At 23 years old, you were identified as a star performer and were “fast-tracked” into your first leadership role. You have three direct reports who are all strong performers. After six months in this new position, you get along well with two of your direct reports, who are close to you in age (mid to late ’20s). However, there has been noticeable tension between you and your third direct report, Jan, who is 45 years old. You realize that Jan is having difficulty adjusting to a much younger boss and you are also struggling to lead someone significantly older than yourself. What should you do? How do you overcome the age gap and lead Jan effectively?
*What you need to write: Potential Solutions and Obstacles (2 pages): Describe three potential solutions to your challenge. Identify each solution’s advantages and what obstacles might exist to implementing each. Support your recommendations with your research, citing where appropriate. Your ideas should all be things that can realistically be implemented. Where possible, show how real leaders/organizations have approached similar challenges. (double-spaced; one-inch margins; Times New Roman) You must properly cite your sources (use APA format) in the body of the report and include a References page at the end of your report (not included in the page length total). A good resource for this is http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/