When I said to a younger colleague of mine last week that I had been doing some thinking on Gen Y and I wanted to share those thoughts in our blog, her immediate response was “You’re not going to say nasty things about us, are you?”
“No,” I said, “quite the opposite.” Due to some recent experiences, I had been doing some thinking and had changed my views – firstly on why Gen Y behave the way they do, but also why people older than them seem to feel that these bright young things want to run before they can walk.
What I have suddenly realised is that people who worked hard to build the confidence of this generational group have encouraged them to believe they can do anything. Gen Yers have been taught to believe that they can be whatever they want when they grow up and they need to show confidence, initiative and ability. But now that they have grown up and are setting about fulfilling their destiny we feel they are being too confident, and, dare I say it, cocky.
Our paradigm is that you look, listen. learn and earn your dues before speaking up. It is often reported that this younger group of people’s sense of entitlement is only matched by a lack of respect for experience and wisdom. But in reality the former does not mean the latter. Except to us ‘pre-Gen Y’, who were brought up that way.
My own “epiphany” came following a chat with a male Gen Y-er at a recent conference. I have known him for a number of years and I was telling him that his new boss was loving working with him and congratulated him on his career overall. However, I somewhat rained on his parade by adding that earlier in his career he had perhaps appeared just a little arrogant. He was a little taken aback, but did admit that he had changed in recent years.
But you see (and here is the nub of my learning), it was in fact me who was being arrogant, not him. And his manner in the past was nothing more than him trying to do a great job and going about it in a way that some may have felt was too confident.
To put these comments in context it might be useful to know that I am only just scraping into the Baby Boomer generation being a very young 42-year-old whose first profession was that of a dietitian, working in hospitals run under the old hospital board system. At Wellington Hospital, where I trained, the smoking area of the cafeteria was still known as the old doctor’s dining room.
So to all of you Gen Y-ers who have been unfairly judged, please accept my truly humble apologies. No matter what the differences may be between two groups of people, some mutual respect and understanding can go a long way to playing to each person’s strengths.
For the older generation – showing respect and acceptance of this more outgoing attitude might lead to them making an otherwise lost contribution. To the Gen Y-er, remember that people who are only slightly older than you could have slightly different viewpoints, experiences and expectations. Showing that you really are trying to learn to walk not run, and having some idea of what you don’t know could help achieve the same outcome. Times are always changing and it seems to me that we all have a lot to learn from each other.
