Tom Brady practices gentelligence

And so should you

This is a story about one of the oldest active players in the history of the NFL, a slam-dunk future Hall of Famer, and how he gets along with teammates who are many years younger and haven’t yet proved themselves.

Tom Brady, the star quarterback for the New England Patriots for 19 years, has won five Super Bowls and been the NFL’s most valuable player three times. And he’s headed to yet another Super Bowl.

But brand-new Patriots players report that Brady doesn’t put on airs or snub them. When they walk into the locker room for their first practice, they hear, “Hi. I’m Tom Brady.”

Brady does this every time a player joins the team.

It doesn’t matter who the new guy is. It doesn’t matter if he’s a no-name struggling to make the roster or a big free agent signing or a trade. The details come from a story by Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post.

“I’m like, ‘I know who you are,’” one such new Patriots player, Phillip Dorsett, recalled for Kilgore, laughing as he told the story. “You don’t have to introduce yourself.”

There must be a reason for Brady to introduce himself to every new player on the team.

Actually, there are two reasons.

The first is the obvious one: the chasm. Nobody comes to the team as an equal of Brady’s. Brady is a star and has thrown more than 500 passing touchdowns to more than 70 players in the NFL. Most of them are no longer playing. So Brady likes to close the distance with the new guys and make an effort.

The second reason is just that Brady, 41, is getting old, and his new teammates are very young.

If you’re a Boomer or Gen-Xer and you’ve worked with a lot of millennials, you know that the age difference can be very real. Some older workers find millennials to be a constant source of frustration. To heighten the challenge, the next generation — Gen Z — are beginning to enter the workplace. How older workers relate to these young generations is vital for success.

At 41, Brady is eight years older than his two next oldest teammates. On the day the youngest Patriot, linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley was born, Brady was 19 and about to start the season as a backup quarterback at the University of Michigan.

Thirty of his teammates are closer in age to Brady’s 11-yearold son than they are to Brady.

“We joke about it: He’s 41, but he’s really 24,” backup quarterback Brian Hoyer said. “When I go home, I might feel 33. But when I come here, I feel the same age as I did when I was a rookie. The locker room doesn’t change . ... I think he’s very aware of those things. Doing this job keeps you that young.”

Of course, we all deal with different generations at work, and Brady’s habit can work for others as well.

Kilgore quotes Megan Gerhardt, a professor at Miami University who specializes in leadership and generational differences in the workplace, who says that whether it’s a strategy or not, Brady has chosen the perfect way to relate to younger coworkers, just by treating them as equals.

“Somebody that’s willing to build a relationship and connect with them and engage with them has a much better opportunity to pass down that experience and that wisdom than somebody who wouldn’t have that relationship,” Gerhardt said. “That means a lot more to millennials than it has to prior generations.”

Gerhardt coined a term — “gentelligence” — to emphasize how important it is to be emotionally intelligent when dealing with multiple generations at work.

“The best organizations and the most successful ones — so in this case, that team — they’re viewing that as an opportunity rather than a threat,” Gerhardt said. “That, as a strategy, whether it’s on a field or in a company, is a lot more rare than we would expect.”

Brady’s youngest teammates, according to Kilgore, say he’s figured it out.

“He’s a very down-to-earth guy, easy to talk to,” Deatrich Wise Jr., a 24-year-old defensive end, said. “That’s what makes him so likable and lovable on the team, how he builds team chemistry amongst everybody on the team, through just talking, just interacting . ... He doesn’t allow the stature he has to distance himself from everybody.”

It doesn’t matter how old or how experienced we are, we all crave respect. And, just as new employees need to respect older generations’ seniority and experience, people with several years under their belt need to respect the talent and potential of younger generations, Mind Tools points out.

Both thrive when that happens.

DAVID SANTIAGO/MIAMI HERALD No. 12 Tom Brady, star quarterback for the Patriots for 19 years, has won five Super Bowls and been the NFL’s most valuable player three times, but he gets along with teammates who are many years younger.