hurdle when attempting to make generational theory part of your management strategy is pushback. One may even call it negativity. When fellow managers see you carrying around this book, they may wonder aloud, or to themselves, “Yea, but … aren’t all Millennials just entitled kids who got trophies for trying? Why bother?” The next generation of employees is getting hit full force with these stereotypes. New employees are painted with the broad brush not of the Millennial, but the worst Millennial. These stereotypes make it so that on day one, your new hire is already fighting an uphill battle.
There will be many a detractor/naysayer to the generational conversation. These lingering questions and pushback may be coming straight from you! Here are some of the “yea, buts” that bubble up most often:
❯❯ The psychology “yea, but …”: This topic doesn’t even consider things like whether someone’s an introvert or an extrovert.
❯❯ The life stage “yea, but …”: These kids are going to grow up and end up acting just like us.
❯❯ The outlier “yea, but …”: I’m a Gen Xer, and I’m nothing like that.
❯❯ The stereotyping “yea, but …”: Aren’t you just putting people into a box?
❯❯ The tired-of-conflict “yea, but …”: Aren’t we all just more similar than we are different? We don’t need something that’s going to drive us farther apart from each other.
In the following sections, we take these piece by piece, objection by objection. Once you can clear your mind of them and overcome any lingering “yea, buts …”, you’ll effectively wipe off the smudge on your Gen Lens and see your direct reports more clearly.
Recap: The psychology “yea, but …”: This topic doesn’t even consider things like whether someone’s an introvert or an extrovert.
The first step to addressing this “yea, but …” is understanding that generational theory is a sociological science and not a psychological one. It’s goal, by definition, is to examine how people act and behave in large groups. The “group” in this scenario refers to a generational cohort. It’s the sociological study of how historical events and conditions can impact your generational identity/persona.
Psychology, on the other hand, is focused on the individual. It strives to understand the singular person’s mind, his emotional and social reactions, and the unique things that make him tick. What are that person’s triggers? What makes him happy? What makes him sad? What motivates his behavior? What singular influences played a role in forming his mind and personality?
So, really, the difference between sociology and psychology is as simple as the difference between the micro and the macro. It’s like the difference between what a blue M&M looks and tastes like versus the genre of candy that M&Ms fall into.
WHEN PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY ARE A PERFECT MATCH
Psychology looks at the individual. Sociology focuses on patterns and trends. Both sciences are valid. Both offer useful information, and, in fact, they often work best when paired with one another. In many ways they’re complementary, and we frequently recommend that clients pair the two when trying to understand the people they work with. Be it Kolbe, MBTI, DiSC, or any other psychological assessment you favor – far from contradicting the generations topic, it serves as a useful pairing, like a fine red wine with a nice juicy steak. They are meant to go together, and the one makes the other that much better.
Recap: The life stage “yea, but …”: They’re going to grow up and be just like us. Isn’t this just youth culture?
This particular “yea, but …” is a biggie. We aren’t going to try and tell you that there isn’t even a sliver of truth to this assertion. Of course there are certain attitudes and behaviors that are more about life stage and not necessarily specific to generational personalities. Young people will be young. Teenagers will always have messy rooms. Whether that manifests as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed or impulsive and (sometimes) reckless, there is some element of that youth mentality in any set of young people.
Whenever you feel tempted to chalk a generational behavior up to life stage, try to silence the following micro “yea, but …” life-stage thoughts.
The age location that each generation occupied when they were teenagers is essential to their personalities. It is during this period in time that you’re making up your mind about how you feel about the world around you. You are impressionable and making sense of everything. An example we like to use is the events of September 11. It goes without saying that 9/11 was an event that changed the game for everyone, regardless of one’s generation. But for Millennials, it happened right as they were in their formative (or roughly teenage) years. If you experienced that day as a 60-year-old, it would impact you differently than a middle schooler. For Millennials, the world that had seemed at least relatively safe from the atrocities of global terror was all of a sudden under attack. Their bubble of safety was burst violently, and, for them, the United States was no longer safe from the monstrosities of global terrorism. In the blink of an eye, they too became targets for terrorism, and tomorrow was far from guaranteed.
This “live for today” mentality is one they’ve carried with them, and it won’t change regardless of what life stage they’re occupying, because it’s a trait that was formulated and hardened during their most impressionable years. As Millennials age into parenthood, retirement, and grandparenthood, this trait is likely to hold steady. They’ll always want to make the most of their time in the here and now. Research gurus like Yankelovich and Gallup, among others, have tracked generational characteristics over decades and have found that values for the cohorts have remained consistent regardless of life stage.
Xers were always told they were going to grow up and behave just like the Baby Boomers. But we’ve seen something different – even though Xers have aged into another life stage, now with families, homes, and sometimes elderly parents to care for, they’ve still retained their Xer-like qualities and are even passing them on to their Gen Edge kids.
Millennials have long been cast as a generation averse to growing up and averse to settling
