Tell us what you think
New kid on your team - earphones and mixit - jeans and 24/7 emails - does this get under your skin? Like it or not, there’s a new way of living thats evolving so fast it’s hard to track - but as a leader do you understand it to lead within it?
Many business and marketing conversations at the moment are around socio demographic market segmentations. The Pew Research Centre in the US released a report on Millennials in Feb of this year, other researches have looked at Baby Boomers, the ‘X generation’ and even the Silent Generation.
Important for leaders in todays world of fingertip information and instant response expectation, is to understand the different generation types and a few of the common characteristics that drive their needs. Do you know where you fit in and can you recognize your own mannerisms?
1924-1945 The Silent Generation (suffered the depression and World Wars) - very civic minded and conformist
1946-1964 The Baby Boomers - post war celebration of life, until the Pill introduced, suburbia and solid job - a bit anti-establishment however
1965-1978 The X’Generation - good education, wealth, double income families - advent of the PC - known as the ‘latch key kids’ (no parents at home during office hours)
1979-2000 The Millennials - those coming of age (21+) in new millennium - grew up with computers, internet, global warming and global village.
2001 - current The Next Generation - fully connected, social media, mobile phones, instant information, climate change, huge choices.
These rough groupings allow one to start to understand the expectations and values of each generation which act as behavior and decision drivers for them and allow you to make decisions in the correct context. Why do grannies ‘re-use tea bags’, or middle aged gents wear pony tails and ear rings? Who would have thought the Millenials are stronger focused on being good parents and more focused on the needs of others than the baby boomers?
Whilst stereotyping is at risk of putting people ‘into boxes’, there are characteristics that are more dominant and common in some groups than others that we as leaders should be aware of. All this research therefore allows leaders to better understand their followers needs and priorities, and thus respond to each generation’s members differently, thus reducing the potential for conflict and enhancing team effectiveness. An example of this was President Obama’s use of social media in his election campaign that allowed instant messaging and very low cost compared to the old advert and mail style of his opposition. The Millenials related to that positively. Closer to home - flexible work from home or virtual office formats sit more comfortably with Millennials, than boomers - corporate loyalty is expected by boomers but not Millennials etc. and at risk of displaying my ‘generational label’, how many of your own peers, friends and relatives try to avoid electronic media, rather than use it as an effective communication tool? Where are you in all this?