Generational Differences in Business

This is a written Transcription for the Leadership Hustle episode about Generational Differences in Business, from Season 1 Episode 21.

Listen to the full episode below, or click here to listen on your podcast platform of choice.

Andrea Frederickson: When you look around your organization, do you see that there's somewhere between 3 and 5 different generations in the workforce? And the fact that we can talk about the generations is part of the problem. In today's episode of The Leadership Hustle, we're going to talk about the myths related to the different generations and the labels that come along with them. Hello and welcome to the Leadership Hustle. For executives whose companies are growing fast and need leaders who are ready.

Michelle Hill: Okay, so when we think about generations just for our audience, I want you to label them and give the put the labels out there that maybe they've heard. What are what are those the different, the different generations that how they've been labeled.

Andrea Frederickson: Okay. So we have the traditionals, the seniors, right, that were born ish somewhere before 1964. We're just going to leave because basically each generation is 20 ish years. And depending upon which author which which, you know, science that you're looking at. But we've got the, the traditional we've got the baby boomers who were born. Did I even say that? Right? Do I have this right?

Michelle Hill: Oh, yeah, I know that because the because.

Andrea Frederickson: The baby boomers are 1964 to 1944. And then we have the seniors that are before that. Yes. So I stand corrected. Seniors 1943 1944 and sooner. Baby boomers are 1964 to 1944. Um Gen X 1964 to 1980. Yeah, 1980. We've got millennials or that group, which are 1980 to 2000. Now we've got Gen Z, which is 2000.

Michelle Hill: Yeah, it's yeah mid 90s.

Andrea Frederickson: Mid 90s into the two like 2018, 2019 somewhere in there. So traditional baby boomers, Gen X, millennial, Gen Z, those are the five that we've got in our workforce. Yes. So yes.

Michelle Hill: And and they're defined like you said, about every 20 years. And what it really focuses on is the events that took place in those 20 years.

Andrea Frederickson: Now, those events are when that person was somewhere between the age of five and 15. Correct. And so, you know, it's like, not if they were born, you know, in in September 2001, they're not going to remember, you know, correct.

Michelle Hill: They talk about.

Andrea Frederickson: Yeah. So they have to be 5 or 6 years old. So there was a memory of when those events were happening. Correct.

Michelle Hill: Correct. But that that cohort cohort is really pulled together based off of events.

Andrea Frederickson: World events or societal events, social, social events that were going on at that time.

Michelle Hill: Correct. And it will have can have an impact on how you see things or don't see things. Because like we were joking, your nieces will never really know a phone on the wall with a cord, right? Um, you know, it's there's you can go through the you won't.

Andrea Frederickson: Even know about fax machines and those came later to.

Michelle Hill: Funny. Yeah. Yeah. They won't know about fax machines. Um, and you know, and how things got done differently. Right. But what, what unfortunately that the negative impact of putting these generations out there and this was put out with research done. Uh, apparently, though, what they're now finding after kind of going back and looking at it is it wasn't done to the extent that it truly needed to be done right. And that these the generations is actually creating labels, stereotypes. Right, that we are placing on because you're young and you're old, then if you're if you're old and when I say old, it's, it's, you know, well everything's relative. Yeah. No everything's relative. I'm like, I want to say baby boomers. Um, but when we think about, you know, the young and old, it's, you know, we have the stereotype, we have these, these labels. Right. And these labels are so negative, it already creates an us versus, you know, you versus me kind of thing. And when we think about the training and development and, you know, what do we have to do to our work environment to attract and, and so forth. It has nothing to do with what the New Scientist is showing that it the events that occurred do not anticipate or predict someone's future and behaviors. It's the behaviors that are the.

Andrea Frederickson: 23 years ago, I did my master's thesis, and I happened to do my thesis on the different generations in the workforce. At that time, there were only four. So, you know, we were dealing with that. But the thing that I remember as I was doing the research, because they were all the research was showing up a lot of this heavy, you know, you've got baby boomers who, you know, they are, um, we call them old school, right? And so we've we've got stubborn.

Michelle Hill: I mean, the labels are never positive for the most part. Right? Unless you're in that generation, you're.

