A Different Point-of-View: Why Bashing Millennials is Wrong

We've all read our fair share of "generational" articles and, for that matter, probably harbor your own thoughts on the degrees of fact or fiction that apply. This is especially true when it comes to either B2B or B2C marketing for the purposes of promoting relationships through motivational incentive and loyalty based programs. I encourage you to read the article published in Fast Companies titled Why Bashing Millennials Is Wrong - click here.

Here were my thoughts...

Individually, we're all wired a bit differently in terms of our social norms, beliefs and values. There are strong commonalities when we breakdown our population into demographic buckets based upon age (i.e., traditionalists, baby boomers, generation x and generation y, etc.). This is clearly due to key influencers of the time; for instance, the technological explosion that continually shifts attitudes and behaviors in how we work, relate and interact with one another. However, the important point here is that we can't assume or stereotype too much solely based upon simple generational cuts alone. We need to go deeper and focus on what best works for a personal, business or individual perspective; especially when it comes to the areas such as education, communication, motivation and others.

Overall, the focus shouldn't be about millennials in the workplace, but rather more so about how we better engage different people in varying ways to drive performance in the work place. The ability to help individualize work experiences and engagements through areas such as meetings or even motivational efforts to leverage unique talents and skills has and remains a key towards driving a diverse workforce. This is NOT just a millennial issue; it's about "how you engage others" to best achieve both individual as well as business level performance objectives.