@Tim – Your comment here offers no substance and your criticism of the “recycled” blog post has nothing to do with the topic. John makes a good point – this may have been said before but I take a unique approach in saying that we really AREN’T that different to “work with”. Also, I don’t see you you claim this to be a “complaint” – rather, it’s a post on how we should all be working together, instead of complaining and dividing ourselves into groups. If you want to debate the topic, I’m more than happy to – but to debate the quality of the post doesn’t really present anything constructive, does it?

@Joe – thanks for the comment. It sounds like you were presented with quite the challenge but did a lot to overcome it. Cheers!

@John – I’ll go ahead and say “thanks for having me”!

As a Gen Y’er we have no fear and we do want to learn as much as we can. Just know we process and take in the information in a much different way. We are trial and error. We are benchmark and improve. We are remember the old school but cant wait to see the next innovation.

Roll reversal from your example with my situation. I was the young guy that became boss.

As a 28 year old I was a district manager for 10 hair salons. The only experience I had in the industry was in marketing-Regional Marketing Manager for 3 years. I had always worked in more of a corporate environment. I then transitioned to a district manager when my position was eliminated.

Anyways, I was managing stylists that ranged from 19 years old to 60+ years old. Backgrounds from all over this world, with various socioeconomic situations. Im a 28 year old white guy from the burbs with a college degree and my parents never got divorced. I had a “normal” life growing up..

To say the least, the challenge at hand was going to be a tough one. The only women I ever had to deal with was my mom and wife-two was enough! I was about to embark on an entirely new situation.

It was all about communication, trust, and relationship building. This was the basis for how I led over 150 stylist to be successful. I had to build credibility, show I was a good leader and that I could be trusted.

My position was not about how old I was or the lack of experience that I had but how I could relate, learn, connect and deliver on my word to a large group of individuals that had various backgrounds. And ultimately have everyone trust that I knew what I was doing…because I did!

We are all the same. We can learn allot from each other. Communication and trust are keys to any relationship.

It took time to build trust. It took time to build credibility. It took time to learn to connect in so many various ways with so many various types of people. So if this Gen Y’er can do it and be successful, then why in the hell can’t you?

Now go and play nice

For all the complaining Gen Y does about being categorized as such, we sure do a lot to make sure people do so…

Just my two cents

Thanks Matt, you hit the nail on the head.