Andrea Frederickson: In that well, even, you know, whatever the generation was, we were making fun of the traditional generation because, you know, we would talk about, you know, did you go to your grandparents house and did you have to clean out these closets that had drawers and cabinets full of, you know, wrapping paper and string and, you know, the collection of all the things and why that they did these things and all that stuff. It's like. But I remember when I was doing this research, it's like, you know. I. Look at each of these generations and when the previous generation was 20. So think of any generation when they were in their 20s or late teens. It's like, I don't understand their music. I don't understand their haircuts. I don't understand their work ethic. Every generation has said that about the younger generation. The youngest generation.

Michelle Hill: Youngest generation, right?

Andrea Frederickson: Yes. It doesn't make any difference. It wasn't the fact that if I'm 50, I'm looking at a 30 year old thinking I don't understand their work ethic. It was always the youngest generation who is determining who they are at that time, trying to figure out what's important to them and looking at those very various things. So I really love the fact that that the research is showing up. In ways that my gut was telling me that when I was defending my thesis, it was like, yeah, this is what the research is saying, but my gut is telling me it doesn't make any difference what generation you were born in. It's the age you are and what part of your life journey and experiences you are living through at that time.

Michelle Hill: Because it can weave. We both could have been born the exact same year, but we're all going to have our. You and I would have different journeys, right? And those journeys are going to impact who we are, which, you know, those life experiences and those are going to impact how we behave. Right. And what it really comes down to when we think about the negative stereotypes that are happening. It's all about behaviors, right? And it doesn't matter what occurred in 1962 as a large event, it's not a predictor of my behavior. Correct. And but that's the negative piece is because then everyone is having this. I believe, you know, about the younger generation. So since I believe that about them, maybe I'm not going to hire them. Maybe they're not ready for a promotion. But is that why? I mean, but that it gets in the way and it's it's definitely causing issues and, um, it's creating. I think it creates that tension in the workplace as well. And we just use that almost as an excuse on why, you know, we choose not to do something and we believe it, but it's truly just a behavior. And the behavior is what we have to address, not the actual just because they were born during that time frame.

Michelle Hill: And so the things that the new research is showing is age, what it has to do with age and events. Right. So one thing they find is as people age, they tend to vote more. It doesn't matter if you're born in 1920 or if you were born in 1980. As you age, you tend to vote more often. That has an increase. And then when you look at events, Covid, um, that that famous word. Yeah, we that's the thing with events. We've all experienced it. And so when you think back to the research that was done on generations, there were several other millions of people that experienced it as well. But we're only talking about it for that generation, and you can't separate that. Now, we may look at things differently. It may impact us all differently. But again, that event is something we all had to we all experienced one way or another. They talked about 911 how after 911 millennials, this is what first came out was more, you know, they had an increased dedication to the military and to the belief of, um, um, patriotism. Yes. Thank you. Yes. But it was just a millennials, which was BS. It wasn't. When they pull back, it was everyone was.

Andrea Frederickson: Everybody who was older. Everyone, everybody who was everyone.

Michelle Hill: Exactly. Because we all experienced 911. But it's really easy for us just to kind of put them in this box, and that box is not the place they should really be.

Andrea Frederickson: Well, let's look at a couple of others. So today I hear about, um, the youngest generation in the workforce. So that's Gen Z, Gen Z. And we're talking about how they ghost people, how they they will interview, and then they just disappear and or how they might start to work, and then they just disappear. I know people who are 50, 60 and even 70 who are doing the same thing, and it has nothing to do with the fact that, oh, this generation, ghost people, everybody has done this right. Um, there's so many other things that they're attributing to the youngest generation today. That's stereotyping, right? Stereotyping labels and the fact that we all know stereotyping is bad. We all have blind spots. We all understand that. We look at people and we start creating habits of thought. And those habits of thought are untrue. And so we have to challenge those habits of thought and say, where else is this true? It's true in older people. It's, you know, it's there's not one group of people who are not going to have demonstrated the similar behaviors either at that same age or are continuing to do it. It's just that they were not given that label as a person. So you don't see it. You don't see it.

Michelle Hill: Yeah, you don't see it. And that that's the labels are so negative because that's when you start looking for them. Right. As soon as you trigger that generation people have because social media news I mean, it was everywhere in the late 90s and early 2000 with pumping that information out about the stereotypes or I'm sorry about the generations, um, that now when you say it, people have automatic thoughts, right? And those automatic thoughts then impact how we feel, which impact how we behave. And that's the that's a huge negative about it.

