Being a generational expert is more than a full time job in today's world. With 5 generations working side by side for the first time in history and the changes that have come with personal devices, the tension is high and the space for conversation and building bridges is abundant.
I used to teach leadership development to college students. Remarkable individuals who really wanted to impact the world for good. Many of them knew that this had to start with them. They wanted to grow in the way they influenced the world and I had the fortunate job to help guide them through this process. One day I asked my room full of Millennial students what they believed was the best form of leadership. I gave them 3 choices: authoritative, democratic, and laissez-faire. Every single person in the room raised their hand at laissez-faire. I remember thinking to myself that this was rather odd and knew that this same question 5-10 years ago would have elicited quite a different response. It was then that I decided to dig more deeply into this new way of thinking about leadership in the Millennial generation and what else came with it. My dissertation was a qualitative study on how Millennials want to be led and what they think about teams. This, of course, occurred before the Millennials were in the news every 5 minutes. They were simply known as the "collaboration generation." This was how my journey of becoming a generational expert began. What have you noticed about the changes in the workplace today?