Boomers Managing Millennials: A Conversation

As the most publicly documented and digitally accessible generation of its time, millennials often feel like a dizzying force to be reckoned with. I don’t even need to link to study this or research that—it’s a well-known fact that millennials command a lot of attention in today’s business chatter. That’s one of the reasons I have a Twitter stream devoted solely to millennial topics. It’s fascinating to watch. In April, I ran across John McTigue’s article about creating company culture. The final lines of this piece struck me:

“So can a Boomer like me create a cool place to work? Probably not.”

What do you mean “probably not”? In stereotypical millennial fashion, I turned to Twitter, shared John’s post and tweeted back:

“I have faith.”

Twitter led to emails, which led to a phone call—and now this first article in what I hope will be an ongoing conversation around the unnecessary inter-generational finger pointing (as John so aptly put it) between millennials and “everybody else.”

How do you respond to millennials who characterize Boomers as stodgy?

I’d say, “You’re right!” But, we have to work together. It’s too easy, though, to say Boomers are stodgy and millennials are lazy—it’s not useful and is incorrect. Millennials feel backed against a wall by our tendencies in business, while we feel like they don’t understand us. It’s the same in any generation, that misunderstanding one another. For now, though, my generation is still running the show. I just think people need to talk to each other more.

Concerning millennials, what are your general impressions?

I hate to generalize, but we often run into millennials who are not very self motivated. They tend to like routine and having things clearly laid out in a way that doesn’t disrupt their lifestyle. I’m fortunate to work with capable, smart millennials, thanks to our hiring process. But if I could change anything in general about millennials, I’d like them to take more initiative to pitch out-of-the-box ideas. My generation was known for being completely disruptive, so learning how to motivate millennials is an interesting challenge.

What trends do you see around managing millennials at an inbound marketing agency such as Kuno Creative?

We try to recruit young, energetic people who have creative juices and are also ready to roll up their sleeves. It’s easier to find that in the millennial generation for a few reasons, but mainly because people in older generations aren’t necessarily looking to do that kind of work. They think they should be managing people. Interestingly enough, there is a shift right now back to traditional marketing and advertising, melding inbound marketing methods with the traditional and creating direct campaigns that aren’t too pushy. Older generations have a premium on this and relationship-based marketing, even if they haven’t had a lot of experience in digital marketing. So we definitely have our work cut out for us in bridging the gap between the generations and recruiting the right people to meet the needs of our clients.

How do you think millennials perceive a Boomer such as yourself?

You know, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually asked them. That’s probably a question more appropriate over happy hour, but in general I think they respect my experience and are surprised how savvy I am. They also probably think I’m a total workaholic—that I push the envelope and change things for the sake of change. That’s just a hallmark of my generation. I’ll have to ask them sometime.

In light of all the media attention around millennials, it seems like older generations such as the Boomers are overlooked. What do you think millennials can do to understand and more easily relate with older generations?

I don’t think your generation cares that much about how Boomers think. A lot of our clients belong to older generations, so taking a walk in their shoes could be beneficial—just not a lot of people do it. And the millennials who do that routinely are the ones who stand out in my mind. Though I think millennials don’t often explore beyond themselves, I would say there is an interesting premium placed on helping through charities and giving back. They want to go after big ideas.

What do you think millennials and Boomers have in common?

We want to go for big ideas, too. In my generation, we were anti-Vietnam and put a premium on helping people in remote places of the world. There were a lot of problems at home that we were likely ignoring. We may not have had online campaigns, but we had TV. So, in light of how millennials grab onto large-scale initiatives such as Charity Water, we are quite similar. We’re idealists, too, and want to be part of something bigger than ourselves—occasionally that comes at the price of issues at home we’re likely ignoring.

What advice would you give to CEOs about recruiting and hiring millennials?

Don’t get hung up on pre-conceived notions or focus on skill sets quite so much. It’s frustrating to try to fit millennials into a job description. Once you bring them in, you have to get to know them and create structure for them to work within. My generation was much more about bringing yourself up to speed. In my experience millennials look for guidance, training and direction.

This post originally appeared here on LinkedIn.