e-Tips

Following up last month’s discussion on how the four generations in the workplace don’t understand each other’s underlying perspectives and formational influences very well (http://www.pdcounsel.com/multi-generational-e-tips/468), this e-Tip makes some suggestions on what to do about it

There are three main places where people will gain the knowledge that gives them perspective: at home; in school; and in the workplace.

To really engage, embrace and include, it’s not enough to learn the typical attributes of the different generations. Significantly, the four generations in the workplace don’t understand each other’s underlying perspectives and formational influences very well.

I was asked recently to write an article on the potential for conflict between older and younger people (addressed to women) in the workplace. Even women suffer from the Prince Charles syndrome: waiting so long to take the reins that the chance may even pass them by. “Why won’t those Boomers realize it’s time to go?” some of them think.

My annual greeting message for the new year is in the form of a short video. See it here and here.

How will you respond to the challenge for change in 2011?

Welcome to Phyllis Weiss Haserot’s 

INTER-GENERATIONAL RELATIONS e-TIP

The recently released 2011 Towers Watson Global Workforce study finds there is still a disconnect between employers and employees on reasons why people join and remain at firms. This divergence of views existed both pre- and during the economic downturn, so it should not and cannot be ignored.

If you are thinking about branding or flexibility for your firm’s people, the 43-page new dress code from Swiss bank UBS AG should get your attention.

(It immediately drove pursuit of dress code stories by ABC and MSNBC,  judging from media queries I received the day after Elena Berton’s story “Dress to Impress, UBS Tells Its Staff” appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal Money & Finance (!) section, Dec. 15, 2011.)

There are many ways people of any generation can contribute to inter-generational inclusion. It can apply to any generation as the action initiator. Since Gen Y/Millennials are often reluctant or uncomfortable reaching out to older generations, it is more likely that Boomers, Gen Xers and Traditionalists will take the leading oar, but we must encourage everyone to go beyond their comfort zones.

Research by Kit Yarrow for her book, “Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings are Revolutionizing Retail” provides some useful insights about how to achieve and maintain engagement with Gen Y/Millennials for professional development directors, marketers, recruiters, event planners, mentors, membership organizations and managers generally Yarrow is Professor of Psychology and Business at Golden State University in San Francisco.

I am frequently asked whether the severe recession of the last few years and still very much with us will change the perceived attitudes and behaviors (e.g., optimism, neediness, “entitlement”) of Gen Y/Millennials. Of course only time will tell, and I can only give my educated opinion, as I will in a minute or two.