I had one of my typical conversations over the week-end with a senior leader who was complaining about Gen Y’s need for instant gratification…that they just don’t care and don’t “get it” about having a strong work ethic and delayed gratification.

My response: “That is not their fault.  If you look at the way we raised our kids using the technology they are now comfortable with, it only makes sense that they want things immediately.  They want things fast…they want it now, and they can teach us a thing or two about life.   AND…they can be coached and trained to understand when delayed gratification is in order and when to really dive in and work.”  (And of course, we need to know when to go home and quit working so that our families know that we love them!)

Not sure I got my point across.

So, maybe this video will help.  This was sent to me by Nicolle Shanti…thank-you Nicolle for sending this along.  My view is that Generation Y is not lost and helpless…maybe we (Baby Boomers) are the ones who are lost.

Blogging for Bankers is conducting a survey on the impact the presence of a blog may (or may not) have on the bank selection process. We have created short surveys (based on age range) that comprise of two simple questions and should not take any longer than 5 minutes to complete.

We are very interested in all generations’ responses, and we are particularly interested to hear from those of you who are ages 20-31.  So, please pass along this survey to your friends.

To participate, please click the link below to the survey and choose the survey which represents your age range and respond to the questions. Your responses are completely anonymous and the survey will remain open through the end of March. To ensure survey integrity, we ask that you only complete the survey once.

We look forward to your input and thank you for taking time to share your thoughts with us.

http://bloggingforbankers.com/survey.html

Pew Research came out with a great report last week showing that Millennials views of technological advances are not that much different than other generations…that most agree, we have moved in a positive direction on this front.

You can read the full report here.

I was going to spend the day writing about the 10 dumbest things said about Generation Y in 2009, but there is one that deserves attention…So, in my opinion, the dumbest thing said about Generation Y in 2009 is this:

“Generation Y is the dumbest generation we have seen in the history of mankind.”

Whoever came up with this notion are the people who deserves the dumb award of 2009.

One of the funniest things I read on this topic was some study which showed that in 2006 (okay…it’s 3 years old) revealed that two thirds of high school seniors couldn’t explain an old photo of a sign over a theater door reading the words “COLORED ENTRANCE”.   Isn’t this ironic?  People from the Baby Boomer generation who publicly displayed acts of discrimination by demanding colored entrances to theaters, forcing black people to sit in the back of the bus or drink from a different water fountain are calling Generation Y dumb, because they don’t know the meaning of COLORED ENTRANCE!  Thank God, here in 2009, that this Generation does not know the meaning of these words.

I am sure that many of you are out there today saying “Gen Y is dumb…they need to know the meaning of these signs and of World Wars I and II and the history of Sputnik, blah, blah…they sit and text and live on Facebook all day and use words like ‘chill, word and dank’ and they all have ADD, because they are all multi-tasking maniacs.  They don’t know who Chopin is, and they never knew that Pete Rose played baseball”.

Okay…I get it.  But why are we all so hung up on people knowing about trivia from history?  I completely understand knowing history, but here’s the deal…Gen Y knows how to go to their information sources and quickly learn more than I bet most of us know about Pete Rose, Chopin or the Cold War.  They know how to tap into a network of thousands of people to get answers more quickly and they don’t waste time laboring over useless details that have no meaning.  They can filter out what they need to be successful in the moment so that they can move on and spend time with friends and family.  Are we really here on earth to know each detail of each event in history?  Not so sure that’s why we’re here (but you history majors can just go ahead and throw some rocks at me!)

There are also a few things that we all need to know about Gen Y:

1. 20 of the most celebrated entrepreneurs of 2009 are under the age of 30

2. Generation Y can quickly explain anything related to new media including web 2.0, convergence, wiki, microblogging, crowdsourcing, RSS and social bookmarking while many people are still using text burdened ppt slides that put people to sleep.  Take a look at these icons….do you know what these are?  If not, you’re behind the times!  Gen Y can tell you what each of these are and another 100 or so social networking icons, and they are not just for playing around!  They are being used for business, education and recruitment.

And…on a side note, I led two presentations this past year when I asked an audience of Baby Boomers how many of them were blogging, and the audience said “What is a blog?”

3. Does Gen Y multi-task?  You bet they can!  Because they have to.  Yes…I know about all the studies that say that multi-tasking is horrible and causes problems and is inefficient, and causes the ability to learn to go down, but did you also know that multi-tasking can be great in the working world?  Gen Y is proficient at neatly compartmentalizing the multitude of “stuff” in their brains and is able to pluck out easily what they need in the moment.  Older generations hold onto about 10 things at one time, so they seem to be constantly at war in their brains…arguing not only with the world but with their own beliefs and thoughts.

