Jul 01, 2016

The Canadian parent company of Think on Your Feet^® ® – a course which teaches ten invisible structures in communication, that New Horizons trains here in Australia – has just released the first of a three part series on Millennials or Gen Y’s as they are also called.

This is a subject that I have given seminars on for about eight years now because many managers in our courses such as The New Manager and The Effective Manager, who are either Baby Boomers or Gen X’s, complain about how difficult it is to manage the Gen Y’s.

Yet, is this generation so different?

Gen Y’s very much resemble Baby Boomers at the same age because they have had similar formative impacts, such as economic conditions, social change and wars on other shores. The two distinct differences are that Baby Boomers’ parents went through the depression and the Second World War whereas Millennial's Parents did not. More importantly, they are the first generation that has ever had such a vast superiority of new technology over their parents. This, it is conjectured, is part of the reason why they are often very confident and have different ways that they wish to transact their work-life.

It is predicted that by 2020 they will represent half of the western work-force. If this is the case we’d better get used to them and find ways to harness and keep their talent.

The three videos appear below and give some interesting statistics taken from respective reports by Deloittes and Price Waterhouse Coopers among other sources. Enjoy.

PS: If this topic is at all interesting to you, we have a program called ‘Managing Multigenerational Teams’ which delves into this important subject. It is not listed on our public schedule but is available as a ‘dedicated’ event.