Managing Millennials For Dummies

Chapter 5

Managing through Your Generational Lens

IN THIS CHAPTER

Unpacking the impact your gen lens has on your management style

Seeing through the Boomer lens: When Baby Boomers manage Millennials

Checking the view through the Xer lens: When Gen Xers manage Millennials

Looking through the Millennial lens: When Millennials manage Millennials

Here’s the thing: It’s not enough to only understand the Millennial whom you’re managing. Yes, that’s a huge piece of improving the manager-Millennial dynamic, but to be an effective manager, you need to take your own generational perspective into account and consider how it may skew your vision one way or another. Whether you’re a Baby Boomer, a Gen Xer, or even a Millennial manager, your generational perspective is going to influence your management style — and the way you view the next generation. This exercise of looking inward and figuring out your own generational tendencies as a manager is a critical piece toward reaching pro status at managing the next generation.

In this chapter, we take a closer look at each of the generational management ...