Talking Bout My Generation

In a recent interview I was asked what I consider the challenges of managing a team of Gen Y’s.

When I was recruiting for a team a few years ago, I interviewed a young girl who I thought was absolutely perfect for the role. While she may have been lacking in life experience, she had a good handle on the organisation, what the role was about and would have been a great cultural fit for the team. I really liked her, but my colleague from London was concerned that she needed more “life” experience. As a 20year old, the opportunities for life experience are fairly limited so I wrote a six month development plan for her. My colleague again dismissed that this would allow her enough experience or emotional IQ to be suitable for the role and suggested I set a 1-2year plan. When I explained that as a Gen Y, the candidate would probably not be thinking beyond 6 months,  my colleague had no idea what I was talking about and needed to look up the meaning of Gen Y. Thankfully Wiki had enough entries on the subject to enlighten her. Sadly, we lost the opportunity to employ the candidate who then went to work for the competitor. I believe she is still there in a more senior role, kicking goals and loving life.

I am surrounded by Gen Y’s and I love it. My daughter is a Gen Y, her friends are Gen Y, and I get the fortune of working with a lot of Gen Y’s.

My observation of working with this group of people are that they are fast moving, intelligent, altruistic, have a strong sense of self and their place in the world, they are confident, intelligent, interesting and most importantly – they don’t compromise their standards. These are skills I value in anyone, regardless of generation.

I work with a couple of young girls at the moment who are intelligent, caring and seriously funny women. I enjoy listening to their views on various issues we face at work and just love that they feel empowered enough to “talk up” with confidence and a maturity I never enjoyed at that age. I don’t manage them, they are colleagues and I love that I can respect them because of who they are and not judge them because of the time they were born. And more importantly, its mutual.

So if I had to really think about the challenge of managing a team of Gen Y’s – it would be keeping up with them.