Although millions of Gen Ys (12 to 30) and Gen Xers (31 to 51) watched and voted for The Voice, it was Baby Boomers who pushed Jermaine Paul to the top!

“The Voice” pulled in 10.74 million viewers on Monday, 4.73 million of them between the ages of 18 and 49. That leaves 6 million outside the age bracket and certainly Paul has appeal with the young baby boomers who got married, drunk or laid to the songs in his repertoire.

For example, Gen Y young women have a new self image — sexy, savvy, and physically strong. After all, they were the first U.S. generation to have full advantage of Title IX, legislation passed during the Nixon years, which mandated that young men and young women have equal opportunities in sports in any institution taking Federal money.

“The Hunger Games” may be another event that has a profound effect on how younger Gen Y women define desirable body image.  http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Hunger-Games-sparks-latest-round-of-body-image-3464921.php

The days of the anorexic catwalk-er as role model may be over.  Here come Katniss Everdeen!

For example, the G.I. Generation suffered through the Great Depression, and this generation tends to be quite thrifty.

Baby Boomers rebelled against the Viet Nam War, and throughout their lives, they have questioned authority.

The process of how generational characteristics are created is summed up quite nicely in the movie “The Iron Lady” by Margaret Thatcher:

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

And, watch you actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become your character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

What we think, we become.

GOAL:  This workshop helps you effectively incorporate younger employees into a multi-generational workplace.  Workshop participants develop new insights into the values, attitudes, lifestyles, and preferred methods of communication of America’s younger generations.

LEVEL OF COURSE:  The course is designed for managers from any generation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:

In this hands-on workshop, managers are given an opportunity to learn what motivates Generation X (31-51) and Generation Y (30 and younger), and how to apply this new information to practical workplace solutions.

For example:  Gen Ys (Millennials) are great at multi-tasking.

Why?

Just picture a typical Gen Y: talking on a speaker phone, with the TV on, music playing in the background, simultaneously surfing the Net, waiting for the pager to beep or an instant message to pop up, all the while still carrying on a phone conversation.

Growing up in the information age – computers at home and at school plus a 500-channel television universe – Gen Ys receive an overwhelming amount of media messages everyday and they thrive on it.

However, when it comes to the job, one that requires long-term, in-depth research, there’s a down side to Gen Y’s multi-tasking love affair.  For example, if you assign to a Gen Y, a long, frustrating, intricate job that requires plodding along, trying to find and fit the pieces of the puzzle together, they’re not going to love it.  So, what do you do?

This course will enable participants to work out challenges like this one, tap into the strengths of young generations, and avoid conflict in the workplace.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1.  Introduce participants to the values, attitudes, lifestyles, and preferred methods of communication of Generation X and Generation Y (Millennials)

2.  Introduce participants to a critical workplace challenge with new hires — the lack of the concept of privacy existing in Gen Y employees, the Facebook Generation.

3.  Learn techniques that ensure employee motivation and thus, retain the best young employees.  Learn how to motivate younger employees to want to move toward a common purpose.

4.  Give workshop participants an opportunity to add their practical expertise to generational insights in order to create new management techniques.

5.  Create a generational notebook that can be referred to and added to in years to come.

Stein has some great one liners (I knew no one cared about the environment.  I knew it because people keep telling me how much they care about the environment.)

Stein refers to a study by San Diego State University professor Jean Twenge that states Gen Ys (30 and younger) are less likely than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers to cut down on driving and electric use.  True, Boomers (52-69) and Xers (31-51) are the two generations that care so much about the environment.  After all, Baby Boomers started the environmental movement.  Gen Xers made it practical … they stopped companies from testing cosmetic products on animals by refusing to buy those products.  And, Xers take their recycling seriously.

However, one generation’s strength does not have to become the cause that marks generations that follow.  History has a yin and yang rhythm that allows each generation to develop its own unique strengths and challenges.

Baby Boomers and Gen Xers deserve credit for raising awareness of environmental issues.  But, Gen Ys deserve credit for being stellar volunteers.  They’ve been volunteering since pre-K and throughout their young lives.  Tulane University has become a major force by tapping into this Gen Y characteristic.  TU requires a serious volunteer commitment from its undergraduate students before they can qualify for a degree, and Tulane is flooded with applications!

So, just read Stein for the humor (We own a Prius so producers I meet think I’m a caring person instead of a person who hasn’t sold a script for enough money to buy a Porsche.)  Or, read Stein for some insight into the Gen Y/Millennial mind.

During Gen X’s formative years, the three support systems that society offers its children – family, religion, and government programs for the disadvantaged – were weak, very weak.

Xers were children of divorce, one-parent families, step-families, working parents, and latchkey lives. As a result, Gen X learned early on to be self-reliant, highly individualistic, and practical.

In addition, Xers were locked out of the job market by the large numbers of Baby Boomers, both in Gen X’s early work years – and even today, because Boomers can’t retire in the present economy. This became the perfect storm that forced Xers to develop entrepreneurial skills.

So – Xers are entrepreneurial, even if they’re working for you!  How does a company deal with this?  

• First, you put an Xer in charge of a project.
• Then, they need to be given a clearly defined goal so they can understand the focus of the assignment.
• Finally, Xers don’t want to be told how to do the job, because they want to figure out the best way to do it.

But, they do want you to be there as a resource … if they need your help.

I heard an Army officer talk about how he handles it.  He said, even if it’s a just part of a project, even if it’s a social get-together, even if it’s a small detail, he puts an Xer in charge of the task and lets the Xer develop it.

