Commentary on Two Posts on Brazen Careerist
Last week’s favorite posts on Brazen Careerist were “Generation Y is Annoying to Manage, But That’s a Good Thing” and “Why Generational Stereotypes are Important”. Regardless of your generational affliation, if you take time to read the posts and the comments, I think you will get a feel for the range of viewpoints that each engendered as well as a deeper insight into what’s important to Millennial generation employees.
I’d like to offer a few comments about each one.
First, in “Generation Y is Annoying to Manage…”, Ryan Healy’s main point is that Gen Y direct reports “are basically begging and pleading to be managed closely” and are seeking managers who wants to manage. The reality is that for many organizations, managers learned how to manage by emulating previous managers they’ve had in their career. If they had a great manager, then they learned good management practices. If they had a bad manager… well, you know the story. And managers tend to manage the way they want to be managed and use that approach as their primary style. Since your typical Boomer or Gen X employee didn’t want to be micro-managed, they are not likely to be comfortable with that style – and that is what they believe Gen Y seems to want. Let’s look at this situation a little more deeply.
All direct reports – regardless of generation or organizational level – want to know four things:
1. What’s expected of me? (Goals, Behaviors)
2. How am I doing? (Feedback)
3. How are you going to provide me with work direction, in other words manage me?
4. How will you help me develop?
Many managers will assume the answer to those four questions for their employees is the same one as they would give. The biggest challenge for these managers is to actually talk to their direct reports to find out what matters to them and that is the job of a manager – to get work done through others. So attention all managers; Ryan is giving you good data here. However, let’s not assume that all Millennials would answer these four questions the same way.
And that brings me to the second post of note: “Why Generational Stereotypes are Important”. In this post, author Desiree Kane offers a response to the comments from her previous post, Managing Generations Past. In that post she shares her insights as a Millennial manager of members of the Boomer and Gen X generations. As the comments show, that post pushed a lot of hot buttons as did the follow-up one.
Students of generational differences come to appreciate that the major events and societal trends that occur during the formative years of members of a generation can influence the central worldview of that generation quite deeply. For example, the invention of TV, the emergence of suburban living, and the Vietnam War are examples that impacted the lives of Boomers. However, I think there is a difference between generalizations about members of a generation and its tendencies. When we make generalizations about a generation we are painting that entire generation with a broad brush and assuming that every member of that generation acts a certain way. When we speak in terms of tendencies it leaves open the possibility that not every member of that generation is exactly alike. So I would rephrase the title of the second post to “Understanding Differences and Similarities Among Generations is Important.”
I also encourage everyone to check out Brazen Careerist. To post on this blog, authors must be between the ages of 18-35. So if you want to get first hand insights into the thoughts of that age group, check it out.
Tags: commentary, Millennials, Observations, reviews