As a late millennial in the workforce today, I find myself floating around 3 to 4 different generations - Now, I don't know about you, but it's not easy keeping up with these.
After all, are we even done trying to figure out ourselves as millennials?
You’d think / why do we even care about generations
Well, if you’re in the creative field, or at pretty much any career field, Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Zers are an integral part of your every day. They’re your co-workers, your subordinates, your clients, your partners and your vendors or suppliers
You’d also think / Isn’t that so much of generalizing a group of people just because of the year they were born?
I mean, generations are, indeed, defined as a group of individuals born and living in roughly the same period - but what gives this segmentation more sense, is the fact that these groups have shared the same world experiences and pop-culture during their years of development. These experiences and events shape the generations with similar influence.
Now let’s break it down /
Gen-X
Gen-X is the middle child of generations - Somewhere in between Baby Boomers and Millennials. They’re my clients, my vendors and my partners. They’re self-sufficient, and are driven by results. They value diversity and practicality as well as informality
As Millennials, today, we’re the dominant generational group in the workforce.
We’ve lived through major events and happenings like the emergence of computers and technology, we’ve lived through women empowerment (especially in KSA) - We went through the old and new. These events have helped shape our core values as a generation, including our belief in collaboration, our tech-integration, views on authority, and work ethic. Millennials are defined as the motivated generation, balancing dynamics and giving back to others
Gen-Z
The youngest employees walking through our doors, the ones taking over as we move forward in time. They’re here to stay for our future, and their perspectives are changing everything including the way we manage our teams. They prioritize work-life balance more than any previous generation. They value continuous learning, inclusion, balance over anything
I believe it's time we turn the generational page and start learning more about the new kids on the block.
The GenZ-ers
Let me tell you about a story that sparked my brain to write this/
Walking into the office, one day, I noticed a team-member on their phone and away from their laptop - The millennial blood in me, boiled a little - and to my surprise, by the time I reached my desk, I had received the task submission.
That was when I realized, I cannot judge by the way they work
They enjoy to work from home, when I can best function on my office desk.
They want to work on their phones, when I can barely just scroll through my work notifications
They want flexibility, when I can best work under pressure
and they’ll work just as fine, if not even, better.
Here are some learnings from my short journey of learning to manage my team / (80% Gen-Z)
Technology is Coffee to Gen-Z
You can't take it away.
Since childhood, they've had smartphones, Instagram and Facebook. They expect to connect online quickly and everywhere they go.
If you want to gain the most from your Gen-Z team:
Invest in good Wifi and limit unnecessary meetings to online tasking (on any downloadable iPhone app) - Emails are somewhat of a no-no
This means / that for them to be productive, they need a good connection to the internet, and no blood-boiling millennials judging them.
Gen-Z want more flexibility in their careers and jobs.
They want to work where they feel most productive. And it’s not always in the office.
They appreciate when their company acknowledges that they have a life outside of work.
If you want to gain the most from your Gen-Z team:
Offer them flexibility , and trust in them to get the work done at their own pace, and space
This means / that for them to get things done, you have to trust them working from home
as long as they actually get the work done
Be Available to Gen-Z
Generation Z don’t want to waste their time listening to an hours-long meetings each day.
If it can be an email, or text, do that first. However, it's very important to make yourself present and show that you're available to your Gen-Z employees.
If you want to gain the most from your Gen-Z team:
You need to carve out space for them to talk and you to listen. They will offer their perspectives and ways to improve the business
This means / they want full access, and you should give them just that
I promise you, their ideas will be so valuable that you’ll always want to hear more of them
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In the end of the day, managing Gen-Z isn't complex. But it is somewhat different and out of our comfort zones as millennials / After all, we’re mentoring a generation that will take over after us - most likely better than us