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Meeting In The Middle
With Boomers and Millennials at different ends of the generational spectrum,
businesses able to blend the two get the best of both worlds.
Remember the generation gap? It’s primarily a Boomer experience as the heady revolutionary times of the 60’s and early 70’s pushed young people further from the values and mores of their parents. However, with the passage of time, new generations come into play, meaning that generational issues continue to shift and evolve accordingly. There is value in examining the characteristics of various generations, especially if you’re an employer looking for good people. This is especially true of the Baby Boomers, those born between 1943 and 1960, and the Millennials, those born between 1982 and 2001.
For a few decades now, Baby Boomers were the generation of choice for American business, both as consumers and employees. Their dedication to their careers and their willingness to work hard to achieve personal goals made them ideal candidates to fill roles in the workplace. They prospered as individuals and sometimes struggled in teams, mistakenly believing that sharing expertise might devalue not only their contribution to the company but also make them expendable. By the same token, the high salaries many of them made led to large amounts of disposable income, making them ideal targets for consumer marketing. Driven by slogans such as “Just do it,” “Carpe Diem,” and “Go for the gusto,” Boomers did just that. Rather than wait for retirement to pursue their individual goals and lifestyle dreams, they opted for instant gratification and seized the day. Now, as the majority of Boomers awaken to the shocking realization that retirement isn’t coming as quickly as they might have once thought, they find themselves caught in an economic landslide with no end in sight.
At the other end of the generational spectrum sits the inter-connected hordes of Gen Y. Also known as the Millennial Generation and the Trophy Generation (more on that later), they come to the workplace as arguably the most technically proficient generation of all time. Computer-aided learning has been the norm for the majority of them throughout their entire educational experience, just as technology- in the form of video games, computer games, cell phones and social media- has driven their personal time. As children, they grew up in an era that stressed positive experience as well as peer group structured play, while attempting to negate anything remotely threatening to self-esteem. As a result, Millennials come to the workplace with an in-bred sense of entitlement, a willingness to work well together and high expectations. They don’t want to wait for retirement either; They want work/life balance now.
In terms of their respective populations, the two generations are close. According to the National Conference on Citizenship, there are approximately 77 million Boomers and 82 million Millennials. In social and civic matters, Millennials are more likely to volunteer than Boomers, while the Boomers, when they were the age of Millennials, were more likely to vote and seek face-to-face engagement in civic matters. As you might expect, the Millennials gravitate toward online opportunities for engagement. While Boomers seek to serve in more than one way, Millennials typically tend to “specialize” in one area of service, especially if it requires online skills.
If there is a major difference between the two generations, it’s mainly that, for the last twenty years, Boomers have shaped nearly every aspect of our society, culture and business. They began coming into adulthood with idealistic dreams of changing the world. Somewhere along the way, they morphed into the “me” generation, driven by their mantra of “I’ve got mine.” This is not to say they have not contributed many good things to our way of life- they have- but the reality is that Boomers must also shoulder much of the responsibility for the current state of affairs. It’s conceivable that, subjected to a world that seemed to change almost daily, turning inward was a step toward generational preservation. Think about the historical soundtrack of the Boomers: the Sixties, Beatlemania, Viet Nam, Woodstock, the pill, Watergate, moonlanding, LSD, God is dead, Reaganomics, Contragate, gas rationing, greed is good, disco, rap, hip-hop, Clinton’s fall, the advent of the Internet, Bush I and II and finally, the resoundingly crushing reality of September 11th, an event most Boomers considered beyond the realm of possibility prior to that date.
Terri Benincasa, MA, Edm, and CEO and Founder of Benincasa and Associates, transition coaching specialists, agrees that Boomers have an experience unlike most recent generations. “We have indeed seen it all,” she says, “and we have paid a price for some of that. By the same token, our experiential learning has increased dramatically, and we are still the generation exercising the most economic, political and business influence in the world.”
With her double Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University and her 25 years of experience in operational and organizational management, Benincasa is uniquely qualified to comment on the roles Boomers and Millennials play in today’s workforce. She defines the strengths of each generation this way: “Typically, Boomers are ‘I’ people, they come to work with a great deal of experience, they work hard and are willing to sacrifice personal time and family time to succeed, and with all they’ve been through, they are also highly adaptable,” she says. “Millennials, on the other hand, are extraordinarily tech-oriented, they exhibit a strong team orientation and they are extremely well-balanced in their approach to work and life.”
Benincasa cautions that companies pursuing a blended generational approach to their employee populations might encounter what she terms cross-generational crankiness.
“Remember that Boomers and Millennials come to the workplace with very different ideas,” she says. “Boomers still carry that workaholic tendency to sacrifice everything to the career in order to succeed. Millennials, on the the other hand, see absolutely no value in sacrificing work/life balance for their careers. This can set differing expectations, which can then blossom into an unhealthy generational crossfire.”
She believes, though, that problems of this nature can be remedied, thereby providing a work environment in which everyone can thrive. “It’s imperative that these generations respect each other and what they both bring to the corporate table,” she states. “For example, Millennials have much to offer Boomers, particularly in the area of social media expertise, which Boomers tend to undervalue because they lack knowledge and interest in it. However, social media is a wave that companies are beginning to catch, and those Boomers looking to stay employed- and many are, due to the recession- would be wise to partner up with Millennials and learn all they can.”
On the other side of the coin, Millennials come to the workforce with a set of expectations for success and individual contribution that can be unrealistic. “Here again, it’s important that Millennials understand the value of the Boomers‘ business acumen,” says Benincasa. “The thirty years that Boomers have been in charge of shaping things gives them a unique perspective, one which the Millennials should embrace as their turn at leadership comes along.”
Benincasa suggests that companies suffering from the cross-generational crankiness take four important steps that can help diffuse tensions and resolve the issues. “First implement a program of cross-mentoring,” she suggests. “Pair up Boomers and Millennials to share what they know. Second, create an environment that clearly values the strengths of each group. Third, be aware that the more you attempt to understand, the more understanding you are apt to receive in return. This is especially true of the Millennials. Lastly, keep the focus on the organization as the primary entity. Boomers inherently understand that their success is tied to that of the company. Millennials, who are driven to succeed, will gravitate toward a structural approach in the workplace as long as they can clearly identify a balanced environment.”
The good news for companies is that, in the current economy, both Boomers and Millennials offer many quality employees from which to choose in preparation for the climb out of these recessionary times. Harnessing the talent, knowledge and skills of both Boomers and Millenials should help your company benefit from the best of both worlds.
As you deal with cross-generational issues, just keep in mind these words from George Orwell, for they provide a perspective you may find helpful: "Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it."
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