Can we attempt to be multi-lingual in the workplace with regard to all generational needs? Where do we draw the line in trying to be all things to all people?
FutureSYNC International offers a lively and deeply researched seminar on Generations in the workplace, with the purpose of illuminating the cultural needs of each generation’s workforce. This type of cultural understanding can have great impact when it shines a light on factors that will recruit and motivate the Generation Y’s as well as provide information on the stricter adherence to task completion and traditional workplace structure preferred by older Generation X’s and the Baby Boomers who are currently in charge.
Ultimately though, the lesson of the Generation seminar is this: Though we all have some responsibility to code-switch in order to be more accommodating to each generation, we must also establish the norms of the current culture. This means that Generation Y’s will have to be ready, willing and able to do the lion’s share of the adapting and code switching for at least, the next ten years.
The current state of leadership in business, places the top Executives in the younger half of the Baby Boomers and the older half of the Generation X cohorts. Accordingly, these older generations’ appreciation for established schedules, desire for face time, requests for respect through attentiveness, and demand for quick attention to deadlines and requests, are behaviors that need to be a priority for all workers. It would be highly beneficial for Generation Y’s to make the decision to code-switch in order to improve their workplace trajectories. Fortunately, they are the most adaptable generation on the planet!
As the Generation Y’s begin to assume these executive roles, they will be able to establish new norms, including true work/life priorities, flexible schedules, results only workplace (ROW) environments with remote workplace options, and preferences for technology-based communication.