Andrea Frederickson: Well, I think about it. You know, we think about this and today we're talking about generations. But we could talk about whether you were born and raised in a very large urban area, whether it's New York or Chicago or LA, and the experiences you have there and how you experience the world is going to be different than you probably experienced it in Omaha, Nebraska. And we stereotype them, whoever they are. Right? Yeah, definitely. And so the point of this whole conversation is not to make a big deal about about generations. The concept of what we want to talk about are the myths of this. And the reality is we need to take a look at each human being and what are the things that motivate them? What are the where are they in their their life journey? Right. And just letting people discover who they are and their independence and the things that are important to them and just going through their life journey is going to give you an indication as to what might be more important, or the choices that they're going to make it easier to make than in other parts of the life.

Michelle Hill: So yeah, like a if you have an early 20 something, I'll just say 20 to 30 right there. Commitments, level of commitments are going to be different than maybe someone's commitments at, let's say, 35, 40.

Andrea Frederickson: Or depending upon how many kids they have. Well, that's what I'm referring to is yeah commitments. Commitments. Right.

Michelle Hill: Yeah. Those commitments are children, you know partner whatever those commitments are. So when you're when you don't have very many commitments, it's a lot easier for you to get a move. Oh there's a job opportunity over here I want to go check that out. I want to go I want to go try that out. And I'm going to go move across the world how.

Andrea Frederickson: They're going to choose to spend their money, how they're going to choose not to spend their money, what they're saving for, how conservative they are. You know, all those things are going to be very different in that decade.

Michelle Hill: Well, and it's just where they where they're at. I've had friends that had kids younger, young, a lot younger than I did, almost ten years younger than I did, um, to where I'm at. And they have different commitments and different decisions that they make with their life than I make with mine, just based off of my current commitments. Right, right. And that's just a ten year gap, not the we'll say 20 year gap. I guess the 20 year gap, it just makes it more obvious. But sure. Um, it's it's important that we recognize people. So McKinsey study they did a they have a great article on debunking. They did a lot of research. And what they really came up with is why do people leave organizations? Why do they join a new organization, and why do they stay at their organizations? Common themes are no different than what we've talked about for years. The basic needs people have the basic human need, right? Right. People want to feel valued. They want to feel important. They want to have opportunities for growth. They want to they want to feel like you care about them. I mean, just some of the basic needs which go ahead and dive into that one.

Andrea Frederickson: Well, you know, just just the fact that that as a human one, I do want to fit in, but I'm not going to all the time. Right. There are going to be things about my lifestyle that are not going to fit with everybody else's lifestyle. But I don't want I do want to be who I am, and I want to be heard and appreciated for who I am, not because I've got some label attached to me. You know, for years we've talked about the fact that people are born human first than given labels. Right. And, and so if we start labeling people, that's unfair. You know.

Michelle Hill: We're setting them up for.

Andrea Frederickson: Failure, setting people up for failure. And so I really want us to to think about this whole idea of, yes, we have people of all ages in the workforce, okay. Forget what we're calling them. We have people who are of all ages, who all have this need to contribute, to be heard, to be valued, to, to want to belong. Yes. And and if we as managers are treating them like Jen. Whatever. Fill in the blank. Yes. Then what we're doing is we're not listening to them as an individual, and that will cause people to tune management out. It will cause them to disassociate with people who they could be learning from. It will cause them to disassociate with an organization who could truly be asking them very valuable questions, to contribute to the solutions and the service and the products that we're that we're trying to deliver on a daily basis. So, you know, just kind of tying this up into a little bit of a bow. Yep. You will find all kinds of research on all five of those generations. And I'm pretty sure we're going to get another generation to come in. As you know, our oldest generation, um, move on to their next to their next life.

Andrea Frederickson: The reality is that that is not doing anybody any good, right? What we really need to do is listen to what is it that person is needing at that point in time in their life. And maybe they're just discovering that, but it doesn't mean we have to, um. We have to tell them what they're needing because of a generational need. It is where are you in your in your your journey on this life? Where are you in your work journey? What is it that you see happening? And just because you as an individual took a certain path, doesn't mean that path is right for everybody else. So let's let's really get into knowing the individuals that work with us. Um, we have managers and team leads and coworkers who can really contribute to making work life much more fulfilling because we get to accept them for who they are and where they're going. So, you know, yeah, there's a lot of myths about these generations, and I'm really glad we got to talk about that. Thanks for joining us today for the Leadership Hustle. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss another episode.