Managing Civics: The Importance Of Respect

Editor's note: Generational differences in today’s real estate organizations have created friction and organizational disconnect that have negatively impacted business efforts. This article is the fourth in a four-part series intended to uncover the secrets of managing the different generations, to promote and nurture successful, generationally diverse real estate organizations.

Traditionally the most senior workers in our workplaces have served as the managers in those workplaces, obviating the need for tools to improve the management of those persons. Today, however, due to the fact that more and more of these senior workers are staying involved in their jobs longer and that, in many cases, they are doing so in part-time and other flexible working arrangements, the management of these persons has become a critically important skill to add to the real estate manager’s tool box.

In my last three articles in this series on generational management, we looked at how managers in the real estate industry can join the legions of other organizations across the country in using generational information to improve management efforts, including recruiting, retention, morale and other management operations. In this article on managing Civics, we’ll look at applying generational information to better manage, motivate, inspire and empower this group of our most senior real estate professionals.

Civic Facts. Civics, otherwise known as “Matures,” “Veterans” and the “Greatest Generation,” are most often defined as being born before 1946.  Following this definition, Civics are currently 61 years old and older.

There are approximately 59 million Civics in the United States; the third largest of the four generations with more than 10 million more members than Generation X.  According to the most recent census data, Civics comprise approximately 7% of the national labor force and roughly 9% of the Texas labor force. See Figure 1. 

         Figure 1

Civic Core Characteristics. As we’ve discussed previously, the key to managing any generational segment of your workforce is understanding the generationally rooted values and preferences of that group; that is, their core characteristics.  In the same way that knowing and understanding real estate consumers allows you to serve them better, knowing your Civic professionals’ generationally-driven attitudes, values, demands and preferences will allow you to manage, train, motivate and lead them more effectively. 

This effort begins with a consideration of just a few of the seminal events in Civics’ lives:

w        1927 – Lindbergh, first transatlantic flight

w        1929 – stock market crash (Black Thursday, Monday and Tuesday)

w        1930s– Great Depression

w        1937 – Hindenburg Catastrophe

w        1941 – Pearl Harbor

w        1942 – World War II

w        1944 – D-Day

w        1945 – Germany surrenders; atomic bomb used; Japan surrenders; war ends

These events were, of course, as significant and important in Civics’ lives as any event could be – they impacted the very survival (both physical and economic) of those who suffered and endured through them.  It is important, then, to recognize their effects even today so many years later as these same folks who fought in wars and struggled to make ends meet now serve in your organization, oftentimes supervised by those many years their junior.

Out of these events, and from their experiences, the following Civic core characteristics can be considered:

Dedication and Sacrifice. These words, though foreign to some of today’s younger professionals, mean more to the definition of Civics than perhaps any others. Most Civics have sacrificed more in their lives than Gen X and Gen Y have combined; as a generation they have demonstrated more dedication (to worldly and personal causes) than any others, as well.

Importantly, today’s Civics that you manage, supervise and work with every day continue to understand, embrace and believe in these core concepts. Whereas some Gen X and Gen Y professionals may understand dedication and sacrifice, no generation continues to believe more than the Civics that the way to success is through these two core concepts.

Hard Work. How did America survive a depression, defeat the Germans across Europe, defeat the Japanese in the Pacific and set the stage for the greatest period of economic growth that our country – or any other - has ever seen? The answer, in short, is through honest to goodness hard work.  It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise then that Civics, who accomplished these and so many other tremendous achievements through hard work, still revere the concept in a world of technological shortcuts and workarounds.

Today’s Civics are thus much more likely than persons of other generations to turn to hard work in the face of challenges and adversity. Where many of your Boomer, Xer or Gen Y professionals will look to other (technology) tools to find success and profitability, Civics first stop on this journey is often nothing more complicated than good old-fashioned hard work.

Teamwork. Victory through teamwork, success through teamwork, anything can be accomplished through teamwork. Given the Civic experience, where so many survived and thrived by pulling together and working as one, it is no wonder that in your workplaces Civics will again instinctively turn to teamwork in order to pursue organizational goals and objectives.

Although other generations have not shunned teamwork as a concept of value, the ways in which these generations operate as teams differ greatly from the Civic approach. Of particular concern is the Gen Xer take on teamwork, wherein individuals operate separately (maintaining their independence) though still in groups to create a “team-driven” experience. Compare the sports these two very different generations typically enjoy and the differences in their team approach suddenly become clear. Whereas Xers are more apt to prefer rock climbing, mountain biking and other individual sports, Civics are, more often than not, engaged more by team-oriented sports (baseball, football). These differences are not coincidental; they reflect deeply held beliefs and values of the concept of teamwork and the role of the individual in those efforts. Civics believe deeply from their past experiences that closely held teams - wherein individual accomplishment is set aside - are the key to organizational performance and long term success.[1]

Civic Management Solutions. With the above information in mind, managers can and should engineer and tailor efforts to improve management effectiveness, and to use new techniques to help drive company success.  In order to better manage, train, lead and motivate your Civics to the collective benefit of your real estate organization, I suggest the following steps:

1.      Use Civic experience. Perhaps the biggest management mistake organizations ands managers make with regard to Civics is the failure to use their experience as those persons get older and the rest of the organization gets younger. I suggest a wholly different approach: use the vast experience of your Civic professionals and ask them what has and what hasn’t worked for them in the past. Whether they have been working in real estate for 2 or 20 years, the fact of the matter is that they have more “life experience” than any other of your professionals. Taken alone that may not amount to much, but when you use their experience in combination with the various talents and assets of other professionals from other generations, the resulting solutions and dynamic can be powerful, and can help form the critical basis of a multigenerational approach to creating cutting edge, high performance real estate solutions.

2.      Offer flexibility.  Of course, as Civics get older more and more of them consider “retirement.” Studies show, however, that for a number of reasons fewer and fewer professionals opt to completely retire as more and more seek to remain in the workplace, at least part time. To the extent that you and your organization can offer part-time and other flexible working arrangements, you will be able to retain the valuable Civic experience referenced above, above and beyond what your competitors are able to harness. The real estate industry is uniquely positioned to accommodate these relationships, so take advantage of this dynamic and use your Civics’ assets to the extent that they wish to continue as a part of your organization.

3.      Create mentors. One final tool real estate organizations should be using to harness Civic value is mentoring. Specifically, generational research indicates some important compatibilities between Civics and the youngest professionals in your firms; that is, Generation Y. These two generations both value morality, ethics and a commitment to equality and evenhandedness that other generations do not share. Accordingly, you and your managers should consider utilizing the experience of your Civics to mentor and teach your youngest Gen Y professionals, providing them with one of the main assets they know they do not possess: real world experience. Where appropriate, match some of your willing Civics with a few of your Gen Y professionals and allow these groups to learn from one another in a synergistic, successful relationship that can and will benefit the firm in the long term.

The Wrap-Up. In all of these articles on generational management, I have tried to illustrate that every generation is different, and that every generation, with unique assets and liabilities, has value. Some are self-centered, some are cynical, some are duty bound and some are overly optimistic. Where Boomers have their own assets and challenges, and where Gen X and Gen Y confront their own limitations, Civics, too, bring specific workplace value to real estate organizations, value that managers and leaders must recognize, understand and harness to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

About the Author

   John Ansbach
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John Ansbach is the Vice President of RECON Intelligence Services, a national real estate consulting services firm that supports brokerages, REALTOR® associations and other real estate related organizations. John is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law where he is now a visiting lecturer; he earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics cum laude from Texas A&M University. For additional information, contact