Episode 15: How to Communicate Well Across Generations with Jess Flack

The SIXCOMMS Podcast

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In this episode I’m joined by Jess Flack. Jess is a commissioner for skills development at Essex County Council in the UK. She spots gaps in skills and employment provision for Gen Z those aged 18 to 24 years and commissions projects to close these gaps. Jess has been a graduate recruiter for KPMG and Cisco and a project manager for Hobsons where she interviewed graduates in China. She has worked in Higher Education for 15 years teaching employability, work based learning and professional development. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

For this episode, Jess and I talk about the challenges that Gen Z face when communicating with others in the workplace and how we can communicate more effectively across the generations.

We explore these questions:

1) What is a Gen Z?

2) In what ways are these labels helpful / not helpful?

3) Is communicating across the generations about finding common ground or something else?

4) What role does community play in connecting and communicating across generations?

5) What can older generations do to contribute to better communication at the workplace now?

6) What 3 top communication tips would you give to a Gen Z wanting to connect more with their teams / managers at work?

Both Jess and I had early work experience in customer-facing roles and these early professional experiences gave us a variety of workplace skills such as being able to effectively communicate with customers, colleagues, managers and supervisors and being able to handle a range of front-line service situations raising our ability to think on our feet and building our resilience and confidence. To this day, I refer to experiences I had as a young adult. However, the 18-24 year olds today have not had these kind of opportunities. We have been busy dealing with the pandemic which has forced us online and into our homes; often disconnected from others. It’s not surprising then that talking with people face-to-face leaves these younger professionals filled with anxiety and dread.

There are things that we can all do across the generations to open up connecting conversations and alleviate some of this anxiety. Isn’t it incumbent on all of us to help each other navigate this ever-changing world of work and find common ground across all generations so that we can learn from one another and work more effectively?

We hope this episode will give you some ideas and inspiration on initiatives you can take both inside and outside your organizations as both young professionals, managers and leaders.

Jess recommends:

A great resource for information on Gen Z is Dr Corey Seemiller -https://www.coreyseemiller.com/ she is all-round excellence embodied. Her research has been a game-changer for me and Essex County Council, it’s enabled me to support our work in connecting with our 18-24s in terms of a communication plan now and in future.

Connect with Us:

Jess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessflack/

TikTok: @jess_flack

Lisa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisasing/

Email the host:

Lisa: [email protected]

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lisa-partridge5/message

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