Blogging the Sterling :: Strategies for managing and motivating the Gen-Why workforce (Part 2)

Coast Guard Academy
By Chion Wolf

So, what could we say about Gen Y? Ms. Oberle provides a few generalizations of common traits of Gen Y.

As a generality, they are:

• Impatient. They've grown up in a world of instant gratification, and they want it and they want it now.


• Adaptable. They embrace change and demand change; they go with the flow. They thrive in change.


• Innovative. They are ultimate risk takers and speak their mind. They seek out new ways of doing things; they tinker and embrace new technologies.


• Efficient. Gen Y members use minimal resources and effort to get the most bang for the buck. Okay, you might think they're lazy, but it's just a different set of priorities.


• Desensitized, but not dehumanized. They've seen so much on TV and in real life, that in order to deal, they've become desensitized.


• Disengaged. Their minds are more like a DVD than a VCR; they flit and fly from task to task. They seek a loose structure.


• Skeptical. They’ve been conned too many times before. They're invariably skeptical; call them Doubting Thomas, perhaps.


• Resilient. They've been exposed to so much that they take things in stride and move on.


• Bluntly expressive. They've been encouraged all their lives to to speak their minds, so they do.


• Committed and fiercely loyal to what they believe in. When they have a passion and felt valued by the organization they can do amazing and awesome things.

Of course, these are generalizations, a mere mental model to help us understand those Generation Y members we work with and interact with and live with.