Cam Marston has an article in Fast Company about myths about the younger generations. Finally! I heard Marston speak at the ASAE Membership and Marketing symposium a couple of years ago, and I wasn’t too impressed. I felt he was playing up the negative stereotypes of the younger generations, much to the delight of the mostly-Boomer crowd (if he made one more joke about Millennials needing their meat cut for them, I was going to scream).
But I like this article. It takes myths about younger workers (they have no work ethic, they don’t respect authority, etc.) and reveals a more subtle and complex truth—one that starts with: younger workers are not you! I also appreciate his advice at the end of the article:
My advice to you – don’t waste time wishing they were different. Don’t spend your energy comparing today’s youth to the desires and drive you had at age 18. These employees are not a reflection of you, nor are they an earlier version of you. And again, that is okay. Your task is to take this new understanding and use it to reposition how you interact with, motivate and reward your staff.
Too much of the hype around generations focuses on showing the research that provides the “truth” about each generation. The point I stress over and over again in my e-book, and that Marston makes here, is that you have to use the knowledge to actually change the way you relate with people. Generational clashes are only partly about lack of knowledge and understanding—they are much more about inadequate communication and relationships.