New UK research on age, motivation and helping others through difficult moments
Older workers are routinely cast as the people most likely to resist change. They have seen too many initiatives come and go, the story goes, and they would rather things stayed as they are.
New research from the University of Sheffield suggests that story misses something important. When colleagues are struggling, experienced workers may be the people most motivated to help them through it.
The Study
Verma, Niven and Lawrence-Thomas (2026) followed 219 office-based workers in the UK and Ireland, aged 18 to 66, through a working week. Twice a day, participants reported on their most memorable interaction in which a colleague, manager, team member or customer expressed a negative emotion, and on what they did about it. In total, the study captured 791 real workplace interactions as they happened.
The researchers looked at three things: how motivated people were to help improve the other person's emotional state, which strategies they used, and how effective they felt they had been.
What They Found
Age was linked to motivation. Older participants were more motivated to help colleagues manage difficult emotions.
Age was linked to perceived effectiveness. Older participants were more likely to feel they had improved the other person's emotional state.
Age was not linked to technique. With the exception of humour, which younger workers used more, older and younger participants used similar strategies.
Motivation was the bridge. The link between age and effectiveness ran through motivation. It was the "why", not the "how", that made the difference.
“Experience did not change which techniques people used. It changed how much they cared about using them, and that is what made the difference.”
More experienced people are more likely to take the time to support others. Photo Getty Images Unsplash
Why Motivation, Not Method
The researchers draw on lifespan psychology to explain the pattern. As people get older, they tend to prioritise emotionally meaningful relationships and positive social connections over acquiring new contacts and information. Accumulated experience also builds a more nuanced understanding of how other people are likely to react, and when to step in.
In practice, that means experienced workers are often not doing anything technically different. They are simply more invested in the outcome of the conversation, more attentive during it, and more likely to keep going when it gets difficult.
A Note of Caution
This is a well-designed study: pre-registered, with real-time data from UK workplaces. It also has limits. Effectiveness was measured from the helper's own perspective rather than the colleague's, so it tells us people felt more effective, not that they definitively were. The effect for each year of age is small, and only becomes meaningful across a career.
The message is not that older leaders are better leaders. It is that motivation to support others is an overlooked capability, and experience tends to build it.
Challenging the Resistance Stereotype
This sits alongside a broader body of evidence. A meta-analysis by Ng and Feldman evaluating common stereotypes about older workers found little support for most of them, including the assumption that they are more resistant to change. Stereotypes like these shape who is chosen to lead change and who is quietly worked around.
During a period of significant change, that is an expensive mistake. Organisations can end up sidelining the very people with the most motivation to steady their colleagues through it.
Using the Experience Dividend Deliberately
Change champions. Include experienced colleagues as change champions, not just the most enthusiastic early adopters.
Mentoring and onboarding. Pair experienced leaders with people new to role during restructures, when emotional support matters most.
Multigenerational teams. Mix experience levels in project and change teams so motivation and fresh perspective sit side by side.
Recognise the work. Supporting colleagues emotionally takes time and effort. Make it visible in how contribution is recognised, rather than treating it as invisible extra.
What Younger Leaders Can Borrow
The most useful finding for leaders of any age is that the advantage came from motivation. That is something every leader can work on. In Resilience Wheel terms, it sits with Purpose and Meaning: a clear sense of why supporting people matters, and a story about difficult conversations that frames them as part of the job rather than a distraction from it.
The study also found that, at every age, people were more motivated to help those they felt close to. Building genuine relationships before change arrives, the Support Network dimension, makes it far more likely that leaders will step in well when it does.
Why This Matters More Every Year
People are working longer than ever, driven by demographic change and rising pension ages. Most UK workplaces now span four or more decades of age in the same team. That makes how organisations use, or overlook, experience a growing strategic question rather than a niche HR topic. Teams that combine the motivation and emotional understanding that experience tends to build with the fresh perspective of newer colleagues are better equipped to work through change than teams that sideline either group.
What This Means for Leading Through Change
For leaders managing multigenerational teams through change, a few practical steps follow from the research:
Ask experienced colleagues directly for their help in supporting others through the change, rather than assuming they will be resistant or assuming they will step in unasked.
Notice and challenge language such as "set in their ways" or "won't adapt" when it is applied to people because of their age rather than their behaviour.
Build relationships across age groups before change lands, because closeness is what drives motivation to help, at every age.
Do Not Turn Your Stabilisers Into Sponges
There is a risk in this finding. If experienced colleagues are the people most motivated to support others, they can quietly become the organisation's emotional shock absorbers. Every struggling colleague finds their way to them. The work is unrecognised, unmeasured and rarely reduced elsewhere to make room for it.
Over time, that is a route to exhaustion. Recent research has shown that engagement and exhaustion can co-exist in the same person, and highly motivated helpers are exactly the people most likely to keep going long after they should have slowed down. Protecting their Energy, by recognising the load and making room for it, is part of using the experience dividend well.
Learning in Both Directions
The strongest multigenerational teams do not treat experience as flowing only one way. Reverse mentoring, where newer or younger colleagues share their perspective on technology, customers or ways of working with more experienced leaders, builds the relationships that the Sheffield research shows drive motivation to help. It also signals that every generation in the team has something to contribute to the change, which is a far stronger basis for working through it together.
Experience is often treated as something to manage around during change. This research suggests it may be one of the most valuable stabilising resources an organisation has, if it chooses to use it.
For L&D Professionals
When selecting change champions, mentors and team leads for significant change, look beyond enthusiasm and early adoption. This UK research suggests experienced colleagues are often more motivated to support others through difficult moments. Development that builds motivation and purpose, not just technique, is likely to have the greatest impact on how well leaders of any age support their people.
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