Firstly, I want to say that I don’t really identify with any of the age-related Marketing cohorts. Mainly because I often took the road less traveled in life I don’t fit easily into a box. I’m probably a true Gen-X, someone who graduated from university around the time that Copeland’s disillusioned youth novel came out….
Anyway… angst aside,
I’m of the opinion that a lot of the Millennial bashing is rooted in miscommunications and misunderstandings between Millennials and their Boomer parents. A generation gap of sorts. Funny, because it was Boomers in the late 60s who invented that term to describe their disassociation with their parents. I know, saying this risks me looking like I am just Boomer bashing.
Millennials are adults in the workforce, even if at times they are sometimes tentative about stepping into their own power. The rest of us, who have been here longer, should remember the old management adage that if you treat your team as if they are children, they will act like children.
Maybe it’s time for all of us – regardless of cohort – to practice real back and forth active listening and remember to first seek to understand. As well, to stop using labels outside of Marketing.
Thoughts?
