Ep. 71 From Generation Gaps to Trust Gaps with Kristine Sexter

Most companies overlook a game-changing strategy that can transform their workforce dynamics and boost retention... Trust. Kristine Sexter reveals how building trust across generations not only enhances communication and motivation but also creates a resilient, high-performing team ready to thrive in today’s fast-moving fuel and convenience industry.

In this episode of M-PACT Bound, Kristine shares insights from her 28 years of organizational development expertise, focusing on innovative approaches to multigenerational leadership. Discover why trust is the ultimate universal currency that can bridge age gaps and foster loyalty, recognition, and collaboration. You'll learn the secrets to making your leadership authentic role modeling that inspires every team member, regardless of their age or background.

Perfect for leaders, HR professionals, and business owners committed to creating a workplace where trust, recognition, and legacy matter, this episode equips you with actionable tactics to go full throttle in workforce development. Don’t miss your chance hear these insights first hand with Kristine Sexter at M-PACT 2026.

M-PACT Bound is the official podcast of the M-PACT Fuel and Convenience Tradeshow.

Transcript

Brian Clark (00:10)
Well, welcome to M-PACT Bound. I'm your host, Brian Clark, and we are very pleased to be back in the studio getting ready for M-PACT 2026 and welcoming back by popular demand as a featured speaker for our upcoming show this year in Indianapolis, April 14th through the 16th is Kristine Sexter with Sexter Consulting, and she's sessions this year, one on Wednesday, one on Thursday. Both of them will be coming up at 9 a.m. Welcome, Kristine

Great to have you back with us.

Kristine Sexter (00:38)
Thank you.

I am honored. What a privilege to be back by popular demand. It was a rousing session last year and I am honored to be given this opportunity to bring more high octane content this year to full throttle.

Brian Clark (00:56)
Yep, that's the theme for M-PACT and you have done a fantastic job already helping us tie in your sessions with theme of the show this year, which is Full Throttle, as we are powering our way to M-PACT and we're excited to welcome you back and to talk about some things you were so motivating last and just did a great job helping folks hone in on

staffing and working with their teams and motivating them. And that's a little bit of your theme this year, right? We've got two different sessions, one on Wednesday at 9, called Winning with the Generations, driving a victorious multi-generational team of traditionalists, baby boomers, X'ers, Y'ers, and Z'ers. We'll talk about that first session here first in just a moment, but then on Thursday, April 16th at 9 a.m., you've got Racing

from recruitment to retirement. So some great topics we're going to explore a little bit. first of all, tell us again, just to remind our listeners a little bit about your background, Kristine, and what you do. And then we'll dive into your sessions.

Kristine Sexter (02:00)
Thank you. For the last 28 years, I've been president and owner of Sexter Consulting, an organizational development firm that helps elevate workplace cultures and trust so that leaders can find, train, and keep right fit talent.

Brian Clark (02:19)
Excellent, excellent. And so that's a little bit of where your focus is again for M-PACT 2026, right?

Kristine Sexter (02:25)
absolutely bringing some immediately implementable content as it pertains to those two topics regarding generational issues in the modern fuel and convenience workplace and combining that also with a kind of the, legacy concept of making sure that our grand marshals, that's who I'm calling them for your full throttle theme, that people that are in a position where they bring tremendous amount of knowledge and experience,

How do we continue to capitalize on that and keep them in our organizations in a way that drives us toward our key performance indicators?

Brian Clark (03:04)
So in today's workplace, obviously, we've got a lot of different generations interacting and working together. And so in that first session, you're going to cover ways to communicate and motivate different generations and individuals in the workplace. So these generational differences and different communication strategies have led many companies to adjust their customer acquisition strategies. But that doesn't always translate to the staff and personnel processes. How often do you see companies

leaving out the generational differences in their employee recruitment and retention strategies.

Kristine Sexter (03:37)
Well, Brian, definitely see as you shared that they are definitely clued in or queued into the consumption differences by generation, particularly in the fuel and convenience industry. However, I rarely see someone that has a truly measurable strategic plan in applying those vast values based differences across the generations. And I've been

generational leadership and generational recruitment and retention for many, many years. And even I excited to actually see now that what was once four generations in the workplace, then it went to five once Gen Z hit the workplace. But even Gen Z at this time, they're at 25, the oldest ones are at 25 and many of them are starting to have children. So here within about 12 to 15 years, you're going to see,

and this additional generation called Gen Alpha come in. Now the work that I'll be doing for you really, we're not too concerned about infants right now, but you are still looking at a potential for five different generations, each with very different value system. And that's kind of the term of of my clients and audiences that understanding their perspective from what they need while there are universal

needs there. We can talk about that too. But if you're not making the effort to say on board, utilizing different forms of learning or communication, I see vast differences across generationally with how we give feedback or coaching to our employees. Even things such as scheduling. You're, you may find that there are certain generations that are very willing to work the night shift or third shift, but others that don't.

