Excerpt from “Empowering the Multi-Generational Workforce”
Generation Y’s (1977-1990) 
- Also, known as Millennials or Echo Boomers
- Grew-up like Gen X’ers, but with a different parenting style (e.g., timeouts, no spankings, very protective parents)
- Extremely conscious of global environment
- Open minded and accepting of differences in race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.
- Socially conscious
- Concerned with personal safety
- Technology dependent
- Require work-life balance
- Heroes
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Steve Jobs
- Bill Gates
- Oprah Winfrey
- Defining Events
- Oklahoma City Bombing
- World Trade Center Bombing
- Y2K
- Columbine High School massacre
- Afghanistan and Iraq Wars
Our Gen Y’s make up about another third of the workforce. This is an important fact because the Gen Y’s have a need to understand what they will contribute in the overall vision. They will be good strategic leaders in our future, being team oriented and vision focused – two excellent qualities of a great leader. They do not see themselves as just another spoke in the wheel. While preceding generations cannot often see how their job fits into the puzzle, the Gen Y’s absolutely see the puzzle. This group should be included in the planning process. We know that this seems like we are speaking another language to those of you who are looking at your current Gen Y’s and scratching your head most of the time. They are family-centric and are willing to trade higher pay for a work/life balance. It is not uncommon for Gen Y’s to be labeled as narcissistic or as lacking commitment or drive, but they have a different vision of the workplace expectations and priorities. Gen Y’s ask Why! This is a valuable aspect of planning, to include someone who will press with that question and encourage a deeper discussion or seek to prove out data. It must not be met with “I told you so,” “I’ve worked here for X number of years,” or because “I’m the boss” type statements.
They have been raised in environments where parents fawned over them. They do crave attention. That can be viewed in two ways – DIFFERENT, therefore WRONG, or NOT WRONG, just DIFFERENT. If someone who craves attention does not get positive attention, they often will seek negative attention. Creating an environment of mentorship can go a long way in providing the attention the Gen Y’s need as well as providing mentoring opportunities for those generations preceding the Gen Y’s.
Here are some key excerpts from the “10 Answer Keys, Communicating with the 5 Generations in the Workplace” book.
I have read in multiple sources that the workplace will not even resemble what we see now when we move into the second quarter of this century. The reason why? Our Gen X’ers, Gen Y’s and Gen Z’s simply do not function like the Boomers and Traditionalists. We deem this later generation work ethic as a problem…are we taking the DIFFERENT, therefore WRONG approach, rather than the NOT WRONG, just DIFFERENT approach? Maybe there is a good chance we are.
Gen Y’s are smart, tech-savvy, creative, and achievement-oriented. Because of their exposure to technology and social media, they are excellent multi-taskers. They prefer using technology to communicate such as email and text messaging. Face-to-face meetings are foreign to them… “Don’t waste my time making me come to your office.” They do appreciate investment in education and development to learn how to streamline work. Web-based media is another way to help the Gen Y’s save time.
Telecommuting is an attractive alternative to the Gen Y’s. They are quite productive if given a familiar means for them to produce. They do love to stay connected if given the technology to do so.
If a Gen Y is to remain creative, motivated, and achievement-oriented, the culture in the organization must feed this. Work for them must be meaningful. How can you do this? They crave feedback on their performance as well as on how their work contributes to the organizational success. I hear your groans… “Why must I have to do this?” Don’t forget that they were raised (and continue to be raised in many circumstances) by the helicopter parents (who may be folks just like you). They have been conditioned this way. Yes, I know you are not their mother or father. I am not asking you to take on a parental role. I am asking you to be a leader of the talent in your organization that you are responsible for. You can either fight them and lose their talent and contribution potential, or for the overall success of the organization, you can find the areas where you can feed into their style. The choice again is the results of DIFFERENT, therefore WRONG, or NOT WRONG, just DIFFERENT.
Technology must be in place to manage time. They also want the ability to BLEND work into the rest of their lives. This is the crux of the problem for the Boomers and Traditionalists. This is a foreign language to them – blending work with life. Clear quotas, goals, and mentoring (not micro-management) will create a place for our Gen Y’s to thrive. Don’t know what that means Boomers and older? Invest in developing your own skills to develop your successors in business.
Seek their input as they are on the cutting edge especially when it comes to anything technology related. This generation started the online social media wave. Think about how you can utilize them to bring your organization into the 21st Century regarding online communication and marketing. Don’t discount their youth in business or even think about communicating that to them in any way. They are confident, well-networked, and achievement oriented. They are job hoppers. Hone these traits to your advantage using communication skills familiar to them, and you can have a motivated Gen Y on your team.
Because so much of their communication is done using technology, they may be more unfamiliar to body language than the previous generations. Much of their communication is done using some type of media. They may not be aware of the cues that most would respond to. What they do respond well to and desire is lots of praise. The best way to develop the Gen Y in the workplace is to tell them often that they are on the right track and doing a great job. This must be done with a tone of mentor/ coach, not parent. Remember, this is the Boomerang generation where the helicopter parents are there to take them in and support them in tough times.
Gen Y’s are collaborative decision makers. They have access to a wide network of people and information. They work to shape an organization to suit its talent as much as shaping the talent to the organization. The workplace, practices, and tools are much more customizable and personal in nature. The Gen Y’s are also passionate about fast progress and innovation. They are used to this speed from their exposure to technology in their lives. They develop networks on a global level.
They are prepared and will challenge the status quo. This can be difficult for previous generations to accept. They are resistant to adapt their style to the Baby Boomer generation to conform. The Gen Y’s influence is growing and businesses stand to benefit greatly from their contributions. Taking a “NOT WRONG, just DIFFERENT” view will be critical for organizations to accept the Gen Y’s leadership style. Gen Y’s need an inclusive, diverse, flexible, and transformational working environment to bring them into the leadership ranks.
Look at successful organizations who have been founded by Gen Y leaders. The most profound example is Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. One might say that Zuckerberg has leadership traits described as goal-orientated, creative, transforming, interaction with staff members, technological savvy, polite relationship with authority, prefers leaders who pull people together, believes in collective action and change, and defines leadership as a group.
This can be a make or break point for your organization. Are you able to pave the way for the Gen Y’s to take a leadership role in the organization in a style as described above? What are the obstacles that stand in the way of “letting go” of traditional leadership styles and allowing the Gen Y’s to flourish as described in the paragraph describing Mark Zuckerberg?
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