“A title doesn’t make you a leader any more than a bedazzled jumpsuit makes you Elvis.”

You know how some people talk about going to a mall or airport to “people watch” or whatever they call it? Know my favorite place to do that? You guessed it. Workplaces. There are so many interesting dynamics at play.

One of them is the infusion of young talent into the workforce that’s already entrenched within any given organization. This isn’t uncommon, of course, and it’s a necessary and healthy part of organizational life.

But we’d be naive if we didn’t also acknowledge that it can — and often does — cause tension, and even friction, even though it really doesn’t need to. One situation within which this seems to occur is when younger folks are slotted into any sort of leadership role, be it a formal or informal one.

A quick word here on how I’m using these words. When I say “younger,” don’t get too hung up on trying to nail down an exact age range. I’m not necessarily trying to do that, and I’m also not big on all the slicing and dicing of people into neat little categories anyway. I’m using “younger” simply to differentiate a group of folks who are younger and less experienced relative to others who…well…are older and have more tenure at an organization. So it’s very general, and that’s on purpose for the intent of this discussion.