And then one of the two big ones that I'd like to talk about, particularly in my upcoming session, is about recognition and career development.

Brian Clark (05:33)
So is there one common strategy that can be used across all these generations? Any method you think that will really last for years to come regardless of tech innovations or industry changes or other factors that continue to influence the fuel retail businesses?

Kristine Sexter (05:48)
there is, and it absolutely positively is the concept of trust in the modern workplace. All generations utilizing all forms of diversity, whether it be age or gender, anything along those lines, the universal concept, and this is primarily what my firm delivers is how do we elevate trust with our number one investor who are our employees? How do we elevate trust with them?

so that all of these other concepts that we bring strategically in to elevate their engagement, performance, and retention, this is the single one that I would always recommend that employers, leaders, managers are always seeking to elevate. They should be asking themselves, what am I doing today in through all my actions and communications to elevate trust in this workplace? Because everything else comes after that. So for example,

from generational differences really coming down to this universal concept, which I'm going to really recommend be a really big takeaway from both of my sessions, is maybe how do we make sure that there's clear expectations? And that again can go into am I communicating across these diverse generational lines? Is my follow-up consistent so that my employees can trust my word because my actions sing to it or align with it?

And then can I trust that I will be valued for my contribution, not my age, and that elevates trust? And then the single most important thing, and I'm asked this often, what's the most important element that any employer, any leader can bring to the modern workplace that is kind of a fast track, to use another full throttle term here.

Brian Clark (07:16)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Right?

Kristine Sexter (07:35)
The number one thing I find that really employees want, irregardless of generation, is am I working for somebody who's a role model of what they expect of me? Is my manager or the leaders of the organization, are they exceptional role models of the core values, of our vision, of our mission? No generation wants to work for somebody who is a hypocrite or says one thing and does another or applies that inconsistently across.

the landscape of who their employees are. the full circle answer on that universally is trust. Create a workplace that is rich in trust.

Brian Clark (08:06)
Right.

Well, and that creates that mentoring opportunity as well, right? When you across lots of different generations.

Kristine Sexter (08:18)
Thanks.

Certainly a mentor in and of itself is typically assigned as a opportunity for somebody to be rewarded with that title. And they're often rewarded with that title because they have been exceptional role models of trust. And they're able to their tribal knowledge and translate that to say new hires or those who are from the younger generations.

Brian Clark (08:47)
Are there benefits to offering the mentor type roles and programs within a company? mean, especially if an owner or manager is identified or been informed about an upcoming retirement, how can a company best preserve that institutional knowledge of those valued team members, that tribal knowledge that you just used that phrase, I like that phrase. How do we pass that along to subsequent generations in the workplace?

Kristine Sexter (09:11)
Creating mentorships as a strategy by which to serve both our legacy employees or those who hold the highest amount of tribal knowledge and pairing them with new hires, particularly of even the younger generations is such a win-win. And it's one of those things where few things in life are as have a highest ROI because here what we have is a very low cost concept of creating mentorship based

knowledge transfer that builds trust in a way that really can elevate that engagement performance and retention of new hires of all generations. So for example, we had a client that did some really big data mining and panicked because they found that 55 % of their employees across all 50 states were age 55 and older. And they recognize that they did not have

formal nor even informal strategies by which to do this knowledge transfer. And they knew that they were losing through brain drain, through retirement, knowledge was walking out the door. And so they really were looking for both informal and formal approaches to making sure that all of this knowledge wasn't something that they were losing. So we helped them translate that into a competitive advantage.

Brian Clark (10:30)
Hmm.

Kristine Sexter (10:35)
And that was we put together both a formal and informal. Now the informal for me was the one of the most rewarding because how we did that, and I'm going to share this at length in the session. So I'm really encouraging people to come ready to really learn immediately implementable concepts with this. But a sneak peek on this concept is essentially creating a very honored and celebrated group of employees and then you can determine what their tenure might be.

