have changed since COVID. It affected personal and professional relationships. I think now it’s about trying to be authentic, trying to engage in ways that feel authentic and trying to find the little things that are going to build your relationships. Although it’s harder now due to remote working, it’s still possible.

Millennial: Pre COVID, kick-off meetings would always be in person with a client, so we’d be getting an understanding of what we’re doing and having a face-to-face discovery workshop. These would normally be followed by a working lunch, or drinks in the evening. That was how we did things, and it usually meant that you’d really cement those relationships because you’ve got to know the stakeholders on a little bit more of a personal level. Then you could build on those relationships going forward on zoom or teams meetings as you always had that first interaction to refer back to.

The difference now post-COVID is that most of these kinds of meetings happen remotely. People’s time seems to be more precious, so it’s whittled down from a 1/2 day kick-off where you would go through a really big agenda and spend time together getting to know each other, to now being a 30-minute call. Then because it’s a kick-off only the project management team joins rather than all of the stakeholders. It’s a lot harder now to get that real true deep connection with stakeholders.

Gen X: Truth to be told, the way I develop relationships has probably adopted to the needs and possibilities of my role over the years and in line with the technology available. Beforehand, I would have more face-to-face meetings where possible to important clients, even if it meant travelling, and I would have conference calls, but without video.

In my global role, I would always keep cadence calls with my stakeholders and sometimes also talk about things that are non-work related. Maybe the key difference is that I am less able to meet my stakeholders in person, especially in Japan, Latam, India and MEA.

2. How is your success measured now, compared to when you started your career?

Gen Z: Before COVID, I feel like success was measured by how much time you spent in the office, and sometimes, being there working after hours was even considered a good sign that you were productive. Of course, the quality of your work and whether you were finishing your tasks was also a measure, but I believe nowadays, after COVID and with flexible working being more accepted and adopted by companies, success is being measured by achieving your tasks and goals, if the client is happy, and the quality of the deliverables and the project in general.

Millennial: In years gone by, if somebody was in at 8 and didn’t leave till 8 the perception would be they were contributing a lot. I think now it’s shifted towards if people are delivery against their KPI’s.

I think again, it’s all about the relationships, so whether you have or haven’t delivered against a monthly KPI, as long as the communication channels are open. I think it has moved from the clock-in and clock-out mentality to the ‘Are we meeting our goals and if we are meeting our goals, how can we make it even more efficient, and if we aren’t meeting our goals, why not and how can we rectify this.

Gen X: When I started my career, success was determined by my manager and the feedback my manager received about me from clients and stakeholders and colleagues, but maybe collected a bit less formally. There was no HR system collecting 360 degree feedback, it was more subjective. But I would have targets in numbers and goals to achieve. I would of course have an annual review meeting with my manager. The goals and objectives would be written in word and agreed in a meeting. The focus was however more if I achieve my goals and numbers, less so on the outcomes.

3. Have you seen/experienced any management styles that positively impact modern working?

Gen Z: The way that my role is currently managed is something so positive and so welcoming, and that is something brand new for me. You know, whereas in previous companies, and especially before COVID, I feel like things were a little bit more rigid, I would say. You would have to come into the office, do these things, by these times… It’s a much more positive way of management nowadays I’d say, with positive leadership and acknowledging learning styles and preferences. I believe the goal is to make the person seen, understood, and safe in the place they work in, and to make the employee feel like they are encouraged to do their job, having a better balance between work and personal life, encouraging your professional development.

Millennial: I’ve seen more compassionate leadership which is where you understand not everybody learns in the same way, not everybody takes in information in the same way and not everybody works in the same way. So, you have to make adaptations.

I think in the in the past people would have seen people who potentially don’t work as quickly as ineffective. But sometimes people that do work quickly, for example, would make more mistakes, but they get to the end point quicker. Whereas somebody might take more time but have less mistakes. I think a good manager would spend time to understand what the strengths and the learning styles of their team are so that they could build processes and build that into how they deliver upon projects.

I think it’s also important to understand that different generations have different views to what remote working is. I think Gen X really see it as a privilege, most of their working career was 9:00 to 5:00, Monday to Friday in office. Millennials have bridged that gap, so would have started their career working in the office but now moved to working partially if not fully remote.

Gen X: Sadly I am still looking for them, so far, recently evidenced management styles have been rather very disappointing and are a far way off leadership!

4. What are your opinions on the way remote working is affecting company culture?

Gen Z: I think that with remote working, companies have to put more thought into how they make the culture work and impact their employees. If the team are not seeing each other every day of the week, or if you have employees coming to the office only once a week, the company will have to really solidify their culture and how it engages with their employees in a remote setting to fully integrate the team. Which can be hard, you know. When you have to go into the office once or twice a week, it’s easier to have social events with the team, but fully remote? That can be challenging. Now, working at Coterie in a fully remote role, I can feel like the team is hugging me virtually after every call. We have weekly calls with the whole team, we meet up face to face quite regularly, and I feel like the culture of the company is there, present. Choosing the right employees is also a big part of this, to select people who will fit in and contribute to the culture.

Millennial: I think there’s positives and negatives. In a previous agency I worked for, we had really snazzy offices in the cool part of town, we had the classic beer fridge and snacks and then most Thursday’s we would go to the pub. And they’d usually be some accepted sore heads on a Friday morning if clients weren’t in. So, there was that culture and I’d say at the time that would have been my lifestyle anyway because I was young and had no children. It was fun, but I can understand now, having children and a family, how that would be a serious negative.

Gen X: Remote working has somewhat dispersed company culture, but not necessarily for the bad. The core is still there remotely, and spread across regions. Also fostered by management. Especially where the culture consisted of a lot of cross-departmental pub visits after work. As I always had to travel a lot I was never part of the “inner circle” of pub goers, and as a result I never felt I lived that “drinking culture”. Thank God! I think the remote working is a blessing but there should be a balance to bring back company atmosphere and interdepartmental learning and cross-function learning, where especially new starters or those who have their first job suffer. So I would say it will take longer bringing remote people up to speed with company processes and the way of working. Having a fixed 1 or 2 days where everybody is in the office to actually experience the people and foster cross learning would be helpful.

5. In your opinion what does a company that does not offer flexible and remote working mean for you?

Gen Z: It’s 2024, after COVID, we all know that we can work from home, it’s been proven. If a company offers remote and flexible working it shows that they trust their employees. I love remote working; it allows me to have a good quality of life and spend time with my family. I like being able to get up, have a long walk and get ready for work without the stress of a commute.

Millennial: It’s probably my biggest red flag to say that that company is not the right culture fit for me as a person.

I’m a creative person and I really want that flexibility to be able to manage my life and how I would like to work. Now I’ve had it and I know that it works and it works really well, to go back to a traditional way of working, I don’t think it would be right for me, and I don’t think it would be right for a lot of people.

I don’t see it as supporting families and I don’t see it as supporting young talented people who would look at the the job specification and think, why would I want to work for a company where I have no flexibility? When there are so many other opportunities now to do either work for yourself or to work for companies that do have that flexibility.

Gen X: It means the company is driving a hard line on work/life balance and would like to be again where companies were before Covid. They would certainly not attract Generation Z and those that have done all the crazy commutes to work year in year out and have sniffed a better work/life balance and are not willing to give it up. I would also say they would need to have a very strong and desirable brand and/or very high salary, for people to sacrifice their newfound freedom. The cost of keeping people in the office 9-5 has gone up dramatically.

Make sure you follow Coterie on LinkedIn for more discussions around partner marketing working culture.