generationsChances are, we’ve all read about and heard from mid-career managers complaining about the younger generation entering the workforce.

The “don’t want to pay their dues,” and “you can’t pry them away from their PDAs,” and “poor work ethic” laments are in my opinion, lame copouts by managers stuck in their own inflexible ways. There’s good and bad in every generation, it’s just that this one feels different, because it is.

It’s Time to Look Beyond the Hovering Parents and Participation Trophies:

The “glass is half empty” crowd is quick to point out that today’s youngest workers are a product of the “Helicopter Parent” generation, with us hovering over their every move since birth, fighting their battles and cheering them on, win or lose. Others will offer that this is the “Participation Generation,” where endless hordes of children engaged in sporting activities earned trophies just for showing up.  First place or fifth place, it didn’t matter, everyone went home with hardware.

You cannot dismiss a generation based on the behaviors and in some cases, slightly aberrant conditioning of the parents.  I opt for the “glass is more than half full” view on this technologically savvy generation growing up in a world that is being transformed based on the march of technology. And I’ll throw my support behind a generation that has participated on teams of some sort for as long as they could walk. This is of course, a world increasingly composed of teams and projects, executed by using technology across borders to innovate, execute and compete.  Hmmm.  Nice training ground.

There are of course those that say that this generation doesn’t know how to lead.  Well, although the following story is tinged with parental pride, there are more than a few leadership lessons that we can all learn from in this example.  I know that I have.

Reinforcement that the Kids Might Be Alright:

My oldest son came home from his final day of his summer job rather excited at the feedback that he had received on his performance. The statement from the Executive Director of, “You can work here anytime,” was the one that felt good to him.  That’s nice for a parent to hear too, but my leadership ears perked up when he started describing some of the more specific feedback.

As a quick caveat, this Eagle Scout and college senior son worked for an organization that sponsors summer camps for children with various developmental and learning challenges.  He was assigned a primary child to work with and he multi-tasked in multiple roles as a leader, facilitator, and someone that was able to do whatever needed to get done.  While there was a great deal of play involved, it was play with a purpose as he led and participated in activities with his primary child and other groups.  Ensuring a positive and safe environment, promoting learning and sportsmanship and leading by example were all key components of the role.

The feedback that warmed my leadership heart included the terms and phrases: adaptability, creativity, ability to multi-task, great use of time and importantly, the ability to form a bond and help lead the child (and broader groups of children). I’ll stop here with specifics in the off chance that my son actually reads this post and questions my commitment to father-son confidentiality.  Instead, let’s focus on the relevance of the feedback that he received to leading and succeeding in the emerging world.

4 Core Attributes of Our Future Leaders:

1. Adaptability: While we often struggle with change, this is a generation that has grown up while everything changed (9/11 to ubiquitous internet) to rapid acceleration in the forces driving globalization.  Older workers struggle with change and easily see the risks and the negatives.  The view from this youthful group is more of expecting change and searching for opportunities and the way forward.

2. Creativity: Given the state of near constant ambiguity that most businesses now wade through, the recognition of the need to be creative…to innovate and to pursue it without regard for convention is a huge plus.  Most of us with time under our belts hesitate to delve too far into the unknown, and our hesitation costs us considerably in this fast moving world.  A good dose of unencumbered creativity is just what many of our institutions and organizations require to move beyond the muck of this current era.

3. Multi-tasking: this 80’s era phrase should probably be replaced by something like parallelization or a word that describes the ability to engage with many on a variety of topics in real time and keep things moving forward.  Watch your son or daughter hold court with a group of friends via the keyboard of their telephone, and you’ll understand that this generation gets how to bridge time and distance with a lot of people on a lot of topics simultaneously.  The payoff in the workplace is the ability to process on and juggle many complex activities at light speed.   Youth was a training ground for a new reality in terms of speed and work demands.

4. Ability to Bond: interestingly, while this might fly in the face of the more transactional communication described above, it’s my observation that this generation has the ability to identify with and relate to individuals across cultures and ethnicities at a level that earlier generations just can’t comprehend. The ability to accept and leverage diversity in the workforce is of course required, but for so many older workers, it’s been a learned behavior and not something innate.  This generation is different in that regard.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

At the risk of being redundant, there’s good and bad in every group and in every generation.  I’m not excusing the younger workers that display the behaviors that reinforce the negative stereotypes, but I’m not indicting a generation based on these bad apples. If you’re struggling to gain the benefit of the more youthful workers, I’ll submit that you’re likely a large part of the problem.   As a more experienced (read: older) worker and leader, take off your generational blinders and look for the individuals motivated to help take your organization forward.  Expect great things, work hard to foster the right working environment, and apply the same tenets of effective leadership that we all know are timeless, and you will be doing your part to secure the future.