The Problem With Millennials; It's You!
You don't move people by pointing fingers. Holistic, collaborative leadership is key.
You don't move people by pointing fingers. Holistic, collaborative leadership is key.
So you know your author, I am Gen X.
A first-generation son of a hard-drinking, bad-ass, blue-collar father and an aspirational, vivacious, loving mother of four. Both driven, dedicated, and wildly charismatic, neither with a clue as to how to deal with the idea of “art” as a career.
I’ve never been coddled or pulled favors, and found my way through my career never having had the road paved for me. I’ve slept in streets, lived out of a ’65 Mustang to afford art school where I taught myself to use a Mac, and created my own course with the singular goal of “making album covers” – a decision made while laying in a hospital bed for the better part of my 14th summer.
I bore you with that to understand I know hard work and I have as strong a distaste for self-entitled, self-important, lazy, spoiled individuals as the next person…but I have a bit of news for you – these characteristics do not discriminate for age or gender.
I, like many, have worked for, and alongside, some real gems – narcissistic, self-absorbed, delusional bullies of all ages.
You’d think, being older we would know better. Yet, more and more recently I’ve heard the Millennial-bashing crescendo, coupled by aggressive comebacks by sharp-tongued Millennials with reason. You don’t build great leaders by tearing individuals down.
As 80 million Millennials in the U.S. begin to take center stage, we in the publishing and advertising business need to magnify their strengths. We need to leverage their insight, energy, experience, and perspectives instead of getting into a dither about negative stereotypes.
Here, leadership is key. Leadership because it’s a simple truth that you can never be, alone, that which you can be with a group of people who work to support each other. We are all in this together.
To that point, Millennials are the most dynamic, collaborative, diverse, and inclusive group of young people to date.
Google “Millennials In The Workplace” and you get this. Look, I know it’s a joke, but it’s funny because it’s true, right? Well, I, for one, am tired of catching a laugh at the expense of the generation we created.
Lazy? I’m surrounded by the most impressive group of Millennials who not only do not match touted stereotypes, but also take the criticism in stride.
What do I see in the young leaders of our industry around me that I see less of in Gen X?
Now, all this is not to say they’re perfect. But, this is where our leadership counts.
And, finally, a quick note to Millennials that I find myself expressing time and time again to Boomers, Xers, and Yers alike; don’t disregard the work done to set the stage for you to work from. Nothing happens in a vacuum, especially in this day and age. Your new energy and vision doesn’t make you superior, because no matter how brilliant you think you are, you’re a part of a system. Great leaders acknowledge work done, point to their vision, and then do everything they can to charge their team to move forward with them.
As publishers, marketers, and advertisers, we are in the business of motivating audiences to take action. Hopefully for most of us, we’re in the business of doing this by creating impactful, positive experiences that charge and excite people to move. You don’t move people by pointing fingers. Holistic, collaborative leadership is key.
Millennials embody an exhilarating amount of energy. You can’t inspire people if you’re not inspired yourself, and speaking for myself, this generation amazes me. I only hope they remember their responsibility to the one that follows them.
Image on home page via Shutterstock.