They don't even necessarily have to be even suggesting that they're retiring, but let's just take employees that maybe have 15 years of tenure or more and creating a very, very valued, celebrated and recognized group of ambassadors or what we'll call the grand marshals for our sake here and putting together ways for them to then do knowledge transfer. And it's not just about even the technical knowledge, the process and policy knowledge.

It's oftentimes the knowledge that really for younger generations, it's about navigating oftentimes those awkward, high stakes conversations and situations that they may feel ill equipped for. So having your own guide on the side, a coach, a grand marshal, a mentor or a champion, whatever term works best for your company that they can go to. And the informal part is, hey, texting maybe that person and saying,

Brian Clark (11:44)
Hmm.

Kristine Sexter (11:59)
Hey, I'm in a situation where really don't know what words to utilize in this situation with a peer. What would you recommend? Can you role play with me? All the way up through, how would you recommend that I ask for a raise? So it's one of those things where both the mentor feels rewarded, valued, and feels as though that all their years of loyal service to this company, they can then gift to someone.

in a way that they know that they will live on even once they do retire or sadly expire.

Brian Clark (12:34)
So as we think about that concept across both of your sessions, so obviously session two is a little bit different. That's on Thursday, April 16th at nine. You're gonna talk about those actionable approaches to really recruit that top-tier talent while honoring your existing staff veterans. think about, for example, how important is it for a business to have staff at all experience levels

and then understand or realize the benefits of the various experience levels among the team. And then kind of as a follow on to that, how can managers and leaders empower their veterans to train up that new talent instead of seeing them as their replacement? I mean, that's an interesting dynamic as well as you've got the person who's got all that experience, but they want them to impart it to the new person, but not feel threatened, right?

Kristine Sexter (13:21)
Correct. Well, that deliberate transfer of knowledge from a legacy employer, long tenure, that's kind of my term for a long-tenured employee, is one where going to have operational stability here because of the fact that we've got representation of people that are traveling through their career at different stages. One of the things I've found within the fuel and convenience industry is there seems to be a gap oftentimes between, we have a...

very large percentage of employees who say are under the age of 30. And then we don't have a whole lot between the ages of say 31 and 50. And then we also have quite a few on the older end too, so we don't have much in the middle. So I would like for employers to be making and certainly ethical and legal approaches to ensuring that they're hiring a vast diversity and retaining them.

I find that it's oftentimes that they, not so much that they can't recruit them, it's that they can't retain them. And that goes back to one of your first questions about what are we doing to make sure that we really are applying recruitment development and retention strategies lines. But we're looking for operational stability and that comes with a nice smooth transition of across diversity based on generation. And you're looking...

for these mentorship programs to be more of say a bridge into say the final tenure of somebody and not an exit ramp. And I see that if you don't see that as a bridge and you really, people come to you and say, well, I'm going to retire within a year or two years. Oftentimes I find they discount those people rather than capitalize on them. And I think from a labor standpoint, particularly in this industry,

Brian Clark (14:44)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine Sexter (15:01)
This again is one of those strategies where it's low effort, low cost, huge, almost a phenomenal ROI on it. So utilizing those concepts are going to be critical for an industry such as fueling and convenience that oftentimes struggle. What I'd often share to Brian is the first step in recruitment is retention.

Brian Clark (15:05)
Mm-hmm.

Kristine Sexter (15:25)
So if I'm asked to speak on recruitment and retention, often encourage my audience and client switch the words. Your first step is retention, then recruitment. Because if you're struggling with turnover, going back into a very thin labor pool and trying to fish again, may yield you some, but by the time they get inside the company, if you haven't figured out the root cause for your turnover, they're going to leave too.

Brian Clark (15:36)
Right.

Kristine Sexter (15:48)
So one is retention and one of the things I'm going to recommend as kind of a really powerful strategic approach is using your legacy employees in your recruitment efforts, both your social media efforts, even if you do live job fairs, say at colleges or high schools, that you have your legacy employees man your booth.

that even in your written content that you're saying that we have an ambassadorship program here that is supported by our highly tenured champions of excellence here who you'll be assigned your own champion of excellence grand marshal to help you through this. when they can already see that the company's putting a real

focus on ensuring that you as a new hire, whether you're 16 or 17 or 18, or even if you want to come back out of retirement, which is another key I'm going to be talking about, getting retirees to come work part-time because it's great to work for you and it's purpose driven. So lots and lots of concepts surrounding how do I capitalize on my highly tenured employees, giving them roles, even if it's part-time to go and be the ambassador at the chamber meetings, go to the college job

Somebody who really loyal to the company that can speak of many years, not decades of excellence there, very compelling.

