Page 58 - Lighting Magazine November 2018

on the mark
The New Guard
By now, you have heard about the impact the Millennial generation has on today’s workforce — but employees in this group are very di erent from those in the past.
BY MARK OKUN
It is generally accepted – although sources will be as many as ve generations occupying the same
uctuate – that the upward age of the Millen- nial generation is 38 years old. The moniker “Millennial” has been marketed to the masses as
a generation living in self-absorbed perpetual youth, forced to live at home with the ’rents, and straddling the gap between adolescence and adulthood.
Yet, when the layers of the Millennial onion are peeled away, you discover a group that is industri- ous, eager, and digitally savvy. What you also nd is a group of people seeking knowledge.
In almost every interaction I’ve had with “Gen Y’ers,” when they need basic information, they will do a Google search rst. It is their other commonality that I nd inspiring: the desire for mentorship and real-life examples when it comes to the so skills of management, leadership, and the incorporation of emotional intelligence into their professional lives.
History Being Made
One challenge the Millennial Manager faces that no other group has faced before is that there could
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workforce. This creates a unique predicament if a Millennial is managing an older, younger, and same age workforce.
Believe it or not, this distinctive workplace con- dition provides a cloaked bene t for the Millennial Manager. They have the opportunity to glean from the experience and examples of the older genera- tion while applying their own style, techniques, and skills as they guide their teams in these testy times. With these skill-building bene ts, however, there are also some daunting challenges.
Clearly communicating with your team members is a di cult task. Double it if your group has a vast age span. Learning the communication nuances that each generation has will assist in reducing some of the associated generational tension.
Break tHe stereotype
When moving towards any goal – whether for business or personal success – being blind to pre- conceived generational di erences will accelerate the progress. The common assumptions that Baby