I could go on and on, but at the end of the day, this belief is only one perspective…it is not THE truth…it is someone’s view or belief, and we all have beliefs and opinions.  My opinion is that this statement about Gen Y being the dumbest Generation in history is just dumb.  My perspective is this…Generation Y is one of the brightest, most capable, intellectually stimulated generations we have seen in history.  Over the last three years, I feel as if I have become “smarter” (or dumber as many of you would say) because of knowing so many young leaders.  I also have 3 Gen Y kids who have taught me a great deal about life, spirituality, cultures other than my own, about the world and about how they plan on helping our world be a better place.

Our world needs to change in 2010…and for starters, I believe that our education system has to get up with the times.  Writing on a chalkboard and lecturing to a group of tech savvy learners is no longer working…so what you thought was important 20 years ago may not be that relevant today.  It’s time to start shifting, and I want to apologize to Generation Y for all of the adults who are calling you dumb, lazy and entitled and for handing you so many problems to deal with in the future.  And…I want to thank you for your innovative spirit and for actually speaking up for what you want and what you feel our world needs to do to be a better place to live.

And to Baby Boomers, Traditionalists and Gen X…thank-you for your wisdom…now it’s time to share, mentor and coach instead of calling Gen Y dumb, lazy and narcissistic.  If that is how you view them, they did not get there alone.  They got there with a great deal of help from the rest of us!

Wishing you all the best in 2010.

Bea

Great blog post and a very funny cartoon on Read, Write, Web from earlier this week.

I have had several leaders complain about their younger employees hanging out on Facebook everyday.  A few thoughts to consider here:

1.  Are they on Facebook, because you have not offered them a challenging task to complete?  Maybe your younger employees are completing tasks much more quickly than your more senior employees and are bored and looking for something to do.  So…hey…I’ll just get on Facebook until I am given something else to do.

2. How can you leverage this opportunity?  As an example, you could actually ask your millennials to use Facebook as a way to connect to potential clients or look for great future employees.

But…this blog says it all.  If you are trying to block Facebook, good luck!

Jeannette Paladino was kind enough to ask me to write this blog post today for Write Speak Sell.

The excerpt is below, and you can read the full post here.

At the end of the day, your company will either sink or swim based on how well you communicate.

I am sure you have heard this 1,000 times…”Great communication is necessary for great leadership” or “We must communicate better if we want to be successful” ,womp, womp, womp. The topic of communication has been beaten to death, so we have become numb to its importance. We go about our day not returning phone calls to customers, sending out curt, hurtful e-mails, turning a deaf ear to our employees and just basically shutting people out or cutting them off at the knees.

In this day and age, I have a prediction…and I am not a futurist. I believe that those companies who will succeed in the future will be those companies who learn to not only communicate better with their customers but who take the time to actually learn how to communicate across generational and cultural barriers. I believe those companies and businesses who choose to ignore this important aspect of communication will perish. In order to be successful with this process, you do have to take the time to learn about each generation in our workforce… their values, key motivating factors and how they best like to communicate so that you can begin to knock down the walls which are so strongly holding up the divide.

So, here is a run down of the six generations who are alive and well in our world and interacting with our businesses as consumers, investors and advocates.

Read the full post here.

I will start this post by saying that I am totally in love with the new show Glee.  Just don’t ask me to do anything on Wednesday evening if it involves staying out past 9:00 Eastern, because at 8:59, I am sitting in front of my television, waiting on the edge of my seat, tuned into FOX,  to learn how the plot will thicken and what songs will be performed for the week.

When I saw the ads last spring, I thought “Oh brother…this is going to be so corny.”  Boy…was I both right and wrong.  The show is just downright quirky…with a cast of characters so interesting and complex,  a creator just simply cannot “make up”…they are characters from real life as we know it today.

If you have not yet watched the show, Glee is an offbeat look at the caste system that is more often than not carved out in high schools all over the world and the problems which come with being both high school students, teachers, coaches and of course…the principal.  The unique thing about the show is that it revolves around the high school glee club, so each week, viewers get to be delighted with some of THE best musical and dance talent I have seen on television or on broadway in a long time (American Idol...maybe you should be looking at some of these kids…eh…they’ve already made it!)  And…I have to say as a Baby Boomer, the selection of songs crosses all generations…there is literally something for everyone!  I love it when a song by Journey or Queen makes it onto the show.

Now then, I have not performed any formal research on this topic today, but I am hearing from college age kids and 20-somethings from all over the country that they are just in love with the show.  It is gathering a following of eager watchers (both young and old) and has landed in the top 10 television rankings in its first two months of the season on TV.com.  The show was pre-empted for a few weeks by the world series (which really upset me…I am not the biggest baseball fan, and they kicked my favorite show off for 3 weeks,)  so I will be eager to see how the show lands in the Nielsen ratings come May, 2010.

But…let me give you a bit of insight.  If you want to know how to reach a 20-something audience…if you want to know how to market to them, attract them as consumers and really get inside their minds, you have to watch this show, and here’s why:

1.  The diversity in the cast of characters. Look at this photo to the right.  I do believe we have a very nice diversity of backgrounds in this cast of characters.