Brian Clark (17:08)
Sure, absolutely. Well, and this is why, as I'm sure listeners can tell, you were one of our top rated speakers last year. And why are we inviting you to come back? It's because your content is so substantive, it's so solid, and it's so practical for business owners and C-Store managers and really folks at all levels can get a lot of benefit out of your session. Plus your sessions, both of them include a customized handout.

Kristine Sexter (17:37)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Brian Clark (17:37)
for all attendees to take back to the office and start implementing

these strategies that you share. Why is it so critical for attendees to apply what they learn at M-PACT right away?

Kristine Sexter (17:49)
Brian, because I found that at excellent conferences like yours that are so exciting and so focused on serving them and bringing solutions to their greatest challenges, that in many cases that tsunami of reality hits once they come back. So they get very excited. They

are inspired by so much of what they have learned that the smack in the face of reality, particularly if they've been gone a couple days and the work's been piling up, it is very difficult to transfer what I call edutainment at a conference into action. So 28 years ago when I decided that I was going to commit my professional life to organizational development,

that my primary strategic advantage that I provide my clients and audience is the ability to not just inspire, but to compel them to execute and implement.

that the handout has become a lasting reminder of exactly step-by-step on how to take what I'm gonna share with them in a very fast, turbocharged 50-minute session and make sure that they don't have to rely on their handwritten notes or their memory, giving them an engineered step-by-step approach to taking, say, three to five key learning objectives.

key strategies and approaches and being able to take me with them back and then once they get back, they still have a reminder, a tangible educational evidence on how to implement. I don't rest until my clients and audiences transfer what I share with them into results. Drive those results.

Brian Clark (19:44)
Well, and that's really the benefit of these sessions and all the sessions that we have at M-PACT, right? It's to give you practical takeaways, good substantive content that you can take back to your business to make a difference, to motivate you, to motivate your employees, and also help drive your business forward. That's the whole point of coming to M-PACT. So, and why, again, you are one of our featured speakers again for this year with two sessions.

Both are going to be at 9 o'clock on each of the two days of the show. Wednesday, April 15th is the first session. Again, talking about multi-generational audiences in your workplace, but winning with those generations to develop that multi-generational team of traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Xers, Yers, and Zers. All the alphabets there of the generations in the workplace today. But then beyond that,

⁓ on Thursday April 16th at 9 a.m. is racing from recruitment to retirement. How you keep those employees from the very get-go to recruiting those rookies with the right stuff to retiring from the race. And I loved your phrase, becoming a grand marshal, right? Learning how to help people, those long-tenured team members, with the deep institutional knowledge.

So we've got great content this year. Appreciate so much your time today and the opportunity to talk with you. Any other words of encouragement for folks, the reasons why they need to come hear you on April 15th and 16th in Indianapolis?

Kristine Sexter (21:10)
Well, not just come hear me, I am honored and I look forward to having hundreds of you in my classrooms. But also I do want to share, don't miss M-PACT. I have been doing this for a long time and I have been a speaker, a consultant, a trainer at so many large conferences. Brian, you and your organization do it right. The attention to detail, the focus on excellence, the focus on networking, but primarily the focus on providing

real-world solutions that allow your members and your attendees to truly take back valuable information that allows them to be more successful and profitable. One of the absolute best, absolutely excellent. It is an honor to be returning and I look forward to seeing you and all of your attendees very, soon in April.

Brian Clark (21:57)
Well, fantastic Kristine. Again, thank you for your time today. Thanks for coming back and joining us again at M-PACT in Indianapolis, April 14th through the 16th. We look forward to seeing you there and we look forward to seeing our listeners there Thanks again, Kristine. Great to have you with us and looking forward to your up on April 15th and 16th.

Kristine Sexter (22:15)
Thank you, Brian. We're ready to start our engines.

Brian Clark (22:18)
All right, we're all fueled up and ready for the show and you need to be there with us. Make sure you register. and visit us online to learn more about the education sessions and to get registered at and we will see you in Indianapolis April 14th through 16th.