This Xer characteristic of being entrepreneurial, even as an employee of a large company, has been given a name.  And, that name is “intra-preneur.”

So, make best use of Xers’ entrepreneurial streak and add those special skills to the team!

More how this impacts Xers as bosses later…

All their young lives, Millennials have been bombarded with marketing messages over the Internet, on TV, via their smart phones, and at the movies.  ”Normal” to Millennial shoppers means rapid change and instant access.

Fast-fashion retailers outside the U.S. caught onto the Millennial need for speed:

• Zara’s, a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer, needs just two weeks to develop a new product and get it to stores;
• Swedish retailer H & M, mixes buzz, speed and high style, and;
• Uniqlo, a Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer, offers high-quality, low-cost, heavily-advertised fashion.

Just how fast can retailing get?

• The NBC reality TV series “Fashion Star” enables Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, and H&M to bid on fashion designs, and the winning bidder can sell the designs immediately after the show, via the Internet, and, in the store the next day.
• Kohl’s will start selling an exclusive “American Idol” clothing line – April through June – called Authentic Icon to coincide with the 11th season of “American Idol.”

Uber-fashionable “clothing of the moment” is a major departure from putting the fashion focus on expensive, long-term classic clothing.

But, it’s so Gen Y.  :-)

Internet thinking means that it is the quality of the idea alone that should matter.  Think about it.  In a chat room on the Internet, neither person knows the age, education, sex nor experience of the other person.  They only know the quality and logic of the ideas being offered to them.

Gen Xers (ages 31-51) were the first generation of Americans to value this concept.

Let me give you a hypothetical situation that demonstrates how this affects their job performance:

A new Gen X employee walks into your office on day one.  It’s two hours into the morning of the first day on the job, and the Gen Xer offers you, the boss, an idea.  This is typical Gen X behavior.

The Gen Xer is not being disrespectful of your years of experience.  Xers are simply into “Internet thinking.”

To Xers, it’s the quality of their idea that counts, not the time served.

So, when an Xer asks you to consider something new, they’ll understand “No” as long as they think it’s not a knee-jerk reaction.  And, they’ll understand “No” if you give them a valid reason why it might not work.

Give them a knee-jerk “No” … and the Xer is already thinking about looking for another job, one where new ideas are considered.

That’s what Internet thinking is all about.

Gen Ys, aka Millennials, spend some $65 billion each year for the type of goods typically sold at Macy’s.  So, it’s a no-brainer that Macy’s has just announced a new initiative to build its relationship with Millennials, whom they define as young people ages 13 to 30.

Macy’s separates Gen Ys into two groups:  its mstylelab is a shopping experience for 13- to 22-year-old Ys, and Impulse is targeted to shoppers 19 to 30 years of age.

Other changes:  more e-commerce, mobile initiatives, and social media (more tablets, texting, tap-and-go transaction processing, offers delivered via mobile, microsites and bloggers.)

Fishman’s five hints for Macy’s Millennial outreach:

• Ys trust word-of-mouth (mouse) marketing from their friends, so if a Gen Y shopper has a bad sales encounter, you can bet it will go viral.  Do Macy’s sales people know how to communicate with Ys?
• Ys like experiences.  With a three-year plan for implementation, how does Macy’s create the buzz H&M, a competitor, had on its opening day?  or, Apple has on ANY day?
• Ys like speed.  Can Macy’s develop and produce a collection within two weeks like Zara’s, another competitor?
• Ys shop with their BFFs.  Is Macy’s giving group discounts?  Two friends shopping = an extra 10% off; a three-friend discount might be 15%.  OMG
• Ys are a generation of volunteers.  As Macy’s plans to fine-tune its marketing geographically, becoming the go-to company that supports local Gen Y volunteer efforts will mean a lot.

Q: What is the most dangerous challenge bosses have to face with younger employees?

A: Gen Y workers, aka Millennials, have been raised in a world where privacy is not valued.

This is the Facebook Generation – the YouTube Generation – the reality show generation.  If you’ve got it, flaunt it, text it, post on Facebook, or send it viral.  Gen Ys – ages 30 and younger – are their own press agents.

Young employees have grown up in a society where sharing information with friends and even with strangers shows an astonishing lack of discernment.

Do young employees know how to act and dress appropriately?  Society has not discouraged Gen Ys from wearing flipflops at the White House, Britney jeans on the streets, and piercing themselves with tatoos and noserings .  (I try to skip those food servers.)  Most recently, Kate Upton’s stint as Sports Illustrated covergirl for the 2012 swimsuit issue got the A-OK from Congressman Uncle Fred Upton and the rest of her family.  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/kate-upton-a-great-gal-fred-upton-congressman-uncle-article-1.1024151?localLinksEnabled=false

Do young employees know how to keep a secret?  Employment counsellors encourage potential employees to clean up their Facebook pages.  However, once viral, always visual.  And, BFFs are a true danger.

For any company or agency that doesn’t want its secrets and strategies out and about, the first order of the day is to give a course on what not to say or do professionally.  For businesses, it can even be something as small as calling a customer by the first name before being given permission.  Or, it can be something as big as telling your BFF about upcoming products, services, or old office gossip.  In the world of Gen Y, corporate espionage has to go no further than friending the right person.

Word-of-mouth marketing – going viral – can be a Gen Y asset when it is used to spread the word about a great product or service.

But, it’s a disaster for corporations and government agencies who operate in both national and international settings.  Young employees need a crash course in keeping quiet.  And, then, they need to be kindly mentored in the difference between the world they grew up in and the real world where information is more valuable than gold.