Yet, something funny happens in the psyche of the worker when it comes to older employees – which often has little to do with being revered and even less to do with humour. Sadly it illustrates that as a nation we are more interested in the celebrity factor that is often out of our reach than in our older workers who have contributed so much and are so close.

So if that is the case, why are we failing to adequately document the older workers’ knowledge, showcase their talents and celebrate them as mentors? Have we become so desensitised that we only want “new” while ‘old’ is irrelevant? Is it simply too hard or we just don’t know how?

As a starting point let’s get clear firstly who is the older Australian, after all? New research  undertaken by Westpac has revealed senior Australian business people believe, on average, 47 years old is when age related discrimination first becomes a problem for workers in Australian organisations.

Yet it would be fair to say that most business and professional people are at the peak of their career around this time. Many are in the best position they have ever been in to collaborate, connect and communicate their knowledge and experience and move the dial that points them to further success.

Here are five steps to go from Older to Bolder 

1. Take initiative and help create deliberate learning opportunities in early and tertiary education for different generations to cross pollinate and interact. It all begins with education, so volunteer your time and expertise in ways that will be help people understand the value of different perspectives and ages. If in a position to influence team or group work, ensure there is an equal representation from all ages so people consciously and unconsciously adapt to different ways of problem solving.

2. Ensure graduates and new inductees into organisations are buddied with at least three people from different generations. Keep these exchanges regular and as part of their KPI’s.

3. Provide external work experience opportunities for staff to spend time in different businesses so they are exposed to alternate practices and different ways of thinking in business. Make sure they communicate their learnings back into the organisation.

4. Set up Learning Forums in Open Spaces where staff can learn new skills (work or non work related topics) and hear about what staff can do in and outside their work environment. Allow people to spend time in discussion so there is a greater sense of comfort with different people and exposure to different ideas.

5. Disrupt traditional style meetings so everyone can chair or facilitate a meeting, champion an idea and share results in different ways. Encourage hot desk arrangements so people become more adept and comfortable at interacting.

While these five tips are practical strategies and take time to fully reap the rewards, it will also take a courageous and committed conversation that can present a commercial and business case to all levels of your people if you truly want to bring people together to collaborate rather than let people stagnate.

Ricky Nowak is a Certified HR Leadership Consultant, Speaker and Author with over 35 years business and corporate experience in leadership across Australasia, specialising in making good people great leaders.

The post Aged to Perfection – AGE and AGING in the workplace today appeared first on Ricky Nowak.

But Melbourne based marketing agency Versa flipped their thinking about how they can help their staff meet their deadlines, improve their wellbeing and create great work that clients love. So while counterintuitive (or mad) to some, they gave their staff a midweek ‘day off’ – a day for them to refresh, review and revive. Their belief being that when people are energised their mental attitude and results improve. And they were right!

So now Wednesdays is a no-work day. Staff don’t come to work in the office but can work on their own personal health, projects, family or whatever they want! Curiously the more time off has proved more work gets done on the other four days of the week. Dramatically.

Not only are they able to complete jobs more efficiently their work is better quality. Not only are they managing deadlines they are managing relationships with greater care. Not only are they happier, but their bottom line is too. Dramatically. Now that’s a nice to have!

Ricky Nowak’s discussion with Head of Project Management, Stephen Clarke highlights why this fabulous initiative is paying off in all ways for Versa. What’s great about them is that they championed this knowing intuitively that people will lift the bar when they feel healthier.

What do you think you can champion that will lift the bar? Need help? We can help you find a fresh approach to business that you may find hard to do on your own. That’s what Ricky loves to do best!

By taking a breakthrough approach to some of the challenges your people are facing, you can lift the performance of your people dramatically.

But it does take a leap of faith and belief that what you are doing is right, timely and will solve a problem bigger than the workload or pressure you or your people are under.

In Ricky’s work as a leadership consultant and coach she often hears people bemoaning the fact that they don’t have the opportunity to think things through properly or that they are constantly interrupted. In some cases, this is absolutely true but anecdotal evidence suggests that most people are chronically tired and therefore take longer to think things through. What about you? Are you likely to make more mistakes when you are under the pump? When tired or stressed, are you or your staff more likely to interrupt others, ask for more help and often go over things a hundred times in case there could be a better answer.

By standing back from the madding crowd and looking at some of the blockers of productivity we can see at a glance that the winners are those that:

1. take time to have time to think without fear of judgement
2. enjoy finding ways to refresh and review their work by standing back
3. break work habits that are determined by the clock
4. implement ground rules around distractions and disruptions

If you would like to know more about how to handle those that need you too often or distract you from completing your tasks, read this article with loads of tips and ideas on how to get more work done, more effectively. If you would like to discuss how we can help you implement some of these strategies into your workplace so you can increase communication and results, we assist in improving productivity.

Over the next three months, we will be helping clients build business development strategies for greater overall success and improved bottom lines.

Talk to us today about how we can help you win more business, convert contacts into contracts and commercialise your conversations!

The post Midweek madness proves profitable! appeared first on Ricky Nowak.