Supervising Generation Y employees (born 1977 – 1990) and Millennial employees (born 1991 – ) poses several challenges.  One of my clients, who has become fairly frustrated, says:

“It isn’t just that younger employees have short attention spans and lack social skills and basic manners.  The biggest challenge we see if that today’s young people exhibit an odd mix of insecurity AND cockiness.  One minute they are convinced they know everything and should be in charge.  The next minute, they don’t know very basic aspects of the work to be done.  They simply don’t know what they don’t know.”

“As a result of that one factor, younger people think they deserve fascinating high paying positions with a degree of independence and authority…before they have done anything to earn those jobs. And if they can’t easily land one of those rewarding jobs, they actually give up and settle for entry level roles at fast food restaurants.”

If your business is experiencing something similar…don’t ignore it. More and more executives are starting to realize that the disconnect between various generations will soon stunt their business growth and profitability.

Many younger people crave the opportunity to create. Installing a highly participative interdisciplinary approach to product development is one way to reach and retain young employees.  No matter what their core jobs are, younger employees can often provide new insights and ways to utilize technology.  If your Baby Boomer managers can get past the negative/provocative manner used by Generation Y and Millenials to make suggestions (“I don’t know why you don’t…”), your business can end up with some exciting ideas. If the cross functional product development groups are then expected to go far enough with their analysis that they can present actual business proposals, your younger employees have the opportunity to learn what they did not realize they didn’t know…and have a reason to stay.

Aldonna R. Ambler, CMC, CSP has earned the right to be called THE GROWTH STRATEGIST®. She has won over 2 dozen national and statewide “entrepreneur of the year” awards for the resilient growth of her international businesses across 4 recessions.  Her midsized BtoB clients get on…and then stay on…the published lists of the fastest growing privately held companies. She owns and operates a suite of companies that help privately held midsized companies achieving accelerated growth with sustained profitability® through opportunity & resource analysis, 4 approaches to strategic planning, executive advisory services, growth financing, and targeted search.  2012 is Ambler’s 8^th year hosting a weekly peer-to-peer-to-peer syndicated on line talk show that features interviews with CEOs/Presidents of midsized companies (typically between $20 and 200 Mil/yr) sharing success tips about the growth strategy-of-the-week. An archive of over 300 interviews is available at www.GrowthStrategistShow.com. She can be reached toll free at 1-888-Aldonna or at Aldonna@AMBLER.com.