Today’s young generation simply can’t imagine a world without the Internet or cell phones. They are gifted with technology and crazy about artificial intelligence. However, this is just one of their unique characteristics. They are also known as a generation that is visual, idealistic, and global. Society has been making little noises about this particular group, throwing criticism along their way to maturity. No matter whether these noises are valid or not, to fully tap into their strengths and resourcefulness, we need to be patient, communicative, and understanding.
To start with, we must be patient with the young generation, or some unexpected incidents may occur. Occasionally, we do see some young people who are not considerate of others. The following anecdote may, in a way, serve as proof and illustrate this characteristic some young people possess.
Staying at our cottage recently, my husband and I were joined by my 20-year-old niece and her three best buddies for four days. We listened a lot to their dreams and schemes, as well as their self-evaluations. We were so amazed at their perceptive views, their broad knowledge of the world, and their impressive capability to use their cell phones.
The young ladies decided to have a beach fire and spent the evening chatting and renewing friendships. They undoubtedly had a lot of fun at the beach that night, but the next day, when my husband tried to build a fire for me, gosh, he discovered, rather than dragging fire logs to the beach, the girls had burned every piece of kindling in the garage – something he had spent two days splitting logs to create!
Though a little offended, my husband didn’t complain at all. Looking at these cheerful young ladies, he whispered in my ear, “You know they were born and grew up in an entirely different world from ours, so we should be patient enough toward their behavior. I believe they’ll become more mature and considerate later on.” He’s right. Being patient is the best strategy for helping young people grow.
Effective communication is also a key to the solution of an unpleasant occurrence. Sometimes, people criticize young people’s “individualism”, condemning their self-centered behavior. Is that true? Yeah, sometimes. But be aware, that’s exactly the time when communication is needed. From an incident that is illustrative of this characteristic, we can infer there must be a communication breakdown.
Not long ago, we held a barbecue to celebrate a product launch. Employees ordered one of three entrées in advance. Guess what? The first employees in the line, primarily hungry young men, helped themselves to as many entrées as they wanted – some took all three. Consequently, the caterer ran out of food before all of our employees could eat. My husband and I, who usually wait until we are sure all of the employees get food, ended up eating at a local restaurant. So did many of our employees who missed out on the meal.
This episode seems anything but incidental. Did these young individuals ever think about the possible consequences that might impact others? In this story, no. Then the action is most likely impulsive. How can we avoid this kind of incident? The answer is – better communication. A sign could have reminded the employees that they were assigned one entrée, the one they pre-ordered. Also, the caterer could have orally sent out the message that they could only take one or their co-workers would go hungry.
Last but not least, to work successfully with young people, older generations need to show more understanding. Unfortunately, the young generation is, on a large scale, depicted as a group that lacks self-awareness. It might be true, but ironically, sometimes older generations can have the same problem.
Just yesterday, an elderly employee reported to the HR office that the young employees on her team were committing age discrimination. Later, however, the HR manager found that they were actually having problems understanding each other. The elderly employee assumed that her great experience would be respected and her ideas would be implemented by the young employees. However, they somehow challenged her opinions and wanted to do the project in their own way.
To prevent an elevation of this conflict, the elderly employee, who was used to automatic respect and trust from people young enough to be her children and grandchildren, had to learn that whereas treating each other with mutual respect in the workplace is a must, expecting your ideas to be influential because you know more is not necessarily right. On the other hand, the young employees need to understand that they can’t reject an idea without first weighing its merits.
To conclude, what this young generation expects from us is more patience, better communication, and deeper understanding. To retain these extremely talented young people at work, employers should be inspirational and able to recognize their priorities and immediate needs. Smart employers demonstrate not only IQ but also EQ – they share knowledge and information yet understand emotion and networking. In this environment, young people will surely excel and make a commitment. Their real strengths and resourcefulness can, therefore, be successfully tapped.