You can get the full rundown on the cast of characters through the Glee Wiki, but let me just give you a few of the highlights of the cast:

Rachel Berry: Rachel was a surrogate baby, and she has two dads.  They picked a surrogate based on intelligence and beauty. They gave Rachel everything she needed to become the star she is destined to be in the near future.

Finn Hudson: Finn is captain of the football team and WAS a closeted singer until Glee Club coach Will Schuester recruited him to join the club.

Mercedes Jones:  Mercedes is an African American diva who loves her weave and can’t stand it when anyone else is in the spotlight.

Puck: Puck is the “bad boy” in the club…plays football, cleans pools and underneath that bad boy image is a pretty soft heart and a spirit to succeed (at any and all costs!)  Puck is also Jewish.

Tina Cohen-Chang: Tina is a shy Asian American Goth who is wrestling with a few self esteem issues.

Kurt Hummel: Kurt is a young gay man with a soprano voice.  He recently came out to his dad (who has had a big hunch that Kurt was gay as early as age 3…but Kurt just recently had the big conversation with Dad over the last few weeks.)

Artie Abrams: Artie is paralyzed from the waist down and is living in a wheelchair (the things the directors have done to work his wheelchair into dance routines is sheer brilliance!)  Artie’s handicap does not stop him from letting his electric guitar rip (will blow you away!)

Quinn Fabray: Quinn is a cheerleader, the president of the celibacy club and is against anything that goes against the morals and the Bible.  Finn is her boyfriend, but she is carrying the child of someone other than Finn (but he does not know that the baby was fathered by someone else.)

As we all know, Gen Ys are very open and accepting of a diversity of people (as a matter of fact, life is pretty boring when things are homogeneous.)  So, this cast of characters does indeed represent the millennial generation, makes them feel at home and spices things up.  We have a little bit of everything, and the show has not shied away from topics such as teen pregnancy, homosexuality or prejudices against race or the handicapped.

2. A bit quirky…AND a great deal of irreverence. To the right, we have the folks in charge.  Principal Figgins (who is a bit clueless at times but can bring down the hammer when needed,) Sue Sylvester (cheerleader coach) and Will  Schuester (Glee Club coach.)  If you think the whispers in the ear are romantic intimacies…think again…Sue and Will are constantly plotting on how to get the other one back,  threatening, fighting and being called into the principal’s office for bad behavior.   I sometimes wonder who is more mature…the faculty or the kids.  But isn’t that true in life as well?

The things that come out of Sue Sylvester’s mouth are just downright irreverent, but you find yourself laughing out loud every week (kudos to the writers on this one character!)  At the end of the day, most Gen Ys will tell you that they are attracted to the quirky, offbeat and sometimes irreverent approaches…remember, Gen ys have seen it all, so nothing shocks them!  So, the shock value penetrates the same old, same old that they hear every day.

3.  Pure talent and entertainment. Gen Ys have been exposed to SO much great talent in their lifetime.  They can watch just about anyone perform on You Tube, so they have an ingrained need for constant stimulation, love to be entertained and the entertainment needs to be really great.  The Glee cast is just about the most talented group I have seen in a very long time, and the Gen Ys I am talking with are impressed.  If you go to the Glee wikipedia site, you can read the professional backgrounds of the cast, and it is one impressive group of people.   Here is just one video from the premiere of the show this past spring…their performance of Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.

So…as I have now stated…if you want to know how to strike a chord with Generation Y, sit down this Wednesday evening and watch Glee:  Fox at 9:00 Eastern/8:00 Central.

As a parent of a Gen Y young man, and as an advocate for Generation Y, I highly encourage everyone to read this editorial in the Wall Street Journal from this past week:

Society Will Pay a Big Price for All of our “Lost Boys”

“A politically correct society and “helicopter” parents have stripped opportunities for all of life’s potential failures out of the lives of young boys. Only the athletes truly compete, and young boys need competition. They reach college age so fearful of any type of failure that their only answer is to sit in the back of the room and adopt the “cool pose” we are so familiar with from high school.”

This one statement in the editorial is a big wake up call for all parents:

This editorial followed an article by Richard Whitmire “The Lost Boys”

I have said this so much, but if you are a parent, and if you are hovering over your child (aka…if you are a “helicopter parent”,) I highly encourage you to read both the editorial and the article.

I had the honor of speaking recently to the Downtown Little Rock Partnership on the topic of Leading at the Speed of Y:  How to Recruit, Lead and Retain the Millennial Careerist.

I have been meaning to post this article (is a bit late due to my being in the bed with the flu this past week.)  At any rate, this group was just a joy to work with and within one hour, Mark Carter had this article online via ArkansasBusiness.com:

Embrace Millennials:  Expert Tells LR Group

Many thanks to  Sharon Priest, Becky Falkowski and the entire Downtown Little Rock Partnership team for a great visit.  You can read more about how great I was treated here.

Vanessa Van Petten and team have designed a super cool App for the iPhone:  iCurfew.

Check out the app today!